Rebuilding a rod handle

[farmin542]

I am going to redo a handle on one of my old favorites & have never done it before. I got a couple questions if anyone would mind helpin me out that would be great.

#1 Do I have to ream the ID of eva grips to match the rod diameter or will eva
stretch over the blank?

#2 Is there a usefull purpose of a winding check or is it just for looks? Do the
rubber / vinyl winding checks have any stretch to them?

#3 Any reason I cant redo the handle without removing the reel seat?

#4 Probly gonna cut the handle lenth down a little bit, I was thinking of wrapping
masking tape around the blank and cutting it with a hack saw. Any reason not
to do it this way?

[PII Magnum]

I am no expert but have rebuildt my far share of rods over the last couple of years.

1. I prtty sure you are going to hav to ream the EVA foam.

2. To me winding checks are just mainly for looks thy don't have a hold ot of strech to them.

3. No but you might have to build a arbor for the foam beacuse the butt section is going to be larger than the blank by your real seat.

4. no but a dremel with a cut off wheel will give you a smoother cut.

[farmin542]

Thanks for info man. I just finished stripping off the guides and both halfs fo the split grip. I hope I didnt bite off more than I can chew. I ran into another question too if you dont mind. The rod had double foo guides all except for the last three. I didnt see this comming but it looks like the entire rod blank has some kind of epoxy finish coat applied to it. In the places where I have removed the guides and wraps it looks aweful because its missing the finish coat. Can I sand those spots back down smooth and refinish it with something, like a patch job. Im going to try using micros on this one so these places will not be recovered. Any opinion?

[PII Magnum]

I have painted the last couple to help hide the scared marks

[farmin542]

I was thinking about that, but not sure how it would look. Also Im not sure how paint would effect the finish thats already on there. Some finishes dont work good togather, if the top one is hotter than the bottom one it will wrinkle all up and look like ass.

[thedude]

1. eva will stretch pretty good - however i've found it best for consistency and ease of installation to ream the ID to a close fit.

2. if you are adding split grips, winding checks aren't a bad idea to cover any gaps you might have at the ends of the grips. Vinyl checks stretch pretty good.

3. if you are just doing the rear grips - no problem.

4. dremel with a cut-off wheel works better, but any fine-tooth saw will do.