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On Tue, 10 Mar 2009 08:01:00 -0700 (PDT), Steve Cain

wrote:

My wife went to a school book fair and found "A Good Day's Fishing" by
James Prosek. A children's book, he goes through his tackle box
looking for what he needs for a good day's fishing and in the process,
he examines his lures and what they're good for. My son was rapt, and
now that's "Daddy's new favorite book" (the old one being "Goodnight
Moon"). We got out my tackle box and looked at the spinners and
plastics and plugs, and it was a grand time.

To keep it going, I gave him my first fishing rod, an ancient Zebco
404. He was extremely excited, and insisted on bringing it to bed with
him. I wouldn't let him put it in the bed, so I tucked it in the
corner so he could see it from his bed. This morning, as I was
dressing him, he pointed at it and said, "That's my fishing pole,
Daddy." It felt good.

Like all fishing poles given to little boys, the original owner (I
know the guy intimately and I know he was hard on gear) gave it quite
a collections of nicks and scrapes. The windings are pretty beat, the
guides a bit bent and the reel rough. I want to clean it up. I can fix
the reel, certainly. A few new bearings and a good dose of CLP and
we'll be on the way. The fiberglass is another issue. Do you guys have
any recommendations for good books on repair of rods? I tried the roff
archives and found Dale Clemens "Fiberglass Rod Making," but it is
long-since out of print and $40 on Amazon. Any other suggestions for
instructions?

There's a book by Dale Clemens...

Seriously, though, since I haven't seen the rod, I won't make specific
recommendations, but here are some general suggestions:

First, it really isn't practical for a novice to "repair" _the blank_ of a
fiberglass rod, but I'm not sure that is what you are asking, and IAC, it
probably isn't necessary. That type of fiberglass rod, if nicked, won't
"explode" like graphite rods can, will, and do. When that type of rod
breaks,
it breaks sort of like a green stick or tree branch with lots of fibers at
the
break/ends, but generally in two ragged pieces, if the pieces separate at
all.

That said, what would probably suffice for your purposes is to simply
repair or
replace the existing guides and possibly repair/replace the grip if
needed.
There are, I'm sure, many, many websites that give an overview of both of
these,
but if you can't find any, reply as such. The wrapping itself isn't
difficult
at all, and if you wish to epoxy or otherwise "coat" the wraps, it isn't
as if
you are doing the rarest Payne on the planet or something, so a little
"sloppiness" won't really matter from an objective standpoint.

If it were me and I had no rod-finishing supplies at hand, I'd get a spool
of
plain ol' sewing thread, some nail polish/varnish (and real acetone-type
remover
- fiberglass rods only) of whatever color I wanted, and whatever guides
might
need replacement (you can get these at places like Wal-Mart in many areas)
and
wrap away, followed by a coupla-three coats, allowing drying time between
each
coat, of the nail polish/varnish. If the grip simply had a few random
"digs" in
it, I'd make some paste from ground-up wine corks and Elmer's/"school"
glue,
fill the digs, sand smooth, and be done with that. If the grip needed
replacement, I'd either order some oversized replacement rings, split 'em
and
glue them on (likely as not, your rod's grip has a metal core cast with
the
handle portion, to which the rod blank is glued into, but ???), and sand
down to
shape, OR, see if I couldn't find some kind of cork tube(s), like toilet
flush-valve ball floats (the pre-flapper "ball" style) or something, and
do the
same - split, glue, sand.

FWIW, I think it's great that you want to, um, well, not "restore,"
exactly,
but, er, let's say "refurbish" such a rod for your kid. I had many a fun
day
with very similar Zebco setups as a kid, and I still have one of the first
ones
( a 202 with its matching really kid-friendly rod) I ever got in my rod
collection, and until either my kid or another "worthy" kid gets it, right
there
is where it'll remain.

TC,
R

I still have the first rod (used) that was my own and the Ocean City 60 that
was new when I got it when I was 9 years old. Reel is not a working reel as
I retired it about 35 years ago with a bad spool, but it is still there and
I look at it once in a while. Just take the kid fishing with the Zebco if
it works decently and get him some bluegill, etc. Then offer to get him a
new setup. They are cheap for the complete rod and reel for medium quality
stuff. Less than $30 on sale.