A very long-term friend gave me her father’s slightly used yet 98% pristine vintage Fenwick FF79 a few years ago. In turn, I gave it to my son who is more into fly fishing than me. Long-story-short, it succumbed to the dreaded truck door disaster, crushing it in the lower third and clean-breaking it in the upper third. While sentimental value is certainly the most prevalent here, the FF79 has been (arguably) stated to be the best fly rod Fenwick ever built. Hence, I decided to give the poor old thing, an otherwise throw-away rod, a second chance at performing its original intent (actually a third chance, but that is another story).
As seen in the photos, the lower portion was crushed with 80% of the fractures longitudinal (actually a good thing if there is such). The upper portion had a clean break with a severe fracture ~ 2.5in lower down the rod.
So, repair time. While this is how I performed the repair, I am hoping others will chime-in on their procedures as well; I am here to learn.
Fortunately, I had a number of vintage FG Conolon blanks and pieces of varying tapers to find an exact matching taper, paramount to producing proper repairs. Tapers were measured over 10 inches of both the Fenwick rod and the prospective Conolon blank pieces; I was fortunate to find virtually exact tapers to produce the internal spigot ferrules/ stints. They were cut ~ 3 inches past where the breaks / fractures were. Structural laminating epoxy was applied which soaked / wicked into the fractures to form a good bond, wrapped with release film (thin plastic sheeting is acceptable) and left to cure overnight.
The following morning, the release film was removed and the area was lightly sanded to remove the ridges left by the film. Silk thread was wrapped over the affected areas followed by an application of CTS Crystal Coat epoxy.
So that is basically my method of resurrecting a notable rod from the dumpster. How do you do it???
Will my repairs be undetectable from the original rod? = hardley. Would any one really notice the difference?” = possibly. Is the rod still usable? = definitely. I’m confident that the effort was worth it!!!
[www.rodbuilding.org]
[www.rodbuilding.org]
[www.rodbuilding.org]
[www.rodbuilding.org]
[www.rodbuilding.org]

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

Looks great. At worst you still have a nice wall hanger.

Mark - Looks very nice, good job. Now you just have to take it and catch some fish with it to see how it holds up.
Norm

That really looks nice.
Steve

Mark, Norman and Steven,
I certainly appreciate the compliments = thanks. I am hoping to learn from others as to how they perform such repairs; I may not be the smartest man in the world but I like to associate myself with and learn from those who might just be.
Without any replies to my post a few days ago, Fenwick FF79 CCS?!?, I will not have any hard-numbers to reveal how the breaks and repairs affected the rod’s characteristics. Hopefully, someone with a FF79 will take the time to measure it. Now that I think of it, I wish I would have weighed the rod before and after the repairs; dang rookies!

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

The repairs down low will probably not affect much of anything except weight. The tip repair has to slow the tip recovery speed a little, but probably not major. I expect if it holds up it will fish well. Just enjoy it. Nice recovery of a special rod.

Michael,
Thanks for your reply. I suspect you are correct in that although the rod WAS BROKEN and that weight WAS ADDED for the repairs, its original characteristics should only be altered minimally. I am not certain that I could tell the difference, being as numb as I am. But then there are those who claim to notice a 1g difference in a rod. Maybe ignorance IS bliss.

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.