In the most recent Rodmaker, there was an article about using Perma Gloss to prevent cracking on the ends of the guide feet. My question is this: Is the Perma Gloss being applied to the entire wrap, or just the areas at the end of the guide feet?

I have not done this, but it seems logical to me that since you cannot use CP to make this process effective, then you have to coat the whole wrap with PG. Otherwise you would end up with a two toned wrap.

I personally have never noticed cracking at the end of the guide foot and use CP on almost all my rods.

It's applied to the entire wrap prior to the epoxy being applied.

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Michael,

If you don't mind me asking, is there a brand of CP that you prefer?

Dave Sytsma

I have used Flex Coat for many years. It's a white water based CP, so it should be mixed/shaken before use to distribute the solids, as I understand it and always do. I put it on liberally, making sure the tunnels take all they want with capillary action, go clean the brush, then come back in a couple minutes and dab excess off with a paper towel. The dabbing makes sure there are no surviving bubbles, too. One coat applied this way seems to do it.

Ralph used to say to stir it rather than shake, in order to keep bubbles to a minimum. It can be hard to stir through the neck of the small bottles, of course.

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Yes, stir, shake or mix it in one manner or another. As Mick indicated, apply liberally and after a few minutes take off any excess. I have even used a second coat to ensure full effect.

I have come to not like CP or its application, so have been using Fuji thread with the CP embedded. I think it wraps a tad more difficultly than NonCP thread, but really looks good with a a Gen4 thread epoxy.

Thanks, Michael. I've got three CP's in my shop: Flex Coat, U-40, and Al's ColorRite. Used Flex Coat for many years on nearly everything. I've found Al's to do the best job of actually keeping the original color as the Flex Coat and U-40 will darken the thread slightly. I had a problem a few months ago with guides pulling out of the thread on a couple of steelhead rods I built for a customer. I was using Al's on those. I told him to bring the rods over and I completely re-wrapped both rods. I was shocked that there was absolutely no thread penetration to the blank; it was completely clean. The guides that pulled (first time in my career that's happened) were Fuji KT's and even one KB. Originally I had used Fuji UltraPoly with the Al's CP. When I re-wrapped I used Fuji NOCP without any CP and didn't have any more issues (black thread). I fully understand the concept of filling the tunnels, but there aren't really any tunnels on those little guides. As it stands right now I've moved over to more of the NOCP thread like David because I'm sort of gun shy about having a repeat performance like I had with the steelhead rods, but I'm going to give CP another shot on something less critical using your methods. Thanks for the advice.

The Flex Coat and U40 CPs are the same product according to what Ralph told us at a seminar many years ago.