This is my first post and I was hoping to get some good advise from you guys. I have been building rods for about a year now and love it , there is nothing more therapeutic than working on a rod and thinking of nothing else. A guy in my fishing club has asked me to completely gut one of his rods and replace the handle, grip and eyes. My question and what I need help on is the blank itself, there is a lot of epoxy where the old eyes used to be. The blank also has a semi gloss finish but is pretty beat up. Would it be ok to wet sand the blank with 1500 grit sand paper and get it down to the raw finish. If I do that do i have to put a clear finish back on to protect the rod. I hope this makes sense, thank you in advance for any suggestions.
Brian

This is exactly what I am doing. I just received a new rod wrapper for Christmas and I am stripping all the blanks I have where eyes or handles broke. If there were eyes, I was able to cut them off with a razor and then turn the rod in the wrapper and used 120 grit to get rid of the epoxy and then an 800 grit to make it smooth. I plan on doing what you plan, a 1200 to give it a good finish. How I am going to coat the sanded rod is still up in the air and I am looking forward to following this post to see some replies. I have to admit though, removing the eyes and cleaning up the area has been the easy part, its removing the handle, and making the area workable that has been the biggest part of the job.

Brian,
Your job is relatively simple and straight forward.
Your best friend on this job is a heat gun and a bunch of straight edge razor blades and a blade holder.

To remove the grip on the rod, take a pair of slip joint pliers , grip the grip and give it a good twist. You will be able to tear off the grip in a few twists of the pliers. Then, take a dremel tool with an abrasive cut off wheel in the head and slice down through - only the reel seat full length on each side. Then, insert a wide blade screwdriver into the slot, give the screwdriver a twist and split the reel seat in half and it falls off.

Now, take the heat gun and get the remaining epoxy good and hot - not quite to the smoking stage and while holding the razor blade perpendicular to the blank scrape the epoxy off of the blank.

Then, move on to the guides. Use the heat gun to heat the guide wrap and the epoxy on the guides and when warm, on the foot side of the guide; slice the epoxy and thread off of the guide. With the guide off of the rod, heat the epoxy a bit more and peel off the rest of the thread and epoxy. Move on the all of the rest of the guides. For the tip, put a paper clip through the end of a heavy rubber band. Then, put the paper clip through the tip top. Then, while holding tension on the rubber band and tip top, heat the tip top with the heat gun - a match, or alcohol burner. Just as soon as the adhesive softens, the tip top will fly off the end of the blank.

Now you have a bare blank with residual coating, and epoxy on the blank. I like to start at the butt and using heat to soften any epoxy or finish, use the razor blade to scrape off any epoxy or finish. Warning, do NOT over heat the blank expecially in the tip area or you may destroy the blank. When you have all of the finish stripped as well as any epoxy, start with sand paper and sand the blank smooth. I generally start with about 100 grit and worn down to 600 grit wet and dry used wet.

With the blank completely stripped and clean - go ahead and build your rod. No finish on the blank required. After the rod has been finished, just put a coat of wax on the blank and you are good to go. No finish to add weight to the rod and you will have a lively excellent performing rod.

By the way, there are many rod manufacturers over the years who have sold blanks with no finish on them and they have been well received by the fishing public including myself and many of my friends and clients.

The blank stripping up to the sanding should take about 30 minutes. Then, another 30 minutes for sanding and you will be ready to build.

Good luck

Roger explained it really well if you want a shine on the blank after you can put a thin coat of PG luma seal or TM1 all of these are light weight and thin coat so there isn't any amount of added weight and when cured it is line the original finish tough and scuff proof

The best day to be alive is always tomorrow !!
Think out side the box when all else fails !!!
Wi.

Watch out using too much heat especially in the tip section. I learned this via experience. Once when stripping a rod I let the heat gun linger a little too long and I watched the tip section fold over. So be very careful, you only need to wave the heat gun back and forth for just a few seconds at a time. Once I get all the old finish/ paint off the rod by scraping with a metal edge (razor blade or utility knife) held perpendicular to the surface I wet sand the blank by hand with 800 - 2000 wetdry paper. This will remove any residual finish and smooth the blank, without harming it. When dry I wipe the blank down and clear coat it by applying a couple of coats of Permagloss by quickly wiping it on using a Permagloss saturated foam cosmetic pad. This clear coating only takes a few seconds and gives you a very smooth, good looking and durable finish, and you can recoat within 30 min to 1hr. Since the Permagloss coat is very thin and sets up quickly, you do not need to use a rod dryer. I just stand the rod up against the wall. You can do several rods using the same pad.

Again Speaking from experience, be careful about cutting the reel seat off, you need to make sure you do not cut the blank. I normally remove the old reel seat by heating it and twisting it with a gloved hand till it breaks free, or by hammering it off by heating the seat and it a tapping a piece of PVC tubing, which fits over the butt end of the rod against the seat, with a hammer. This will usually cause the seat to break free. Both methods will yield a salvaged reel seat that can be reused. But If the handle length is ok and the reel seat is to your liking, then you do not need to remove the reel seat and/ or the handle. You can easily retro fit a new grip to the rod from the butt. Finally, be careful about twitting cork off the rod using a pair of pliers. Had a friend who tried to remove his cork handle with a pair of channel locks and he cracked the butt section of his blank, which required a graphite insert to fix the split blank.
As long as you are careful, stripping a rod will give you an almost new looking blank. I have done this many many times, and I enjoy doing this.
Norm

Thank you all for the feedback, I knew I could take this to the brain trust and get the help I needed.
Have a great evening!
Brian

With Roger’s and Norman’s replying advice, they should have become your best friends!

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

No doubt I love the knowledge on this forum and the willingness to help!
Thanks again for all yall's help.
Brian

Thanks for the post. I'am working on a rod I just striped down. This will help me with the finish up on this rod and more to come. I'am striping some old G-Loomis rods I have.

Thanks again
Lee

The thing about the G Loomis Rods is that the clean up very well. I did over a dozen in the past couple of months, and they all stripped down very well, including the cork handle area. If careful, the paint stays in place with out chipping. To remove the epoxy use heat and a hard wood or bone scraper, I use a piece of split bamboo, they hold their edge quite well and don’t scratch the finish. Even your finger nails do quite well, they just don’t last for the long term. If you use a metal blade you will scratch the finish. If you do mess up the finish the finish can be scraped off as above. Some of the GLoomis rods are unfinished making them really easy to strip down. Goo gone does a good job getting rid of the last traces of epoxy. If needed Permagloss can be used to put a shine back on the rod.
Norm

Thanks Nrom two of the rods were older G Loomis rods, they are well used for sure a lot of the paint had already been chipped off. Is there a product that I can use to completely take off the rest of the paint. Also there is a weak spot where the grip was on one of the rods, do you have any suggestions on how to repair or strengthen it.
Thanks again my friends for all your suggestions.
Brian

A lot of people have recommended citri strip for removing paint from old rods. I have not used it so l do not know how well it works. If I’m completely stripping a rod I scape the finish off and wet sand, as mentioned above.
If you have a weak spot in the butt section of the rod you can insert an piece of a broken rod into the butt that spans the area of concern with a snug fit. Trim to size with sufficient overlap and epoxy it in place. You can over wrap the area with thread and this should stabilize the weak area. When you put the grip on it should cover the repair so it’s not noticeable and this will further stabilize it. I have repaired a number of cracked/split rods this way and have never had one fail. Hopefully, you have a stash of broken rods around from which you can you can find a useable repair piece.if not you might try going to local tackle store, flea market etc and see if they have any broken rods laying around they want to get rid of. Good luck!
Norm

Great thread - I told my brother in law I’d replace bent and broken guides on his favorite rod, this answers most of my questions. I have one more question, what temp do you set the heat gun to get the epoxy warm enough to scrape off?