I had a friend bring his factory and some custom rods from the Outer Banks that had developed foggyness under the finish on top of the wraps. It was slightly white. We used a hair dryer to cook out the moisture. He had hauled his rods on a roof rack for 800 miles in changing wind , rain and temperature. What is the long term remedy? Some were 13 feet long, so hauling inside is out of the question.

Recoat the wraps making sure to cover all possible moisture entry points. Most likely at the end of the guide foot tunnel. Lightly scuff the finish with Scotch pad before refinishing. Blow any dust off. Or lightly wipe with a tacky cloth. (Some will not like the tacky cloth, but i've not had any trouble with using them)

Gary,
The first thing to do, is to rule out the 800 mile drive in the wind and rain. After all a fishing rod spends its life in the wind and rain and spray.

As Michael, indicated, build in a dry area with dry components and insure that the guide is well covered with multiple layers of thread finish and you should be good to go.

Take care

The 800 mile drive is significant IF there is even a minute gap. The only time I had a foggy wrap was after leaving my rods in the boat exposed to rain overnight. That was one wrap, and was fixed as above. One other rod I built for someone else had one wrap fog, and was also fixed as above.

I'm not surprised to hear that factory rods have this problem, but custom rods should be better made, yes, mine included. Regardless, the fix for both sets of rods is to seal the wraps 100%.

The foggyness is Amine blush or bloom. It can occur during the epoxy curing or much later. As the curing agent in epoxy is hygroscopic (absorbing moisture) humidity is the primary cause, with Co2 a contributing factor.

The bloom within or below the surface is almost always during curing, the blush is on the surface, often feeling waxy. It will inhibit adhesion of additional coats of epoxy.

Blush can often appear (as in the case above, years after the epoxy is applied. In most cases this is due to prolonged exposure to high humidity (being continuously wet) .even if the wraps are completely encapsulated with the epoxy.

I have seen rods that were a few years old, stored while still wet develop the blush on the surface. In these cases, soap and water will remove it, or some times the application of heat, such as from a hair dyer.

Slow curing of the epoxy seems to make them more prone to this phenomenon, speeding the curing at higher temperatures helps.

The only structural issue is when applying subsequent coats.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2019 07:57PM by Phil Erickson.

Thanks, Phil Erickson.