98 Silver Beach No Star Drag

[Penn Chronology]

Mike, I could re-chrome that handle blade for you. It won't be a thick enough chrome to hold up to use, but if it is to sit on a shelf it should look fine. Let me know.

Just noticed you made me this offer. I thank you but I will leave it just the way it is. When things get old, scratched and dull I just clean them and label the condition as a very rare form of ""Patina"". I like them true to their age, kind of like me..........<:O(

[milne]

(Moved from another thread, SDL)

Hi all,  I put this up on the 97 Surfmaster thread, but someone Identified it as a 98 model.
I'm about to strip this reel down and clean it up a bit, it's in not to bad a condition, a lot of wear though.
My NEWBIE question, and I apologise in advance,
The extra knob/button with the words turn and lift, I noticed it's on the 151 I have a well, but I haven't got to that reel yet.
As mentioned, I haven't seen this feature before.
Thanks in advance.
Col

[Gfish]

You have a quick-release head plate. Unscrew that button, pull it towards you and hold it out, twist the whole head plate counter-clockwise, and it should pull offa there. This was I believe, mainly for quick changing spools. My 97 has an arrow etched on the ring that lines up with the button when ready to tighten back down.

[milne]

Hey Gfish,
              Aha,  That's what I've been hearing about the quick release thing.
     I don't think that feature has been used for a while, she was pretty tough to get it to budge, but off it came !
  A lot of green ugly's in there, I almost was going to leave this reel as it was, it was clean on the outside, but a lot of chrome worn off.
 So I'm right happy I asked now. It's all very clear once you take one off how it works.
Gee, not a scarip of lubricant anywhere inside.
Mine has that wee arrow as well.........

Thanks Gfish, appreciate your reply, another one commences !!!!!

Cheers
Col

[milne]

Hi Again,
           Firstly it would be good to confirm whether this is indeed a 98 model.
Secondly, after my strip down, it looked as if the line had been on there well before my grand father had a glint in his eyes,
Plus, the amount of "green stuff" present, Does this justify doing a white vinegar soak ?
Or will the WD40 scrub with my trusty tooth brush be sufficient ?
I thought I read somewhere about neutralising the stuff, but wasn't sure, and I don't want to do damage to her.

Cheers
Col

[milne]

Now the ugly stuff, re question on cleaning.

[sdlehr]

Hi Col,
When I get a reel I wish to restore, like this one, the first step is an overnight soak in white vinegar. Anymore I just soak the entire reel in a bucket overnight. This also can do a good job of loosening stuck screws. Then it gets a thorough rinse in fresh water. The next step is a soak in mineral spirits, again (usually) the entire reel takes a bath. This removes the water and grease. I then disassemble and clean each piece individually, removing whatever the first two soaks did not. If there was grease covering corroded metal it may need another vinegar soak after the grease has been removed. Then a light coat of light oil (If you want to use WD-40 that would work, but remove the excess before reassembly). If you leave the green corrosion the corrosion process just continues no matter what you do, and the reel continues to deteriorate. The final oil treatment coats the metal and prevents further oxidation of the copper (brass is copper and zinc, the green is a copper salt that forms under oxidation conditions just like rust forms on iron under the same conditions).

Sometimes I soak a reel overnight two consecutive nights before I do anything else with it. If you have a few reels to do this is easy, just stagger them. If there is only one to do, just be patient. I have warmed the vinegar solution in the past to accelerate the removal of the green copper salts, in which case a few hours of soaking would suffice. The vinegar will remove all loose plating and reveal the copper below. It does not damage the finish but reveals where the finish has already been damaged in the form of bright brass spots becoming visible where the green was..  ORCA (Old Reel Collectors Association) guidelines are to remove all corrosion in this manner so as to stop the corrosion process and stabilize the reel for future generations. Folks that keep their reels in "as found" condition have to live with the continued corrosion, and I'm not sure they all understand the consequences.

The white powder on the spool arbor is likely not corrosion but is what is left of the line - it will come off after soaking with a toothbrush scrub, just get to it before it dries and hardens again. I have a plastic tool I use for rod building that I use to scrape that crap off the arbor - the plastic tool is soft enough to not damage the chrome but hard enough to give me some leverage in cleaning.

[milne]

Thankyou for your reply, that makes things a lot clearer.
I will start with a white vinegar soak tonight.
Thanks

Col

[sdlehr]

Show us how things go.

[milne]

Well, I finished stripping and cleaning the 98.
I used white vinegar this time, I chose just to put the reel frame and seat in first, left it for about 4-5 hours,
It completely removed all the nasty green stuff.
Next, in went the spool !!
Came back into the room, not 15 minutes later, to see that most of the chrome had already disappeared.
When I took the line off the reel, I knew that there was some serious issues there, thick white hard discoloured gunk.
I decided to just clean the rest with the tooth brush method, It did scare me a bit how aggressive the vinegar was.
But it was in such bad shape the chrome loss was inevitable I think.
all the insides ( sorry didn't take photo) was scrubbed up, re greased and assembled.
This hard to get 98, will still sit pride and place on my shelf, with character patina !!
I figure that it would have only continued to deteriorate had I not have cleaned it properly.

Col

[broadway]

Col,
 Don't worry, if it was already flaking and loose there's no way to save it.  Over time a nice patina will build on the reel making all look nice and vintage but for now enjoy your rescue. You prevented that reel from turning into a corroded mess which is what it's all about.
I'm gonna ask you to take one more step. I used to be really nervous about dipping the handles in vinegar So to get that corrosion where the grasp and the handle blade meet I take a plastic dish (or any flat plate), stand the handle up so the grasp is pointed up and the handle blade flat in the center of the plate.  Then it's jusr a matter of putting enough 50/50-vinegar/water to cover the handle blade and stop just before the grasp gets touched. You will be able to get that corrosion in the crevice there. At that point all corrosion will be off the reel and no chance of parts just falling apart. Almost forgot, I personally, run all the parts I cleaned with vinegar through warm water, dry as much as possible, then air dry overnight. Install again next day (grease if you like) and you're good to go.
Well done, I can appreciate your passion and bravery for taking this restoration on,
Dom

[Crow]

Good job on the clean - up !  You have to remember that it wasn't YOU that took the plating off...it was the corrosion. And that had to go , so, a cleaning is just what the old gal needed !

[milne]

Thanks Guys, appreciated.
Dom, Yes, I rinsed off in warm water after that soak, then I sprayed liberally with WD40 and gave it a light Tooth brushing,
then a wipe down, and greased it as I assembled it.
What got me, was how that white gunk, in literally 10 minutes, had gone in the soak, along with the chrome.
My heart sank when I walked back into the room !!!!
It always had a fair bit of chrome wear,  Well used I shall call it,  but yep, the corrosion had to go.
Dom, thanks for the tip for the handle, I admit I was gun shy to go further with it, I'll do that on the weekend.

Cheers
Col

[milne]

Hi Dom,
            Just wanted to let you know, that suggestion of just soaking the handle in a shallow disc, worked a treat !
       To be honest, I never even noticed the green scunge until you mentioned it and I grabbed the reel, so thanks for that.
   It worked great, one of the wife's saucers, just enough vinegar water mix to come up level with the handle. I left it overnight
and with minimal effort, a tooth brush and some WD40, all the green stuff is gone.
  It was a bit sad seeing all the chrome loss, still erks me, But it is now preserved shall I say !

Still have a few reels to strip and clean, some are in ok condition, but I think this 98 was the worst of all of them.
I had another delivery today, a 3 poster and a 4 poster Sea Hawke ( still not early enough to have any JK markings)
So now with the collection growing, it's time to build a decent shelf for display and organise them.

Thanks for the tip !!!!!!!

Col

[broadway]

Very happy to hear that reel will be around another 75 years... nice job!
You'll find your JK plates soon I'm pretty sure.
Enjoy your new collection and let us see that display when it's ready.
Stay fishy
Dom