Whats up all,

Was hoping to get some suggestions on how to repair/replace a rear grip for a saltwater rod. The grip has a 4" split that fully exposes the blank near the butt. I am considering cork tape shrink wrap but don't like the weight of it all. Any way to slip fresh hypalon on?

Thanks,
Nick

Glad to have been a help Nick

Ron Weber

Nick,
Pick up a new grip.
Ream the grip so that it is a constant diameter as large as the butt of the blank.
Then, use masking tape to use as arbors to achieve the same size blank from the butt to the reel seat.
Leave 1/16th inch gaps between the masking tape arbors. Then, when gluing on the grip, fill the gaps with epoxy and you will have a solid grip of the blank to the grip with the epoxy.
Finally, apply glue to the blank as well as to the inside of the grip. Slip on the grip, wipe off the excess and apply a butt cap if you wish.

Good luck

Absolutely not reason to arbor it to fit

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Ron Weber

Thanks for the input guys, Ron I'll let you know how it goes

Nick

It has been suggested to me that to make the job easier to slip that hypalon on is to use rubber contact cement . Apply it to the tool suggested by Ron Weber and use rod bond epoxy on the blank where the hypalon will end up. Make sure that the contact rubber cement fully coats the inside of the grip to facilitate it slipping onto the blank. The rubber cement will not conflict with the bonding character of the rod bond epoxy.

I have always just used rod bond or similar, never tried the rubber cement

Ron Weber

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I used rubber cement for the initial application, which the hypalon didn't bond to the blank well because of it. This might have been why it split. That and it was so easy to apply that I might have been a little aggressive on the stretch, almost 1.5 to double the ID of the hypalon.

The rubber cement only method was used a long time ago. Now it is epoxy. I have taken apart some grips with only rubber cement and it literally peels off the blank very easily without any adhesion. Likely, the culprit of the split was the 1.5X stretch.

Where does that tool come from?

I made it, all it is, is a piece of rod blank with masking tape making it progressively larger and then epoxied over to maintain the shape. I have several different sizes I made to correspond to some different Butt OD's of the blank

Ron Weber