Refurbishing a Loomis

[geodebasser]

I have built plenty of rods from scratch and replaced a few guides that were broken but never fully refurbished an old rod.

I have a couple of bronze color Loomis cranking rods in decent shape. I noticed that even though two of them are the exact same model their guides are spaced entirely differently. I guess mass manufacturing. What I want to do is get rid of the cheap guides they put on them and replace them with low profile Fuji concept guides as I have built most of my rods that way.
What is the best way of getting the old epoxy off along with the old guides? The guides that I have repaired in the past are not a really satisfactory neat job but are very functional. I want to do a neat job with this project.
Any advice would be appreciated.

[willwork4fish]

I've re-done a ton of rods, getting off all of the finish varies from rod to rod even from the same manufacturer. It's all in what particular finish they used and how old the rod is. Colored blanks can sometimes be difficult to get completely free from finish without leaving some "rub" marks so just know that going in. What I use is a grill lighter, a somewhat dull hobby knife (small pocket knife works too), a white scotch brite pad and my thumbnail.

With all of this don't apply too much heat, work a small part at a time with just 4 or maybe 5 passes of the flame on the part your getting off.

First I get off the guide, generally just apply a little heat then use the hobby knife to scrape off the finish and cut into the threads on the guide foot. Get a thread end and some or all of it will just unwind.

Now that you have the guide and thread off you'll have the excess finish on each end of where the threads were and/or in the middle of where a double footed guide was. A little more heat and then start picking at it with your thumbnail. You might get it all off just doing this.

If it's still not nice and smooth or there's some "lines" you still need to get rid of I'll take the white scotch brite pad and wrap it around the blank and rather aggressively rub the area where the guide and finish was. Be careful because the friction will get the blank surprisingly warm. Sometimes it'll help to add a little more heat from the lighter but again be careful. You'll obviously have to be a little more careful the closer to the tip that you get but usually the 4 or 5 guides closes to the tip are the easiest to get clean and smooth. Sometimes I'll spray a little Simple Green on the pad and that will help sort of lube it up and not leave rub marks. After it's fully stripped I'll put some IPA on a paper towel and clean the whole blank.

I just redid a really old Lew's cranking stick for a buddy of mine and as much as I tried I couldn't get off the gold trim bands on either end of the wraps except for the 3 closest to the tip. In order for it to look alright I had to follow most of the same guide placement (which was horrible) but I was able to add an extra guide towards the tip which definitely helped.

I'm sure there's other ways of doing it but this is what works for me. Whenever someone gives me a rod to completely refurbish I always tell them that there's a chance it's going to get ruined or there are going to be some slight rub marks. It's only ever happened to me twice where I had a blank buckle because of the heat but they were both really old rods that probably had some prior damage in the spot where they buckled.

[Ryan]

I have used cristy strip with good results.

[willwork4fish]

I have used cristy strip with good results.

does it take off the finish and/or paint too on a colored blank?

[Spoonplugger1]

The guides on your rods, if they are Pre-Shimano are Pac Bay guides and in no way a junk product, your other components are Pac Bay and reel seats are Pac Bay or Wiebe products that have shown to hold up for many decades, every bit as well built as a Fuji guide. If these are SV style guides you will need to reposition, they were used by many till the late 90's, if "T" series guides you are likely able to just rewrap in place and you'll never know the difference.