Zebco 33 Rod?

[jgp12000]

I caught this Zebco rod years ago while fishing with my old neighbor. He informed me our other neighbor had it pulled off that dock years earlier. That neighbor had already passed on when I retrieved his rod. FF 35 years I kept the rod for sentimental reasons now that both neighbors have passed, it's missing a guide & needs some new cork on the handle. It looks alot like the rod on the old 33 boxes? I was gifted a 57' 33 by a member & thought about Restoring this rod for that reel if I could get a good photo to go by. Looks like foil under the silk colored wrap?

[thorhammer]

yeah, foil tape. you can get it from rod building sites, but I'd just underwrap with gold thread.

[oc1]

I'd replace the guide and leave the rest of it alone to preserve the lost-at-sea provenance.  Does the reel seat still work?

[Donnyboat]

You could grind down some cork, with the kitchen, veg stable grinder, that should win you a smooge from your lovely lady, mix it with wood filler, then fill all the rough places in the cork, sand it down, till its smooth, then give it 1 coat of thread binder, good luck cheers Don.

[jgp12000]

Steve,reel seat works.

[jgp12000]

Another question,when shopping for guides,should I measure the next guide up & order the next larger size.Appears to be all SS?

[thorhammer]

likely chrome plate brass or SS. going up in size is your preference. I might use thread varnish vs epoxy for period correctness.

[jgp12000]

The original thread looks white/brown. Guides are pretty thick. You can replace the rod on these handles as needed.Looks like someone wrapped this guide with mono.

[JasonGotaProblem]

You can get gold or silver metallic thread at Wally world that's good for this.

[jgp12000]

Jason,
I was looking at some tiger wrap at mudhole, is that Walmart thread in the sewing section? Also, I think I will fill in the cork handle voids like Donny suggested. I have scrap cork from handles I have replaced. Google images shows the rod had a 1" tapered black plastic butt cap as well?

[jgp12000]

what size butt cap = 1" ID ?

[JasonGotaProblem]

25mm?

Tiger wrap might be the closest reasonable option. I've seen old gudebrod thread that looks like that. But that stuff is fancy, and I'm not sure zebco was using it for a budget rod. But look at gudebrod thread on eBay, you might find something closer.

[Swami805]

I have a bunch of gudebrod multi colored thread if you need some. See if you can find what the original color was, I probably have it. I also have the gold film if you need that too. I look and see if I have some of those guides when I get home from work

[jgp12000]

I found some ProWrap Metallic Twist 100YD Spool 807G White & Gold that I like. These guys mostly fished for bluegill off the dock, so I got some solid gold bluegill decals to accent it a bit. I haven't found any silver foil tape yet, mudhole had some silver with design too modern looking. Swami I found a SS guide that looks similar in size 12 but if you have original that's better. The original thread is white with a brown twist, if you have any Gudebrod thread similar that's great. I wanna try find the silver rod tape to stay close to original. All the rod specs markings are long gone, so I am gonna put the bluegill decals where they used to be.

[Midway Tommy]

Why don't you just use foil face HVAC tape? It's cheap, plus what's left can be used for other things. Most of it will be covered by thread.