Reel Repair by Alan Tani

A bit of long story.....
I answered an ad about some old bait casters and it created a bit of a dilemma for me. I was happy to buy the reels, but the seller showed me four boxes and four parts bins in his garage. He had a friend who owned a reel shop in Thermopolis, Wyoming who had passed away 10 years prior.His friend had no family so the seller ended up with the remains from the reel shop. The seller had since moved from Thermopolis and took the items from the shop with him. They were stored in  his garage for many years. We all know about the wind in Wyoming....it creates dust that gets into everything including parts bins/boxes.

What's a reel collector to do? Buy the parts of course. Now I have a lot of dusty parts. About 75% are not labeled. I know the brands, but that's about it. Freshwater bait casters and spin reels for trout from the 50's, 60's and 70's. I can't bring myself to get rid of these. My brain say toss'em. My collector says you'll figure it out.

I'd really like to help folks who might need a part or two for there old reels. Any ideas what to do with these? Thanks for listening.

Welcome to the site Rick53!  There's  not much wind in Wyoming, Ha! Lived over in Lovell for 4 years. Yeah Thermopolis, the Wedding of the Waters area was some good trout fishing. Free hot springs bathing, managed by the State, deeded by Chief Washaki of Shoshone Nation. He stipulated that they couldn't charge $ for it.

If any are suspected of being Penn parts, mysticparts.com has a great listing of all their reels, parts and schematics. They even have pictures of individual parts that they still have in stock.

Thank you for the reply. A few might be Penn I'll look at Mystic. Mostly the parts are, Pflueger, South Bend, Mitchell Hi-Spin, Zebco, Bronson, Johnson and Coxe spin and bait casters. I really enjoy this sight. I've seen some of comments. A lot of humor and I need that. Thank you.

Welcome to the club. I think you'll like it here.

Maybe after they are cleaned up take pictures,maybe arranged In groups of what brand they may be.Someone here will probably know what part it is. I have used google image search on other parts to identify what they go to.

 First off Welcome to the site .   Second We likem picturs .   

Quote from: jgp12000 on February 12, 2025, 11:54:58 AMMaybe after they are cleaned up take pictures,maybe arranged In groups of what brand they may be.Someone here will probably know what part it is. I have used google image search on other parts to identify what they go to.

X2 (or may even want to buy some of them)

i have a franklin tumbler used for pistol brass.  i tossed a bunch of parts into the drum, added water and hand dishwashing liquid, and let it turn for a couple of hours.  the old greasy parts came out sparkling.  i rinsed everything, laid the parts out in the sun, then hit them with aerosol corrosion x. 

this might be an option for you just to clean them up.  then bagging like parts together might be the next best step.

Great suggestion using the tumbler! Thanks. More to come.

Not to demean AT.com, but you should check in at ORCA (Old Reel Collectors Association) as well.  There are a lot of old baitcasting reels discussed there and people looking for the impossible-to-find parts.  I see someone with a Shakespeare Marhoff that's missing a levelwind cap now.
https://reeltalk.orcaonline.org/viewtopic.php?t=26247

Rick already registered & posted on ORCA a few days ago. 👍

Don't throw 'em away, for sure.

Frank

Yup, ORCA is a great organization!

I just renewed my membership yesterday.

Solid folks on there.

Best, Fred

    Ok I see you sent a multi message ,  Let`s help you with picture posting .  What are you using to post here Phone  ,Type of phone ? computer ? 
 
 You can probably post a few pictures , and we can blow up the pictures on our end . We can pick parts from a pile !!