Building a rod using all Forecast components, except maybe slick but. Blank is an SPG843 gloss black with a .587 butt. My question is how to build up the blank for a slick butt. The smallest I.D. slick butt I could find was 15/16 to 1.0.

I will be using either the silver/blue or black/blue Alum. saltwater reel seats and using guides with the blue Zirconium rings and Alum gimbal to match reel seat hoods. Still not sure if I will use the black or silver guide and reel seat, but leaning towards silver.By the way I plan to Spiral wrap.

So another question how close in color are the blue rings, seat hoods and gimbal? I'm guessing all but the rings are the same, at least I hope.

Last question is thread color, looking at catalogs and web sites seems my best match would be in Cobalt Blue (Gudebrod) or maybe Royal Blue HT Metallic also Gudebrod. If I I go nylon will use NCP and probably put a Med. Gray tag on.

Any thoughts on color scheme?

Thanks for the help
Jeff

Jeff,
The gimbal and reel seat should match almost perfectly but the guide rings will be off a tad. You won't notice it though because they are far enough away from the reel seat. I built one with the blue rings on black framed boat guide and used the Aftco ice blue reel seat (which is a lighter shade) and it looks fine. Color combinations are endless and entirely up to you but I frequently use royal blue metallic with glitzy gold and they go together very well.

Installation of Slick Butts was just discussed the other day. Here is the link:

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Jeff, I was the one that posted the other day. I am going to do it just as I have mentioned in my post. glue a long piece of EVA foam to the rod and then shape it to fit the various parts. IE: Gimble, Slick Butt, Reel seat. Glue all of it with rod bond. Because EVA shapes so easily Personall I feel this will do best. Scott