good morning folks,
i have a buddy that i work with here at the fire department that wants me to rebuild a 6' casting rod for him. i'll have to re-do everything except for the handle/reel seat. i was noticing that this rod has some sort of clear coat over the entire blank that is bubbling, chipping and peeling off in some areas of the blank. any suggestions on removing this stuff? i plan on applying perma gloss back on the rod after stripping the old varnish off. please help.
thanks, david daniels.

This is what I do with good results, even though some will disagree. If you have and old plastic rod bag that they come in when shipped. Take a rag soaked with acetone and wipe down the rod then. slip in bag pour in just a little bit more ( keep bag and acetone off handle). Twist the bag so that it tightens up around rod and let it soak for 15-30 minutes. Remove bag the clear coat will strip off fairly easy . Use scotch bright pad. Redo if necessary . But do not soak for any longer then 30 min.

Steve, a few years ago after reading repeated posts that acetone will quickly damage a rod blank I performed a little expirement with small 1" pieces of both fiberglass and graphite blank and two jars half-full of acentone and MEK. I soaked pieces of blank both for progressively longer periods of time - removed one of the pieces of blank soaking in jars about every 15 min. I posted the results here.

My goal was to learn for myself how rapidly these solvents break down the resins in the rod blank. Lesson learned: after soaking and immersed in solvent for one hour the pieces of blank showed that the factory finish did in fact soften, and that the cut exposed ends of the blank showed slight discoloration - maybe from the the solvent attacking the resin? I tired crushing the small sections of blank, and I was unable to observe or detect any noticeable decrease in the strength of the pieces when compared to some pieces that were not soaked. The factory rod coating was soft and easily scrapped off. I discarded the solvents and left the pieces of blank to dry. The next day the pieces fo blank appeared normal, with only a slight hazing of the gloss rod coating in a few small spots.

Yes, these solvents will damage a rod blank, but you're going to have to soak the blank for and extended period to do so. It's going to take more than a simple wiping, or a short exposure to it like in you case.

Lou

Re-building an old rod is a very valuable learning experience. Lots of repair-type issues come up. After about half a dozen of them, I think the most important lesson learned is that it is much easier to build on a new blank, with virgin components.

IMO, most factory blanks are not worth the salvage operation. Once you learn your way around the websites of 2 or 3 good blank suppliers [FS4U], and how to reliably predict & pick a rod from the Catalog specs, you'll see what I mean. Meantime, have fun with it. -Cliff Hall



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/2006 08:20PM by Moderator.

Lou:
Thank you for the info. I've always used short piriods of time just to make sure. but now know I can soak a little longer if need be.

Cliff,
I could not agree and disagree with you more on this.

I agree whole heartedly that it is much faster, easier and better to build a new
rod from scratch and most of the time a builder using the CCS can replicate the
feel, action and power of that "old favorite" rod a friend or customer is wishing to
have rebuilt. However, fisher persons are some of the most fickle people we will
ever meet and convincing some of them to give up on that "old favorite" can not
be done!! I for one really like the old Sabre rods and blanks built by the California
Tackle Co. out of Carson, CA in the 80's. I'm a builder and know full well I can build
a much better rod with a blank of today's technology but I STILL won't give up my
Sabres! Go figure?

For some, it might be that rod that grandpa used and passed down or the Ugly-
Stik dad bought them when they were a kid and they have loved to fish with for many
years. No matter what the reason, some people just got to have that "old favorite"
and those that have the skills to restore that "old favorite" back to its original glory
or even to make it better then it was when it was new IMHO have a leg up on other
builders who cannot understand and therefore never bothered to learn the skills.

Those builders also are the ones who get the most satisfaction from seeing the smiles on the faces of those most very very happy friends or customers.


Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/2006 10:40PM by Raymond_Adams.

thanks steve and lou with the heads up on stripping the finish. i'll start on it this weekend. also thanks for the advice cliff, but ray is right about this one. there isn't a thing wrong with the blank, except for what i noted in my opening post. this guy wouldn't part with this rod if you put 10 brand new ones in his hands. he really loves it and has said more than once that he wished that he'd bought more than 1 especially since he can't get them anymore. anyway thanks all for the help.

Yeah, fellas - I understand, and I've had the same feelings myself about more than one old work-horse of a rod blank. Too many good memories and days of heart-warming satisfaction. Who wants to have to have their Ole Yeller put down?

I guess this is one time when I used too few words to describe what I mean. By the use of the word / term, FACTORY ROD, I was thinking of OFF-brand rod blanks, from who knows where, ... mostly in the 1970's & 1980's. The kind where some middle company would buy a low-cost rod blank from who -knows- who, usually a cheap composite of graphite + fiberglass. They were still working out the composite technology, it seems.

These were not the kind of name-brand companies that also supplied custom rod-builders with an un-built version of their rod blanks. Fenwick and some Ugly-Stiks come easily to mind as the name-brand rod blanks that were highly prized. If you have or used a Fenwick PacificStix, you know you could sell them by the barrel-full today if you could find them.

When I was growing up in NYC, and buying and building my first rods (SW), LAMIGLAS was THE custom rod blank to have, and literally no other brand in my regional market had the reputation or the performance record that Lamiglas had.

In the 1980's when I came to UF and was getting dug-in here in Gainesville, Florida, and doing more freshwater fishing, and meeting bassfishers with boats, the LEW's Graphite SPEED STICKS caught my attention, and I bought as many as I could afford of them. The last ones I bought were around 1990. Great blanks. Great fishing rods. Not the least bit of trouble, blank nor component. Those LEWS name-brand rods are still serving me well, even with OME. Since LEWS was a FUJI affiliate, all the components were FUJI and they have all caught me more than my share of fish. Those LEWS Speed Stick rod blanks were "GREAT!", as Tony the Tiger used to say.

I guess I just had enough composite or graphite low- to- medium- price factory rods fail on me that I am leery of investing the effort to resuscitate the majority of them. ... If they did not put THEIR name on it, I ain't puttin' MY name on it.

Otherwise, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder", and it is "As you wish," ... That's my 25 cent rebuttal, ... -Cliff Hall



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/30/2006 07:29AM by Moderator.

David If you don't have a bag I have also wrapped paper towel around it then wrapped Reynolds wrap around that.. Also do this on new blanks that I just want to get rid of the finish on. If you do it to knew blanks. Be aware that it voids the warranty on some. St. Croix told me it would void their warranty because with out the paint. They could not be sure they made the blank.