Hey, all!!
Back with a very special masterpiece of the spinning reel world.
For your viewing pleasure, I present, a beautiful 1932 Hardy Altex duplicated no.2 downturn spin reel.
Assembled by Dennis Ward.
This amazing old girl was pretty rough looking, but fully intact, except for pear cover, which I somehow had the rare correct one in my parts bin!
Came with a busted Bakelite spool and a nice alloy spool, both.
She was minus almost all her dark lead finish and dull overall.
Old, grimey grease internally, but I forgot to snap some pre strip pics of that. But, who wants to see that, anyways? Lol
This bail arm spring end was like none I have seen, usually, the pear cover and arm bracket are made for a machine screw to hold it on. I included pics of those, but this one has a indented collar, that you can rotate up or down along the bail arm to capture the tab on the base of the solid pear cover, locking it down. What!?
Included pics of that, too.
I could not get the flier holding nut free, even with my Altex wrench, so I had to clean and polish body and flier assembled.
Tough, but as seen, not stopping me!
I created custom transparent cover plates for her and placed my transparent spool on her, as well, to really dress her up.
Interestingly, my transparent spool came on a Dennis Ward no.2 mk.IIII reel, I own and use.
Everything is now working like a brand new reel, and shows much better, too.
I know some purists might get triggered at the sight of this, but this reel is going to get used and I want her to look awesome, so, here is my vision of that.
Peace!
Final pictures
Well done!!
What a solid frame...
Best Regards, Fred
Quote from: foakes on May 13, 2026, 01:51:04 AMWell done!!
What a solid frame...
Best Regards, Fred
Thanks, Fred!
BTW did you see my post on the grey Martin?
She looks much better, now!
Peace!