Got a green 720 for $2 at a barn sale. Looks like saw dust inside. All better now but the badge fell off on my bench. Glad I did not lose it. What is the best way to clean the surface without scratching and also best way to clean the glue off the back side, prep the side body and reglue? Thanks everyone!
I wouldn't clean the front or you will lose the color contrast. Just clean the back so the glue will adhere.
Start out with good cleaner like Fantastic & a stiff tooth brush, & then finish with warm water & Dawn. If it looks good and comparable to the cleaned up reel scrape the back & reel recess, clean them with acetone or lacquer thinner and epoxy it back in place into the recess.
Every green Spinfisher that I've ever seen missing the emblem in the side plate recess has a perfectly round disk in the recess which is smaller than the recess and not centered in the recess. My early 704Z with metal side plate has the same thing where the emblem is missing. That tells me they placed an adhesive disk on either the emblem or the side plate during assembly then pressed the two together. Since the recess is larger than the disk there was an air gap the thickness of the adhesive disk between the side plate and the emblem which allowed the elements to get between them. The adhesive likes the side plate more than the emblem, maybe the back of the emblem was too smooth.
That adhesive is tough, obviously on there for the duration.
That adhesive on your reel looks like it's in good shape. Why not just clean it, rough it up slightly, rough up the back of the emblem, super glue the emblem in place and after a couple days curing time use a pin to apply super glue around the edge of the emblem to seal it.
I saw one on Ebay once that had an Indian head penny glued in place of the emblem. It gave it a unique look.