Great job on the restoration! Truly a job to be proud of.

Reading through this thread I totally agree, that most vintage reels are better off left alone, but in your case you had nothing to loose, since none of the original finish remained. I've bought ALOT of vintage and antique reels over the years in conditions ranging from "new old stock" down to "for parts only" and I've seen some down right horrid restoration jobs. I am a pretty good living fixing things, but most of my vintage reels get left AS IS, or at least just repaired enough to be usable. The one exception to that, is I down right HATE the metallic snot green of the Heddon Hardy clones.....I reshoot those in Berkley black and silver.