Hello,

I ordered my first casting reel seat with a unihood to see how they assemble and I am wondering what people typically do for trim or a foregrip. I was unaware that I couldnt just slide a foregrip down the blank and glue it up next to the reel seat like a non unilocking hood.

The reel seat is a G2 casting seat. I see American tackle makes a long trim piece to fit the seat and make the transition to the blank, but I'm also wondering if there are any other options. Anything simpler or maybe fancier. I have carbon fiber grips for this build and saw a carbon fiber cap for the hood, but dont know if that will somehow help transition the seat to the blank either.

Thanks

If you just want to use a regular fore grip then use the standard hood. The uni-lock hood requires a hood sleeve and American Tackle makes a carbon fiber fore grip sleeve for the uni-lock hood that matches their G2 carbon fiber grips.
[mudhole.com]

What type/brand of carbon fiber grip did you get? With different carbon fiber grips there are different options for reel seat inserts and hood sleeves.
The AmTac 3K matte G2 hood sleeve is a match for the NFC 1K soft touch CF grip. You may also have the option of using the Fuji or Matagi perfect fit trim pieces for extra bling.
Norm

It's the G2 razor and all the grip components are G2. How does that get transitioned from the hood locking nut and set to the rest of the blank? Is there a certain type of winding check I need? I guess the part that's messing me up is that the hood spins and spins out longer then the rest of the reel seat.

Ok, I now understand what you are asking. Depending on the blank diameter, the AmTac G2 hood sleeve assembly does leave a fairly large gap at the the hood. I’ve used the Batson Forecast winding checks for size 16 or 17 reels seats to give the reel seat a more finished appearance by reducing the gap between the blank and the hood. They come in both rubber/vinyl or aluminum.

[getbitoutdoors.com]
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Norm

Funny this post just came up as I just completed fitted a casting G2 reel seat to my build. I did 2 other spin G2 reel seats but I used the EVA foam for the hood sleeve and I cut it with my reamer so it fits great but on the casting hood I used a carbon fiber sleeve and just noticed the huge gap.

@NormanMiller - How and where are you fitting the winding check? On the top of the hood sleeve? Do you have any photos you could share?

Thank you.

- Jason

It fits up against the threaded end of the reel seat. These winding checks have the same OD as the reel seat, and are about a 1/4” wide thus making the gap smaller. I haven’t used the AmTac reel seats with uni-lock hoods. I mostly use Fuji reel seats with KSKSS hidden thread hoods. The AmTac CF fore grip sleeve fits the KSKSS hood just fine, and the KSKSS hood will fit AmTac reel seats. Because of this you could use the Fuji perfect fit CF sleeves with the base ring and cap ring. The perfect fit cap ring has a hole in the front of it that comes in three sizes (12, 14, 16 mm) depending on the blank diameter. Problem is the AmTac CF sleeve doesn’t fit the Fuji perfect fit trim rings.
Norm

Jason - This is the check that AmTak makes to help with that transition:

[voodoorods.com]

You could also do a decorative thread wrap from the top of the barrel out an inch or so instead of that check.

If you were looking to close up the top of that hood to get the opening closer to the blank, we have a few Matagi parts that will work with that AmTak UniLock hood but you have to modify it a bit for them to fit. Just reach if you need more info - voodoorods@cox.net