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The story...
I was contacted by Ed G. who had expressed a desire to have a rod with much sentimental value revived from the brink of death. After a few emails, we met and I was presented with a steelhead rod that had been fished HARD. The blank, guides and grip had gone through the ringer and, sad to say, did not emerge unscathed! Originally, we had discussed the removal and repair of the guides, but after completing a close inspection of the components it was obvious to me (if the client was willing) that this was a candidate where an entire tear-down and rebuild was recommended. The cork and reelseat were on the brink of disintegration and the ferrules were so worn that they no longer fit into one another securely. The blank had bad scuffs and surface abrasions where surface paint was completely absent. Not only would I have to strip the components down to a bare blank, but a repaint was in order as well. After going over the costs associated with the additional services, I was given the green light to do my thing.
Over the course of a few days, the fishing rod was stripped down to a factory blank. The decal and epoxy was careful removed along with the factory cork, reelseat, winding check, and remaining thread work The blank was scuffed with scotchbrite and two coats of specially formulated paint was applied.
What was once a dark merlot fishing rod has been resurrected into a stealthy black stick that will live on to fight steel for many more days.
The "before" photos of the rod:
Build Specifications:
The rejuvenated rod's photos:
Build Review:
I found this project very exciting. My shop does many partial repairs on old and new rods, but the challenge of a complete tear down, repaint and rebuild was fun for me. I enjoyed the fact that I was returning a "old faithful" to a customer who can now take it back out and catch more steelhead or put it on a wall and tell stories about its history.
With this rod, the adventure ends, but another awaits my attention....
© InfinityRodCreations.com , Infinity Rod Creations™, All Rights Reserved 2008-10, contact IRC.com Web based mail may be directed to InfinityRodCreations@oh.rr.com |
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