I have stripped an old rod of my buddy’s and am putting a new guide set on it. Most of the old guides were double foot and the guides I am replacing them with are single foot so the “footprint” where I scraped off the epoxy and thread is much bigger than what I’ll be replacing it with. My question is how do I cover up the scuff marks on the blank from the scraping and sandpapering off of the old epoxy? I realize when I put the new guide on the new epoxy will hide the imperfections, but I don’t want to epoxy the whole “footprint” where the old guides were?

If the blank was painted and it is gone - you can't.
If the paint is intact you can use a MMM product to bring up the shine - basically buffing cloths with grit from 600 to 10,000. [www.esslinger.com]
Herb

when redoing old rods that is one of the pip falls on using old blanks , where time is money I will not re-guide an old blank for money , it just don't pay . to much time lost in LABOR , I think

William Sidney
AK

When I refinish a rod I strip the rod completely down with just the handle and reel seat remaining. If the blank is painted and the paint has chipped off in places, I will scape all the paint off using a utility knife held perpendicular to the the surface. It is not that difficult to do, it is easier than you think, and doesn’t take that long. I then wet sand the blank with 800 to 2000 grit wet/dry paper, to smooth everything out and remove the final traces of paint. Wipe the blank down with DNA and give it a coat or two of Permagloss. Wearing rubber gloves, Wipe on a very thin coat of PG using a PG saturated cosmetic sponge, cheese cloth or a coffee filter, by holding the applicator tight and squeegeeing on the PG. this will only take only a few seconds and will give a very thin coat. When finished stand the rod against the wall and let it cure. It will not drip if it’s a thin coat. You can give additional coats after about and hour or two. If the original fiinsh is just scratched up a little and doesn’t need to be removed you can scoff up it up with a fine scotchbrite pad or fine steel wool, and then apply a coat or two of PG. I have not had a problem wiping PG on a commercially painted rod. If done correctly you will not know where the old guides where and this allows you to optimize your guide placement.
Norm

Norm makes it sound easy , I wish it would work that easy for me ,

William Sidney
AK

I agree with Norm and will only add that when you take the old finish totally off, then refinish with PG or similar (NOT WRAP EPOXY) the blank will be a beautiful gloss charcoal that will go well with just about any wrap colors.

The average rod blank on the market today has substantially better performance than nearly any 20-year-old rod blank. Unless there is some emotional attachment to an old rod blank [?!!] it's usually a better all around deal to have a rod built on a new blank, with new components.