Does Anyone Have Replacement End Guides For Old Garcia Conolon Rods?

[thorhammer]

1) leave old carbide on per Tom. Looks great.
2) never heard of the strip method. You oversize your tip by a bit to have room for glue and use method 2 as described. 3) It's hot glue. I'd NEVER just trust hot glue. Overwrap bottom of tip tube with thread and use an epoxy overcoat, making sure you get epoxy both below the wrap on the blank and above the wrap on the tip to seal it into one unit. I start wraps at the bottom of tip tube, wrap down half an inch or so, then overwrap back up to have a smoother transition up onto the tip. May have a small bulge there after epoxy but no more so or better than commercial rods, and I have NEVER had a tip break free- even on AFTCO's fighting 8 foot sharks, using this method. I would only use on just tip glue in an emergency catching panfish. But I wouldnt like it.

[Walleye Guy]

To those who are familiar with the old rods like this Garcia Conolon example, are the other guides also carbide or is just the tip top carbide?  The cross section of the other rings are more oval like a wedding ring (ie not round) so they "look" carbide.  I'm just curious but obviously don't want to verify with a file from my toolbox.  See picture below for an example of one of the other guides...

[Walleye Guy]

Well, lookey what I found online. 

My rod says 2159-A (the catalog says 2159...not sure why the A is missing) but it appears to be the same thing.

According to the ad, the other guides are hard-chromed (not tungsten carbide).

For future reference, here is the link for anyone else looking to do more reading about Garcia Conolon rods:

http://realsreels.com/RodsGarcia.html

[Midway Tommy]

Good for you! Too bad you didn't find that early on. 

[oc1]

The tungsten carbide will have a different finish/patina.  They are a darker color and notoriously brittle.

[Walleye Guy]

I bought a handful of Conolon rods at the same time, this rod was included, for a great price because it was winter and I thought it would be fun to dabble in rod repair.  The rods are in great shape but somehow about half the guides are smashed or broken.  I dunno what happened to them.  I just assumed that this rod had a tungsten tip because some of the others did and the previous owner (I bought them from his son) did some saltwater fishing for a brief time.  However, according to the ad, it has a "ceramic Conoglide tip top".

So, now that I know that I wonder if the tip-top that was on the rod when I bought it is the original.  It's broken and needs replacing (it can't be seen in the pictures but the solder joint on the bottom of the tube is broken so the support "wires" aren't anchored).

Comparing that one to the shiny tungsten tip-top I purchased shows that they both have the 90-degree bend.

See pics below.

Hmmm, maybe I'll swap the vintage tip for the polished tip-top after all... 

[Midway Tommy]

Someone good and neat at soldering can easily reattach that bracing to the tube such that you will barely be able to tell it was resoldered. The main thing is to do it before it's reinstalled on the rod.

[Walleye Guy]

Should it be silver solder?  I'm very good at soldering electrical connections but I've never used silver solder. 

[Midway Tommy]

Silver solder is stronger but you have to get things hotter with it. I think I would go with regular solder first. You can always use silver solder later if it isn't strong enough.