Hi All,
I'm new to the forum and rod restoration. I have a Browning Silaflex that I am trying to match colors on for a couple of guides. Would someone have and idea about which of the vintage gudebrod threads might be the closest match? I haven't been able to post any images yet, but would do so if I could find the way to link them to this post. The colors are a kind of light caramel and cream- both opaque and do not go transluscent when epoxies. Thanks to anyone who can help with the color ID.

John,
If you do not find someone on this forum that can help you out, there is another forum that is all about Fiberglass, both the vintage and new stuff. I know there are several active members that know about the Browning Silaflex rods. The forum is fiberglassflyrodders.com. They also have a pretty easy way to load up photo's in a post.

Good luck with the repair, those Silaflex rods are loved by the folks into vintage fiberglass fly rods.

I have some of those rods and know the colors you mention, but at this stage in time am not sure what any of the current thread suppliers would call those colors. In the past when Gudebrod was still around, you'd have gone with the 290 Tan NCP for the trims and 541 Medium Brown NCP for the base wrap color. Although, it always seemed to me that the Medium Brown was a bit darker than the actual thread used on the Silaflex. The company may have sourced a special color for their rods and it may also be that they used a thread other than Gudebrod. Rice and Holland would have been around at about that time as well.

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Thanks Bill,
That sounds like a good resource regardless. I'll give that a try. Yes, the silaflex I am repairing was my first rod - 7' 5wt that would tell you when it was time for tea as the action got softer after a couple of hours. I paid $20 for it at a yard sale in '84 complete with a japanese hardy clone reel. Still my favorite small stream rod. Cheers and thanks for the tip!

Hi Tom,
Thanks for confirming the colors for the Silaflex. I managed to find some full vintage spools, a bit dear, but there's something about having rods look the way they were meant to be.

On that note, I am wondering what finish was applied to wraps in that era? I note that the tan has yellowed a bit over time on both my rods.

I have two Silaflex rods, the 7' mentioned to Bill, above, and a recently acquired 10wt that I haven't tried yet. Another month and hopefully the ice will be gone and we can get back to fishing up here in Nova Scotia.

Those rods were built in the early 1970's just prior to the advent of graphite, which appeared in the Silaflex line about 1976 or thereabouts. Browning was the parent company by that time. You can tend to date your rod by whether or not it includes the Browing name along Silaflex. If not, then your rod likely goes back into the 1960's.

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John
Another resource for Glass, a guy named Vic Johnson has done a couple of books on Fiberglass Fly Rods, there are 3 in the series. The first is about Vintage glass, real nice history book on all the makers. It is out of print, but you can find used copies now and then showing up for sale. The second 2 books in the series are about modern Glass, custom builders, blank rolling manufactures and today's companies offering glass in their fly rod line up.