Hey Guys,
I've got a customer who gave me an old bass rod to rebuild. I've seen these, when I fished with my grandfather years ago.
Questions & Opinions:
It's a 5' Glassmaster by Waltco. Beige composite handle and green blank.
It only had 2 guides originally and want to return it to as close to original.
I have new guides from the era coming in today, found in a warehouse in Rome NY. Got them on @#$%&, new!
Here's the questions:
What would you recomend to return the blank to original, cosmeticaly?
"I gave it an extremely light sanding this morning and it made a world of difference".
The blank is like a wet noodle compared to todays blanks and looks very porus under the magnifying glass.
Heres' what I was thinking, considering what I've read on here:
Using spar varnish to give the wraps close to the original yellow tint epoxy over green thread.
Question: Could I use spar varnish to coat the whole blank, as it seems to be pourus? Or just give it a good waxing?

ANY INFORMATION ON THE AGE / HISTORY OF THIS ROD / COMPANY WOULD BE GREAT TO GIVE MY CUSTOMER!

Info: the customer only wants to use it once and then put it on the wall.
Thanks for your help.
Jeff Davis

About a year ago I rebuilt an old glass rod and did just exactly what you are saying. I still had some old "rod varnish" and put it on the whole rod. I don't think the guy fishes with it, he keeps it in the house so I can't say how it would hold up or even look if left out in the weather, but as far as I know it's still o.k. It looked good after the finish. I think I put more than one coat on the rod itself though. The one I rebuilt was probably not as old as the one you have, so it may not have been as porous as yours is. Mine had kind of like what looked like pot metal or old aluminum funny looking reel seat. All of the cork was gone, rotted off, the foregrip was a red colored composite material. I don't know what it looked like before. so I just put a rear cork grip on it and shaped it a little. Wish I had more info for you. I'll look and see if I took a picture of it somewhere.

David Dosser
Coshocton, OH

Do you think the rod was - yellowed - when new ?? Why not hold the colors as if it came right off the shelf

Bill - willierods.com

When I did mine, it didn't have a yellow tint to it. It was fairly clear. I wouldn't call it crystal clear, but it looked pretty nice.

David Dosser
Coshocton, OH

I just did a google search for this rod and found an old Poplular Science magazine ad for it. It appears to have been made in 1950, Chicago IL. The ad said the blank was "triple lacquered". Is that the same as spar varnish?
Thanks,
Jeff

That might be the old Gudebrod Rod Varnish.

David Dosser
Coshocton, OH

The one I did was an old GEP Rod. I also have a metal rod that I would like to know more about. It's actually rusty.

David Dosser
Coshocton, OH

I have re done a few of the old solid fiberglass casting rods, and I used PermaGloss to coat the blanks. The fiberglass was already yellow from years of exposure to the sun. The PG can't make it clear again, but does provide a glossy tough finish.

George Forster
Fort Collins, CO

I sanded the one I did. I also just found another one in the basement. It's in bad shape. I'll post a pic when I can get the camera from my son, prob. tomorrow. When I was a teenager we used to paint them different colors (My Dad and I) but I don't remember what kind of paint he used. Now I can't wait try and rework the ones I have. I think Lumi-Seal would work well also.

David Dosser
Coshocton, OH

Your Glassmaster is definitely a post WWII rod. If the guides you got from the other place were those described as coming from the J F Pepper Rod Co., they are considerably earlier and different in design than the guides used on the Waltco rods. They'll work fine, but the correct guides would be more along the lines of the stamped flat frame chrome guides made by Allan Mfg. Co. Check the rod closely for the ghosts of missing wraps- most of the glass rods of the period had at least 3 guides, although 2 is certainly possible on a 5 foot rod.. As you've seen from the ad, the Glassmaster was a relatively inexpensive rod, so the guides were actually pretty cheesy.
The original finish on the wraps and the rod was spar varnish (pre-epoxy) with CP. You might want to look at the underside of the thread on the existing guides to establish the original colors. Permagloss or Lumiseal would make a very good finish for the blank, and then spar for the guide wraps if you want to duplicate the original appearance (pre-ageing).
A good aluminum polish will do wonders to bring up the metal parts of the handle; you'll probably have to use quite a few applications to cut down through the tarnishing ( the handle was originally raw cast aluminum with a fairly coarse finish).

Thnaks Peter,
We're talking about the same rod. Except this one has a composite handle with a metal reel seat area. I can see where the guide wraps were, but they were long gone. There was definately only 2 guides. Yes, I did get the J F Pepper Rod Co. guides. They were as close as I could find in new condition. Thanks for the help "EVERYONE",
Jeff