The last semester of graduate school is a bad time for getting other things done, especially the planning and execution of fishing trips. That said, I have made some progress with the new rod projects.
The first step was to strip off the existing paint jobs and then to sand and clean the rod blanks. In order to do this without destroying the environment, my health, and the integrity of the fiberglass I used a product called Citristrip, which claims to be an earth-friendly paint-stripper. Interestingly, the process was very different for each of the three rods. The green paint 8.5 foot Actionrod came off easily with a paper-towel after one treatment, the gold paint on the 7 foot mystery rod took some elbow grease, a couple of coats of Citristrip and a scothbrite pad, and the St. Croix required almost a dozen treatments and a lot of sandpaper to finally clear off.
The first step was to strip off the existing paint jobs and then to sand and clean the rod blanks. In order to do this without destroying the environment, my health, and the integrity of the fiberglass I used a product called Citristrip, which claims to be an earth-friendly paint-stripper. Interestingly, the process was very different for each of the three rods. The green paint 8.5 foot Actionrod came off easily with a paper-towel after one treatment, the gold paint on the 7 foot mystery rod took some elbow grease, a couple of coats of Citristrip and a scothbrite pad, and the St. Croix required almost a dozen treatments and a lot of sandpaper to finally clear off.
Environmentally friendly or no, this process required rubber gloves and a painters facemask
The result was pretty nice. The 8 and 8.5 foot rods had a familiar red/brown fiberglass color that will look really nice under some spar varnish, but the real treat was the 7foot mystery rod which proved to be a solid piece of translucent green/yellow fiberglass.
My plan for the weekend had been to varnish the brown rods and clear coat the green rod, but heavy rain on the Central Coast put the kibosh on those plans. Not wanting to let the weekend go by without working on the rods, I decided to install new reel seats and cork handles. (I did not change reel seats on the St. Croix, as it was lovely and in pretty good condition).
I had previously removed the reel-seats from the 8.5 and 7foot rods with a dremel tool, and chipped all the old cork off with an exacto-blade. I purchased preformed cork grips and reamed them out to an appropriate diameter. It turns out that fiberglass is on a whole, wider at the base than graphite, so this process required some delicacy if I was not to crack the cork. For the 8.5 rod, considering the wide diameter, I chose a black aluminum reel seat, which, if not incredibly attractive, will be durable. For the green 7footer, I chose a nice Struble down-locking reel-seat with an attractive wood spacer.
I had previously removed the reel-seats from the 8.5 and 7foot rods with a dremel tool, and chipped all the old cork off with an exacto-blade. I purchased preformed cork grips and reamed them out to an appropriate diameter. It turns out that fiberglass is on a whole, wider at the base than graphite, so this process required some delicacy if I was not to crack the cork. For the 8.5 rod, considering the wide diameter, I chose a black aluminum reel seat, which, if not incredibly attractive, will be durable. For the green 7footer, I chose a nice Struble down-locking reel-seat with an attractive wood spacer.
After an afternoon of mixing epoxy and filling caps in the cork, I think the result is pretty nice. I am going to finish off the the two larger rods with a nice winding-check, but the green one I am going to try to use thread to make a nice graduated front-piece for the cork. I have to say, I am very excited about this little green rod. I think it is going to be very pretty, and while I can't be sure, the blank feels like it might have some delicacy for small stream dry-fly fishing.
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