Does anyone use anything like car wax or liquid glass to polish and or protect the rods that they build? I was putting liquid glass on the head of my driver to protect the paint from the inevitable sky balls that I will hit with it and it dawned on me that it might work to protect my rods as well. Another reason that I was wondering, beyond protection, is that it puts an incredible shine on the head and gives a very deep appearence to the paint and I thought that might look really good on a glossy blank and on the thread wraps.

Can anyone think of a reason that this might not work on a graphite rod? Could it damage the blanks finish or possibly mess up the wrap finish (any difference between flex coat, threadmaster, permagloss, etc...)?

I use polish like Lemon Pledge or car wax on all rods and I wax all my personal rods at least twice a year and recommend the same to all my friends. If nothing else, it sure makes them easy to wipe down and keep clean while giving some protection

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

Burton,
I've been putting a little wipe-on/wipe-off car wax on my rods a couple times a year for the past 20 years or more... Primarily to help protect them from the salt, make washing them down a bit quicker. I haven't noticed any problem with the rods or wraps in all that time.

clyde

That's great! Anyone use liquid glass? The stuff is tough as nails and really puts an incredible shine and depth on paint. I'm wondering if it does the same on a rod. I've got a big surf rod that I rarely use and I might give it a shot and see what it does if you guys think it will be safe.

I use Starbrite Marine Polish with Teflon from West Marine quite effectively. I would like to hear more on the "liquid glass". What does the contents section on the can say is in it - it just may be an ideal thing for fishing rods too. If you are putting it on the head of a titanium high dollar driver with acrylic finish it probably would work. Do you have a product name that we could locate on the net? If you are using on stainless you should insure that there are no chlorides in the carrier.

Thanks

What about a matt blank like a G. Loomis IMX? I have one of those and another blank that is matt, so I was worried what car polish would do to it since I don't want it to be shiny or patchy looking.

I'm not sure of the type of finish that is used on the driver but it is a titanium driver. As far as the contents of it I'm not sure since I don't have a bottle (can actually) of it handy. They offer two versions of it one is a regular car polish and one is a marine version for boats. The regular version says that it is safe on paints and epoxy but I don't want to trust the marketing blurb that I found on this site. I can't track down the ingredients of the stuff online.

Below is a link to the regular version:

[www.autogeek.net]

Link to Marine version:

[www.autogeek.net]

I really do like this stuff on my cars and my driver, primarily because of how TOUGH the stuff is. I've destroyed the paint on a few drivers by hitting skyballs but since using this stuff any scuffs I get wipe off and I have yet to chip the paint on any driver since using it. I've still got a driver that I chipped the paint to pieces on before I found out about the stuff. (I'm not a very good golfer) The finish that it puts on paint is remarkable as well. It really does add a lot of depth to the paint job.

I use it on matte blanks and it doesn't make them glossy. Try it and if you don't like it, just wipe it off with alcohol

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

Bill, I just found the company's site: [www.liquidglass.com]

I have always been concerned with the effects of wax when doing a repair. And just last month a friend informed me that a fly rod I built for him twenty years ago had a problem. A friend borrowed the rod and when he slid the rod back into the tube caught one of the snake guides on the rim of the tube. This caused the snake guide to compress and one of the feet popped out from under the wrap.

After I completely removed the wrap, I inspected the whole rod and found something cream colored at the base of each guide foot. I assumed it was wax, and because I wanted to apply a thin coat of fresh epoxy on all the guides and hook keep area, tried to clean out the wax with alcohol.

Prior to applying epoxy I scuffed the wraps and began applying epoxy, and with the 3x glasses I wear when I apply epoxy, noticed that I was entombing the wax in the epoxy coat.

Fortunately, I didn’t encounter any epoxy problems and the rod looks better than new.

Just looked at the link. That appears to be the same stuff new car dealers put on new cars and charge you $ 150 bucks for the hard glass finish. It is a cross linked hard shell product that should be fine for rods. For it to work it needs the pre treat for the crosslinking to work. It does work to keep road mess from sticking to a car and should help on a rod. I think the Teflon coating provided by the Starbrite product may be similar but not as long lasting. The pretreat is a pretty strong cleaner that contains alaphatic hydrocarbons so I would not use it on any rods that were worn with exposed threads sticking through the finish.

well, I have no idea what alaphatic hydrocarbons are so I'm glad you told me. I wonder if it would be safe on the wrap finish once it has cured. I think I'm going to try messing with the stuff on a rod and see what it does. The rod I'm going to do this on has a decorative wrap on the handle and I'm wondering if it will have the same type of effect that it does with paint in terms of making it look like a deeper finish. I know for certain that it will protect the finish and guides (if it doesn't have some adverse effect on the rod or wrap finish when going on).

I cover all my rods with Minnow Scales & ROE Goo works great :-)
Seriously I use auto wax twice a year helps in the removal of above Scales & Goo.

Regards
Dave

Fishing is Life the rest is just Details

Bill here is a link to the manu MSDS sheet.
[www.liquidglass.com]

Freddwhy (Rapt-Ryte)

I am not sure weather I'd use Liquid Glass on a rod, for several reasons, if a repair is needed down the road, will you be able to remove it to recoat?
Second, the way they describe the stuff, it may actually trap contaminants under the coating they describe.
Third, from past experience, I am not sure that I trust the stuff. Back around 1985 when this stuff seemed to pop onto the market, a buddy of mine had just bought a brand new Mustang, and figured that it sounded like a good idea to protect the cars new paint. He bought a can off it, (there was no special cleaner that I remember at that time), and used my garage one night to give his new car several coats, while he worked on his car, I was sorting out and cleaning my tool box, he put on two good coats and the car looked really great, and that same night, I had coated one of my bright red tool boxes just to see what it would do. About a year or so later, I noticed that the tool box that I had coated with Liquid Glass had turned a lighter shade of red, almost pink. I also noticed that my neighbors car had done the same, another buddy had the same car, and his was still bright red, but the one coated with Liquid Glass has dulled and faded badly, even though it sat under a carport under a car cover. He had complained to Ford, and they did repaint the car under warranty, but I always wondered if Liquid Glass had done something to the paint, I still have that tool box, and the paint is amazingly shiny and in good shape, but it's about 5 shades lighter than all my other Craftsman boxes.

I would be interested in seeing if anyone else has seen any long term results with Liquid Glass?

I do however use an industrial plastic polish to clean up older rods after a repair, it polishes out all the scratches, and cleans the rest of the rod leaving a super shine behind. Never use it before doing a repair, it does contain some wax. If a customer drops off a rod for a repair, I usually first clean at least the area I need to work on with alchohol, and then when I am done, I usually polish the blank and older wraps and clean the handle and seat real well. It doesn't take much time, and customers are always impressed with how new their old rod looks when the pick it up.
For the really nasty ones, I brush and hose them down with some Dawn dish liquid. It works great for cleaning fish slime and blood off of EVA grips. I get some rods in for repair that simply just have to be cleaned before working on them. Especially since my rod shop is inside the house.

After making my last post above, I was reading the MSDS sheet at the link given earlier, something stood out and that was the description of Liquid Glass as a 'Creamy Blue Substance". The Liquid Glass that's been around for years in the classic and show car arena has always been a beige liquid. I have never seen or used any that is blue. Upon further digging, and a trip out to the garage, I found a can of the Original Liquid Glass that I have been familiar with. Here's a link to what the can looks like: [i18.tinypic.com] and [i12.tinypic.com]

The first thing I noticed after going to the Liquid Glass site now is that the address is different as is the company name.
The Liquid Glass I have here says it's made in Melbourne, FL by Kocur Products, the website lists the company as Liquid Glass Enterprises, Teaneck, NJ. The stuff I have here is what I was referring to about concerns of fading paint, and the odor it gives off smells a lot like linseed oil and kerosene.
Either there are two separate companies, or a pretender to the thrown, or maybe the name was sold at some point? I have no idea, but the description of the product is far different from what I would descibe the original as. I also remember asking a guy who was selling the stuff at a booth at a car show back then why it was LG Classic, and I was told that it had been off the market for a while back then but this was the original version that came about originally in 1954. There was a huge marketing push including TV ads and car shows that pushed this stuff back around the mid 80's. I remember something about 30 years in their ads. Most of us had never heard of the stuff until then.
There have been a number of so called "Car Polishes" that are nothing more than thinned out clear enamel, one I believe was called Crystal Glaze and was sold in a kit along with a foam brush. Those are pure garbage, and what you are basically doing is brush painting your car with thinned out clear enamel.

If anyone has a can of the newer liquid glass that they discribe as blue, I am curious whether it also has a strong solvent smell as did the old stuff.
The old stuff reminds me of that TurtleWax chrome polish they sell today in the little cans, in both odor and appearance.

Since the subject was brought up, I had to try it, but on a few junk old rods in my scrap pile.
I did a test on a few junk rods with this old stuff, it seems to do real well on the painted type oem rods, but glosses up dull or matte blanks, it also leaves a white spots on flat black blanks just as if you got car wax on the black plastic trim on your car. This stuff does seam to build up and increase the gloss on the painted blanks, but has little polishing affect on epoxy. The plastic polish I use does a much nicer job. The Liquid Glass actually seems to dull the wraps a bit, I think the high petroleum content may be problem. After seeing that, there's not much chance I would use the older stuff on any quality blanks, and doubt I'd chance it on even a low end blank. I just don't like the idea of the "WARNING, Contains Petroleums" on the can. And the other side says "May be used in wash instead of soap, or in spray bottle". The lack of info on the can and total lack of ingredients just makes me suspicious. Maybe I'm wrong, but I have always just wrote these type of ads off as snake oil salemen, maybe the new stuff is different, but I would be suspicious.

I would be curious how the newer version read and how it reacts on epoxy?

I'm sure that I have the newer stuff since I just bought it about 5 months ago and I'll try it on the rod this weekend when I get a chance and let you know what the results are. I wish that I knew what the rods looked like with the plastic polish that you are using for a comparison but I will be able to give a comparison of what the diffence is with a rod that has never seen polish before. I'll also post a description of what is in the can as well.

I'm headed to the rod show this weekend so when I get home (if the wife will let me keep playing with my toys) I'll get the test done and report back.

I'm sure that I have the newer stuff since I just bought it about 5 months ago and I'll try it on the rod this weekend when I get a chance and let you know what the results are. I wish that I knew what the rods looked like with the plastic polish that you are using for a comparison but I will be able to give a comparison of what the diffence is with a rod that has never seen polish before. I'll also post a description of what is in the can as well.

I'm headed to the rod show this weekend so when I get home (if the wife will let me keep playing with my toys) I'll get the test done and report back.