I picked up a few older fishing rods at a garage sale a while back & am in the process of trying to bring them back to life. I have removed the guides and worked on removing all the epoxy build up on the blank. This was more work than I realized as the rod was obviously sprayed by some type of finish, I'm assuming to give it a face lift. Heres my problem--the areas where the wraps were are faded/dull. Should I or can I use steel wool (0000) to dull the shine on the rest of the blank before using spar urethane to finsh, or will the spar just blend in after it is applied? I am also working on a fiberglass rod (ready to change the color) and would like to know if anyone has ever tried Krylons Fusion Paint for plastic. If so would the spar urethane be compatible with it? Thanks, Jim

If you really want to do it right, you'll need to remove all the old finish and then do a complete refinish job. I have used a razor blade held at 90 degrees to the surface to scrape off the old paint/finish. Don't slice - scrape. You don't want to harm the blank. Sandpaper is also bad news for blanks, particularly those with thinner walls such as light graphite blanks.

At one time my preferred method was to go back with spray paint, any enamel, and then overcoat with a clear polyurethane. It worked pretty darn well. These days I'd probably opt to just color tint my urethane and do it all in one process.

Check the article on the online library page for more info.


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