Fishing rod repair near Grand Rapids or Marcell?

[Spinner1]

Packing the boat for my trip to MN tomorrow. Daughter's pet rabbit got into my man cave and chewed the cork off most of my best rods. (St Croix rods)

I can ship them away for repair later if I have to I suppose, so recommendations for that are welcome to.

And yes the rabbit problem has been solved, though a little too late.

[unfrozen]

Bummer!

Off the top of my head I can think of a few options for you.

1) Replace the handles with new cork grips. It's tedious to remove the old cork and epoxy. Since you're sliding the new grips up from the bottom of the rod you'll need some type of shimming along the way, up to the reel seat

2) Hit the handle with a lightweight expanding foam. Once it sets, turn it down to the desired shape and cover it with X-Flock shrink tubing. http://www.acidrod.com/shrinkgrips_corktape.html

3) Again, hit the handle with a lightweight expanding foam. Once it sets, turn it down to the desired shape and cover it with flocking. http://www.donjer.com/rodmakers.htm

Hope this helps and maybe you'll get some other suggestions as well.

[upnorth]

Choices are limited. To do it right would mean taking it apart and redoing things. 2 piece rods would be easier, only 1 guide to remove. 1 piece would mean more depending on the rod blank and the size of the guides. Color and color matching come into play too.

Otherwise I would go with the remove the handle clean up and put on new cork from the bottom and like Unfrozen says you need to make some sort of bushings to sit the new cork on. Or you could find someone who would/could turn some custom wooden grips.

[upnorth]

Choices are limited. To do it right would mean taking it apart and redoing things. 2 piece rods would be easier, only 1 guide to remove. 1 piece would mean more depending on the rod blank and the size of the guides. Color and color matching come into play too.

Otherwise I would go with the remove the handle clean up and put on new cork from the bottom and like Unfrozen says you need to make some sort of bushings to sit the new cork on. Or you could find someone who would/could turn some custom wooden grips.

[Get'n Jiggy]

Choices are limited. To do it right would mean taking it apart and redoing things. 2 piece rods would be easier, only 1 guide to remove. 1 piece would mean more depending on the rod blank and the size of the guides. Color and color matching come into play too.

Otherwise I would go with the remove the handle clean up and put on new cork from the bottom and like Unfrozen says you need to make some sort of bushings to sit the new cork on. Or you could find someone who would/could turn some custom wooden grips.

I have a similar problem, bought a new St. Croix Panfish series rod and

the reel seat they come with really sucks. I saw a thread a while back

where fiberglass tape(the kind they use for drywall) was used as a

shim, anyone had success with it? Thinking of going to a Tennessee style cork handle.

[upnorth]

The Drywall tape works, but because you are filling the voids with epoxy it is messy as hell. If you go that route makes sure you have lots of paper towels and rubbing alcohol around to clean things up. If done properly masking tape works well too.

[Get'n Jiggy]

I learned that the first time I tried to glue a handle, now I blue tape

the cork and the rod and wear throw away gloves.

[upnorth]

I use masking tape and just be sure that everything it sealed tight with epoxy. Biggest thing with masking tape it has to be sealed, if water gets in it will start to deteriorate.

[Spinner1]

Appreciate the advice. The handle cork is 90% gone already so I am looking at a replacement. The cork above the reel seat is damaged, but perhaps I can try to patch it if removal of the reel seat is above my skill level.

[Brad B]

Appreciate the advice. The handle cork is 90% gone already so I am looking at a replacement. The cork above the reel seat is damaged, but perhaps I can try to patch it if removal of the reel seat is above my skill level.

most likely the reel seat will need to be carefully cut off unless you can some how break the bond of the epoxy (which will be unlikely to do) and then you could re use it. the hardest part of the whole process is removing the old epoxy. after it is all cleaned it goes back together fast if you are going from the bottom up and not having to redo guides. I just did a rear grip replacement for a guy yesterday. the rear grip was broke off taking part of the blank with it. he had another old rod that had a similar piece of cork, so what I ended up doing with his was cutting the stub of the blank flush with the reel seat and then cut the other blank flush to the top of the cork he wanted to use as a replacement then I took a scrap piece of another blank I had and epoxied that into the replace piece of cork then once that was dried I fitted it to the blank in the reel seat. it turn out nice and you would never know the rear grip was broke off before.

[MI Friend]

There is a guy north of Brainerd, by Round Lake that does a great job and very reasonable. I do not know his name but perhaps if you call one of the bait shops in that area or post on the Brainerd Forum you can get his name and phone number. Just a thought.