Refinishing a fiberglass rod

[Jim Flamming]

Quick question. Have decided to practice rod wrapping on an old fiberglass rod that I bought at a garage sale for $3. A Conolon Live Fiber Cardinal 408. Am stripping off the old wraps and replacing them, but noticed that there appears to be a coat of varnish applied to the rod. It is flaking off in spots. Can I strip that varnish off with Safest Stripper and reapply a coat of varnish after wrapping the rod, or will the stripper hurt the resins in the fiberglass?

[dleo6446]

Jim, do a test section with denatured alcohol. If it is a true varnish, the alcohol will take the varnish off, first it will soften the varnish then with a little elbow grease it will take it all right off of there. Secondly, if it is not a true varnish, Wally world sells a citrus stripper that I used on a Heddon Pal that I restored for a friend that will take the old stuff off and not hurt the fiberglass. I would caution against the use of some of the more harsh strippers though.

Sometimes, I get an old bamboo that someone has coated with heavy coats of varnish, often over a really good original finish, and I remove the old varnish with light applications of alcohol on a very soft cotton cloth to get back to the original finish. Then I will use Turtle wax swirl and grind mark remover to buff the finish, and then use Finesse-It III to polish the original finish very highly, and top it off with a nice coat of wax. Its amazing to see the transformation and the end result most of the time.

[Jim Flamming]

So can I use a spar varnish over the rod once the old finish is removed?

[dleo6446]

I did on the Heddon and it came out really nice. I have talked to other restorationists that do that as well. Good luck with it, I know you will do well with it.
Leo

[PanFisher]

I once stripped some old Fenwick pieces that were cut into blanks - same problem the finish was coming off. I sanded with fine steel wool (which I would not recommend if the stripper does a better job) and then finished with Flex Coat. But I did something different and it turned out looking really sharp.

I did no finishing until the guides were wrapped on. I then finished the wraps first as you normally would before finishing the whole rod. Once the finish on the wraps looked good, I thinned the Flex Coat and finished the entire rod as if the blank and guides were all one piece. The guide wraps ended up looking as if they were a part of the finish it looked really nice.

I would not normally recommend this method but in a case where the entire rod needs finishing it really produces a spectacular look.


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Let No One Walk Alone
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Bill

[cheffy]

Don't use Flex coat to coa the entire rod!!!!!
Use perma gloss. that's what it's made for.
I would try a light sanding with 600 grit and finish of with 1000. Wipe claen and then use 3 coats of perma gloss. Wrap on the guides and coat them with either flex caot of perma gloss. Perma gloss on wraps looks like the stuf they would have origianlly used.