I have an SCII stripped down to bare graphite, washed it with water and looked pretty good wet so i am thinking just a clear coat of some sort. Saw some minwax clear laquer spray at the hardware today was wondering if that would work or would it be brittle. I have permagloss and spar urethane also. This is one of those rods that just does not want to be rebuilt, it has been painted and stripped twice, just can,t get the look i am after. The time i have spent on this rod i would have been better off to buy a new one. Any thoughts, thanks John

What about permagloss - isn't that what it is for?
Greg

John have you read this article? Its a must read!

Refinishing Rod Blanks By Ralph O'Quinn
[www.rodbuilding.org]

In general, Read these articles before re-working an old rod blank:

(1) LIBRARY: SURFACE PREPARATION by Ralph O'Quinn. RMM-5(2).
Originally appeared in RodMaker Magazine, Volume 5, Issue # 2.
[www.rodbuilding.org]

(2) LIBRARY: REFINISHING ROD BLANKS by Ralph O'Quinn. RMM-2(3).
Originally appeared in RodMaker Magazine, Volume 2, Issue # 3.
[www.rodbuilding.org]

Also, Back-issues of RMM can be ordered on-line, for $7 each, at:
[http://www.rodmakermagazine.com/]
or by using the link at left in the List of Sponsors.

If you used a soap or detergent to "wash" the rod blank after your stripping & sanding, I hope you rinsed enough to remove any soap film or detergent residue. Those are water-soluble anyway. The general guideline is to handle the blank with your bare hands as little as possible after sanding / stripping, so that no skins oils or dirt will interfere with the new rod finish's adhesion. If you have enough PermaGloss to do the whole rod blank, and can stand the fumes or ventilate enough, that is probably the lost indestructible clear rod finish you can apply, short of the automotive paint shop's specialty products. If you lay it on thin enough so it won't run, you can hang the rod vertically, (tip up), to dry. Plan on several coats, as PG is best applied in thin coats that dry hard, rather than globs. PG has to evaporate to harden; it is NOT a reactive 2-part finish like epoxy. If you think the blank will get heavy in your hand while you do the whole job of one coat at a time, hang the tip off a door knob or from a hook in the ceiling. And you can extend the butt end for a handle with a wood dowel cushioned with paper towels inside so you can paint the bitter end. Hopefully, you didn't go too deep if you sanded the graphite. LOL, -Cliff Hall-

Permagloss is good and dries fast - too fast and can be a pain to use. The minwax will be easy to use and give you more time to work it
I paint my blanks with auto colors, then put one or two thin coats of glass coat on. Thinned with thinners. Ya Ya here comes the flack about epoxy on blanks, but Ken uses it tinted, and has no problems with durability in salt water

Permagloss is a moisture-curing urethane. The higher the humidity, the faster it cures. Keeping moisture out of the bottle as the level in it drops is important or it'll set up right in the bottle (at least the top part of it will). It is a great rod blank finish; extremely hard. Work with it very quickly-it sets up FAST.

Thanks guys this is the kind info i was looking for John

I never had a problem with it drying in the bottle. I poor it into a cup, wipe the threads off very good, and then do not tighten the top real hard. Keep in the refridge

Putter - THANK YOU for correcting my error / misinformation on PermaGloss (PG).

You correctly stated that PG is a MOISTURE-CURING URETHANE. It doesn't exactly need to "evaporate", as I mistakenly said. (I was thinking it was an oxidation reaction, but that is beside the point now.)

It does require exposure to moisture from the air to harden (which in Florida is no problem, even in winter). So, it is a "reactive" finish in the sense that a 2nd reactant is needed to start the curing process. But since that 2nd reactant is the latent water vapor in moist AIR, which is ubiquitous, all that is required is to spread out the PG, and a thin enough layer will set up for hardening. I apologize for the misleading nature of my earlier description of the curing process. -Cliff Hall-

Cliff
Didn't read that part of your post until now; didn't mean to ... well, you know. I was just trying to let John know how tricky this stuff is to work with and how quickly you must go with it.

First time that I tried it I was messing around with a brush in the middle of the winter here (VERY low humidity-every time ya touch something metal in the house ya get zapped by static) and the darned stuff set up so fast on me that I gave up on it. I've been back playing with this stuff again.

So I bought another bottle of it (I was so ticked I flushed the first one!) and have been playing around gloss coating some matte blanks. It's sure been a learning experience; I have been placing a roll of electrical tape on the floor, putting a piece of plastic about 4" x 4" on top of this roll of electrical tape, making a small hollow in the plastic, pouring some Permagloss into this hollow, then poking the tip of the rod blank through and slowly pulling the roll of electrical tape up the length of the blank while carefully holding the edges of the plastic. 3 coats this way seems to do a good job of putting a very smooth, full coat of Permagloss on the blank.

I tried adding some white Testor's pigment to it and it didn't work worth a darn. I'm going to try a thinner mil of the plastic. The stuff I'm using is fairly thick and I think that it's putting too much pressure on the sides of the blank and wiping it too thin for the pigment to come out. I tried 3 coats and didn't even get close to white except in spots...

Back to the lab; but it'll have to be after Charlotte.

Putter

here is an auto clear, similar to permagloss. A little easier to recoat The AC200. A lot cheaper then permagloss also [www.autopaintdirect.com]

If you have a spray gun, the Klass Kote epoxy paint is excellent. I brushed some on a blank as an experiment and it came out great. Tough to scratch even with a car key.