I bought some Custom Reel Handles from Maxed Out and got a Slew of other Goodies in the Bargain .
One of which was an old Ocean City Boca Grande in Horrible Shape .
I have MANY Ocean City Reels and just didn't remember the Boca Grande so was searching the Interweb and found one on the
The Ocean City Salt Water “Named” Reel Pageand have since discovered Quite a bit about this REEL.
I am Restoring this Reel hopefully to its Former Beauty and starting with the Mutilated Side Plate .
Here are some pix of the now condition Reel as I got it from Ted.
Notate the Ring in the Center of the Tail Plate.
This was quite a dilemma in trying to figure what the Heck it was and if there were others like it out there somewhere but as I started working on it the story came to life of a Repair probably done 40 or fifty years ago judging by the Grime and Buildup on the Reel.
The side plate was in pretty bad shape in fact the worst one I have ever attempted to repair.
And as I started my process it was clear about the aforementioned Repairs done many years ago .By the Way even though this thing looks Horrible it Still Free Spooled and worked perfectly but was loose as a Goose ...lol
Someone had Meticulously Reamed a Groove around the of Center of the Tailplate,made a custom Ring and Soldered it together to hold the plate together and also built up the end bearing inside and out with Solder (Apparently an Elephant had stepped on it ) so it would maintain alignment with the spool and even though the plate had a lot of play in it the Reel still worked Fine .
I and Ted had thought this may have actually been a custom plate that was Sandwiched together and this Custom Center Ring was part of what looked like three pieces . Anyway I decided to try and stabilize the plate before removing it in fear of not being able to sandwich it all back if I took it apart . After cleaning with a can and a half of Brake cleaner to get all the years of scum off the pieces I was able to inject glue in the cracks and clamp it in place to solidify and here it is now after a few hours (10 ) of filing,sanding, gluing, more sanding ,filing etc....
Still have to build up the Bearing area but it is getting there .
Meanwhile the rest of this ol Soldier is soaking in my cleaner to start polishing and reassembly .
Here it is almost Finished
You can see the Grooved Side plate someone did and Soldered in the Ring to keep it together he 50 Years or so .....
