Poor Ugly Stick rebuild

[saltydog]

Yes it's pretty easy and I have big hands too.Just figure out what you want lay it out and do it.

[saltydog]

Just found an old link to a place with a lot of good info for rod builders new and old.
http://www.rodbuildingtutorials.com/

Hope it helps anyone who is willing to give it a go.
William

[BogueSounder]

Thats a pretty ugly stik! Nice work   

[Joel.B]

Did you strip the old finish off with something?

WOuld you mind sharing the details from start/finish?

I have some nice old glass rods I'd like to refurb. Sabres's, Conolons etc

I have two Ugly Stick roller rods I can practice on.....

[saltydog]

Basically all I use is paint stripper,the foam kind or the paint on type to remove the finish.Then lightly sand the blank with very fine sand paper.I then either use the blanks color or paint it with spray paint of the appropriate color of choice.Once that is done I put on some rubber gloves put some 30 minute epoxy in my hands mix it and rub it onto the blank to get the finish nice and glossy then put it on my rod turner for 45 minutes.Let it dry overnight then wrap what you want.Plan on doing some tutorials soon.

[Mandelstam]

Basically all I use is paint stripper,the foam kind or the paint on type to remove the finish.Then lightly sand the blank with very fine sand paper.I then either use the blanks color or paint it with spray paint of the appropriate color of choice.Once that is done I put on some rubber gloves put some 30 minute epoxy in my hands mix it and rub it onto the blank to get the finish nice and glossy then put it on my rod turner for 45 minutes.Let it dry overnight then wrap what you want.Plan on doing some tutorials soon.

I like tutorials!

I actually have a rod renovation project I've thought about for a long time but can never really get to it. It's an old glass fiber rod that belonged to my grandfather that neads a bit of love. I've stripped it of the old beat up rings but I nead to put a new finish on it and maybe a new reel seat. I really liked your SS rings, been thinking on using that as well for this old school rod. How do they handle braid?

And would you recommend using epoxy on glass fiber as well?

[doradoben]

This is interesting. The finish you applied to the rod looks really good.  Does it matter what kind of spray paint you use? or will some types be lifted by the epoxy coating?

[floating doc]

I've used a few different techniques for coloring blanks. There are some spray epoxies that are sold for refinishing appliances.  They work well. I also colored a blank with a permanent marker once. Believe it or not, it came out fine. The epoxy did mix with the ink a bit, but since it was a black rod it never showed after it dried. I epoxied over the ink, then wrapped the rod.

The best tip for rookie rod builders is that black always looks good if you can get a good finish over it.

[saltydog]

you can basically use most spraypaint just be sure it's flat and then put a couple of coats of rod finish if you want to get the luster really up there.

[doradoben]

  Salty, thanks for the tip about flat paint.. and thanks floating doc, black was going to be my color choice.

[saltydog]

Black is the best color for rodbuilding,you can get more from color combinations that way.

[Jeri]

Hi Guys,

We do an aweful lot of rbuilds to surf rods here, and finishes is a big issue due to the strength of the UV factor we have here in Africa. Found the best paint finishes that really do last are the two part car spray finishes, they have been on some rods here for over 8 years now, and still look as good as when they left the workshop. The issue is that the twop part paint finishes for cars provide a hard but flexible finish that doesn't fade with sun light and is resistant to chipping. It is also fairly inert to work with, and doesn't have issues with the epoxy resin that we put over the whippings.

Hope that helps. Oh, and we paint everything black, it works with all the colours for whippings and give a great finish.

Cheers from sunny Africa,

Jeri

[Steve-O]

Great job SD, on the bringing the Mugly Stick back to its Ugly stick glory.  It had some serious rash of all sorts on it. I have only built a few and restored a few vintage ones including an antique Japanese Bamboo boat rod. They all came out nice. The rod turner makes look pre-feshion-nul! IMO. YMMV...

Even stripped some one piece deep sea rods ,then acid wrapped,  cut in half, installed HD ferrules and made some killer two piece travel rods for airline overhead bin storage. That way the rods stay with me and don't count as checked baggage. Used them on my avatar pic 200# gator gar expedition, plus AK 'buts.

[saltydog]

I have been restoring quite a few lately, considering the price they want for blanks these days I have been finding rods I like that are ugly and putting them back into shape. A little more work involved but a lot better on the pocket book. I am looking for a few candidates for some travel rods for myself, but I have 5 projects going at once and need them done first. And yes a rod turner is the best and if anyone wants to do it they are a must and can be acquired pretty inexpensively . I am working on building a power wrapper this month so I can wrap faster than by hand, with all the projects I have picked up I could wrap rods for months. I found 6 bamboo rods at a garage sale the other day and they are calling to me to clean them up, as if I already didn't have a reel problem now I have the rod bug too.

Hi, my name is William and I have a rod and reel problem!

[saltydog]

Well found another old Ugly stick that was broken and built a light jigging rod out of it.