THIS OLD FIBERGLASS ROD A GARCIA BLUE REMAKE PICTORIAL
Welcome & Thanks For Dropping In,Set And Stay Awhile !
I'm trying my level best to help people more so than ever,I'm very much aware that I'm not going to be around forever,I'm making the best of the time I have to help people.

Since my return to rod work in Nov 2019, & this forum my precious time has been more of less focused on the What's On Your Bench Thread,I know for a fact contributions people are making there are helping many more people than we realize.
I'm getting messages all the time at least 5 or 6 a week from people asking technicaly advanced rod making questions or thanking me and well wishing.

I'm sure the other posters are getting messaged as well, we also tend to message each other as well,it's a very congenial group of like minded folks.
Your positive contributions are making a big difference !!.

Especially now in our current unmentionable times !

I just know that if we can get This Old Thread back up and running, we could have a whole new group of new Fiberglass Fly Rodders rod tinkers That Can Benefit Significantly.

Decided the only way I could get the old thread going again was to copy and paste it, insert as many of the pictures as I can locate.
Please feel free to join in,your comments are very welcome,your comments and questions are always very welcome,if I ignore you don't be insulted it's probably because I'm busy with other stuff,it could also be I'm not comfortable discussing the topic or I'm avoiding controversy

I'm working a little each day to reboot the old GARCIA 2 STAR BLUE PROJECTS thread,decided it'd a good plan to add some new material when the original threads restoration is compiled.

Please lets have as much fun as we can with this,lets all see if we can also restore some of that Old Fiberglass Fly Rodders Vibe.

Tight Lines And Nothing Ventured Nothing Gained Loops
Andy Man

The Original Introduction/Lead In
Posted: 09/11/12 08:41 • #1

Hello
Just for fun.
I was going through my used materials pile yesterday when I realized I had a number of nice sections of Garcia 2 star blue blanks.
Decided to strip all the sections of hardware before jumping into a remake.
It seems we have quite a bit of rod remake interest recently.
This project hopefully will help you with your do overs.

One of the things we all need to remember is that it is possible that we can take a rod remake to other levels.
By this I mean that we don't have to remake a rod letting the original design or action dictate the end result, however we can alter the rod and improve the performance a number of ways.

I'll start this with yet another segment of removing the hardware an initial tear down pictorial.
Note this also shows a couple of pictures of what can happen in a split second slip of the knife.

Tight lines and 2 star loops
Andy M





The Blank Rolled While Cutting A Guide Thread,In A Split Second I Had Deeply Cut Myself.

Hello
Managed to locate and down load another 75 pictures that were originally part of This Old Thread over the weekend.
Hopefully as the thread restoration continues some of you will chime in.

When the thread originally ran,received lot & lots of messages asking questions about what was being shared,that's Okay however it takes allot longer to respond to questions in multiple messages,also the rest of the community does not benefit from private questions and the information shared.

Also when originally posting this information, I'd wait for questions sometimes for a few days or as long as I could before I added the next segment.
This was to allow folks the time they needed to absorb the info or possibly emulate the work at home.
Wanted to make sure everyone including my class members had all the time they needed to work out any of the challenges.
Sometimes things needed to move faster when it couldn't be avoided.

Tight Lines And Next Installment Loops #2
Andy M

Post subject: Re: GARCIA 2 STAR BLUE PROJECTS
PostPosted: 09/11/12 11:16 • #4
Hello
Glad to help when I can.
Wanted to retain the fly rod reel seats for reuse.
When I tried to get them both off neither would budge with minimal heat, I decided it best to just cut them off rather than risk distorting them with excess heat.
I find that when they don't come off easy they are going to bears to get off, most times when they are bears they end up taking more time than they are worth to get off, often they get buggered up in the process as well.
This way they are both in great shape and little time was spent removing them.
I'll leave them as is for now, before it's time to refit them I'll address the cut offs.
The spinning rod seat that I don't particularity care about came off with no problem.
Just the way it goes sometimes I guess.
Tight lines and chopped loops
Andy M

PostPosted: 09/11/12 16:03 • #5
Archfly
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 04/12/07
Posts: 1147
Location: western Massachusetts



The Glass Master Post subject: Re: GARCIA 2 STAR BLUE PROJECTS
PostPosted: 09/11/12 19:07 • #6
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 04/26/06
Posts: 3789
Location: Northeast Of Heaven

Hello
I think I have had my 20 hours of training with x -acto knives and have the scars to prove it ha ha, this just goes to show that even guys that have logged several thousand hours with them can still have an accident. They are one of my favorite tools I have at least a 1/2 dozen of them all set up with different blades, I also like surgical scalpels, razor blades and other sharp instruments, the sharper the better.
When I get around to wrapping the rod maybe I'll use blood red thread.
The reason I posted the pictures were to show what can happen even when you do work safe.
Tight lines and bloody loops
Andy M

nielson
Post subject: Re: GARCIA 2 STAR BLUE PROJECTS PostPosted: 09/11/12 20:32 • #7
Master Guide
Joined: 12/09/11
Posts: 888
Location: Athens GA


The Glass Master
Post subject: Re: GARCIA 2 STAR BLUE PROJECTS PostPosted: 09/11/12 21:02 • #8
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 04/26/06
Posts: 3789
Location: Northeast Of Heaven
Hello
Now that's really funny!
Tight lines and comic loops
Andy M

retiredfisher1
Post subject: Re: GARCIA 2 STAR BLUE PROJECTS PostPosted: 09/11/12 22:45 • #9
Joined: 01/02/12
Posts: 1522
Location: Gig Harbor, WA



quashnet
Post subject: Re: GARCIA 2 STAR BLUE PROJECTS PostPosted: 09/12/12 01:43 • #10
08/18/08
Posts: 66
Location: US-MA



Hello
Welcome guys glad to have you all on board.
As all ways lets all have some fun with this, any questions just ask I'll do my best to answer.

First I have to admit I don't like wet paint removers "strippers" for a couple of reasons.
First is they are messy, they stink and most importantly because most fiberglass rod blanks are porous thus the stripper gets embedded in the blank.
That's fine I guess for most and you can certainly wash the blanks afterward etc.

Another problem with them is when you clear coat or repaint the blank they have a tendency to compromise the new finish.
If I am just removing a clear coat finish I use denatured alcohol, or acetone as they do a good job and evaporate fully.
They do no harm to the blank fibers they store these materials in fiberglass containers fiberglass was used in air plane drop tanks with high octane airplane fuel remember..

In the long run I find with paint the best method that I have found is dry sanding the material off.

Now this is not recommended unless you are set up properly and you must take safety precautions.
For example if I'm going to sand a number of blanks to alter the action I move the entire operation outside.

In this case of just a few sections I do it in the shop and use a vacuum to pick up the dust.
You can see I have fashioned a nozzle holder out of an old iron book end.
I ware a dust mask naturally I also run a second large vac in the space as an air scrubber of sorts as dust is not rod shop friendly.

On a side note I'm constantly cleaning my shop it's madding at times but a clean work space produces clean work is my motto.

Many moons ago when I first started dressing glass rod blanks I used a power drill clamped in a vise outside on the picnic table it worked just fine so you can perform this task with what you have on hand, just be careful as I have had blanks shatter and there is nothing worse than trying to pick out fiberglass shards from the palm of your hand etc.

So always ware safety glasses as well leather gloves are good too but I like to feel the blank it's important for me.

I use 80 grit, 150 grit, 220 grit, 400 grit and then scotch bright.
Never steel wool!

As I'm sure you all realize I'm not posting this in real time, the project is well beyond this point.
It's the only way to do this sort of thing.
When I got these sections stripped I began to experiment with the flex profiles of the different sections to see what I could do with these rather than a simple remake of the original rod or rods.
In doing so I decided that I needed more sections so I added a butt section from an old 8' St Croix. And the short tip section from the same rod it was broken 5" up from the ferrule.

So what we are going to end up with is 3 rods a 6" 4" Garcia both sections a 6'2"Garcia butt and St Croix tip, and last but not least a 9'8" plus or minus the jury still out nymph rod with a St Croix butt section and Garcia tip.

Here are the pictures of the dressing process.

Tight lines and dressed rather than stripped loops.
Andy M



The Added St Croix Butt Section.


https://images.fiberglassflyrodders.com/u/1/ir/wZQ2PS6l.jpg
Stripper and Steel Wool Used To Show That They Have No Effect On The Baked On Finish Of Garcia Conolon Painted Finishes.

The Caustic Material Had No Impact On The Garcia Paint.

Dressed/Stripped and Clear Coated Blank Sections.


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