Reel Repair by Alan Tani

I have a few dock queens whereas the rod paint is worn so you can see the graphite. No biggie they still catch fish just curious if/what to make them "pretty" again.

I have a 10' black Eagle Claw graphite crappie rod that was painted black or not certain with no graphite showing,wonder if something was done differently in the manufacturing process,It's on the dock year round?

 After many try to paint and coating I found it's best to leave it bare graphite for durable and more sensitive .Once you strip out a blank you have better action blank . Most other don't fell that

When I first approached the idea of painting a rod, I was very skeptical that it would work in the absence of some "special procedures" that would prevent the paint from wrinkling and cracking as the rod flexed in use.  Did a lot of research, particularly as to the kinds of paint that might resist cracking.  I was surprised to find that a lot of people had a lot of success with all different kinds of paint.  Some recommended some fairly esoteric custom paints; others used a spray can of easily obtainable color.  I decided the only way to see if this cracking issue was a real sore spot was to try something out.  I had a nice Zebco Model 1930 "Sundowner" spinning rod that was intact and complete, but had a lot of nicks and scrapes in the original bronzy-tan colored blank.  Had been planning a rebuild to add additional guides to this early 1980s "lower price range" rod, and figured I had little to lose in adding a paint job to the rebuild. Used a spray can of Rustoleum "Ultra Cover paint+primer", satin, in London Gray (brownish gray).  I had been using this paint on plastic gutter material (aka "eaves trough") to match the color of some old gutters I had gotten from Builders Square (remember them?) years ago and that were no longer being manufactured.  That gutter material has a bit of flex to it and the paint had seemed to hold up OK on that. Applied the paint to the rod blank after it had been stripped and let it set untouched for a week. Added different guides, and with blue and red trim, the rod was like night and day from the original.  Best of all, the paint seems to have held up without issue after several years.  So, I was "hooked" on repainting rods thereafter.  Give it a try, using procedures and paint of your choosing an I think you have a pretty good chance of success.

I don't know about a different blank manufacturing process where maybe the color is built into the blank vs. painting. What color would an unpainted blank be (graphite or otherwise), or is there more than one color possibility?

Frank

 A paint job is all about the prep  and spraying light coats and letting it dry before you ty on the guides .