A customer brought me a rod I build about 4 years ago. It is an RX7 blank by Batson. TM high build was used on the guides. He go some kind of solvent on the blank that hit a guide and melted the finish, ran down the blank blistering the rod finish/resin and stopped at the next guide slightly blistering the guide finish.

He said he had the rods in the garage.

Can anyone think of a product that would have this effect?

Sounds like some form of acid or maybe even gasoline.

Acetone could conceivably do it, but it tends to evaporate so quickly that damage is limited in scope.

.............

Brake fluid would do it.

Extreme heat from being in a closed grage during the summer months. I wonce lent a coworker a Penn surf rod for the weekend one summer. He left it in the car the whole weekend, not useing it. Monday morning when he returned it, it was blistered and peeling likea bad sunburn. Its fine now after refinishing it.

Dennis J. Danku
(Sayreville,NJ)

I don't think it was a heat thing. I leave rods out in the garage all the time and it gets up to 119degrees here in Phoenix, AZ. Now I do admit long periods out in the heat can do ruin your finishes but I would say thats not until the 5-10 year mark depending on the finish type and how good you applied it. Also the heat really only makes the finish get brittle and break away. Not melt. I would agree that something got onto it some how. I would just clean it all off and redo the rod. Just warn him your not too sure on the rods integrity. A few fish will tell you if its gona hold up or not.

I've already passed that word to him. It was bad enough that the finish, thread, and rod resin were mixed together.