Restored to Fish Another Day

I read a blog post at Fishin' 4 Walter  where Gramps talked about Fenwick Fiberglass Rods and Pflueger Medalist Reels and it reminded be of a project I did for a customer a while back and thought I would share it.

The customer came to me with an old fiberglass rod with a Pflueger Medalist Reel that he had purchase when he was in his teens.  He had kept the rod with him through all of his life and in the multiple moves and storage the rig had deteriorated to point where it was no longer fishable.  He was nearing retirement and wanted to get back into fly fishing again and asked if there was anyway I could restore this old rod and reel.  Challenge accepted.

The wraps on the rod were unraveling and many guides were missing

The reel had a bent handle, spool and frame.  It would not rotate without force.

The wraps on the rod were unraveling and/or missing, the winding check on the front of the grip was scuffed and dented and the reel seat was tarnished and scratched.  The reel was in worse condition. Due to a bent spool and frame, it would not rotate without extreme force.  The handle was bent and the spool cap was cracked, so that when I removed it, it came off in two pieces.  I wasn't sure what I had gotten myself into.

First Step - Fix The Rod
Fortunately there was no damage to the rod blank itself, so that was good news.  The grip and reel seat had been on there so long that I did not believe I could remove them safely, so I chose to work with them on the rod.  I stripped the blank of all the guides and carefully removed the dented winding check from the front of the grip.  I made a new winding check from aluminum and anodized it.  I found the closest thread color to the original, and some metallic underlay and wrapped new guides. I cleaned the grip and polished the reel seat and installed the new winding check and hand inscribed the customers name where the old decals would have been.

The next challenge was the reel.  I completely disassembled it and inspected all parts.  I used a vise and some basic hand tools to straighten the handle, frame and spool.  I was able to get the spool running true to within a couple of thousandths of an inch, no wobble detectable with the naked eye. Fortunately the design of the spool cap had not changed and I was able to use one from a newer reel I had laying around.  I repainted the entire reel with black epoxy paint and machine cut the beauty ring around the spool.

When I delivered the rod to the customer he remarked, "it looks almost exactly like what I remember when I bought it new."  He intends to once again use this rod for fishing and someday give it to his son.  Hopefully this rod and reel will be used for many more years to come.