Go ahead and make fun of me, I can take it. I just spent 2 hours of my life polishing every millimeter of an early '70's Peerless 209 with a felt dremel and Flitz. Another 209, two 113's, 2 Beastmasters, and a dozen 5500's are to follow with bearing and drag upgrades and spool sleeves where needed. I'm starting to think that I do this stuff just to do it. Beats TV. pic attached
naw, you're fine! they clean up nicely, don't they!
Yep Alan, I remember fishing with these trolling for spainish Mackeral on my Grandfather's boat out of Biloxi when I was a little, little kid. I was born in '72 and there are pics of me in my play pen on the deck with these reels in the rod holders. I don't remember us ever doing anything except spraying them off with fresh water then hanging them back in the cabin :o.This is probably the first time it's ever been properly serviced We used them on the 33' Silverton until we bought a 25' Grady in 1988 and quit the Mackeral trolling. I hadn't seen them since them since then and found 2 of the probably 6 a couple of years ago. Grandad died in '94 so I'm going to take care of them. I'm thinking of spooling them with 25# and using them for bottom fishing red snapper. Rare to catch one over #40 so I don't think they will burn up and it's nice to have a level wind with the constant dropping and pulling in in 40-60ft. of water. Guess it's the OCD watchmaker in me to go this far w/ them.
By the way, I think I've posted this before, but their is a trick to making these old, neglected sideplates look good. I took an old toothbrush and softscrub cleanser and removed all the old chalkiness and dirt. I let them thoroughly dry for a week then put a heavy coat of Armor-All on for 3 days. I've done it on other old Penns and it shine's them up and they shed water like a duck.
Beautiful stuff....polishing can sometimes be like "sortin' fly poop out of pepper", but these results are MUCH better! Keep those Penn's alive!