gt2003's Dads Ol Reel

[Wompus Cat]

Gregory had one of his Fathers Reels from many years ago and took it out to clean and put back to fishing it .
He did a Beautiful Job on it but could not get the Drag to work the way he wanted so I offered to check it out .

It is an Early Model   ( I am thinking late 30's or Early 1940's) Because of the un - pinned  Anti Reverse Dog The Torpedo Knob ,Kinda throws a wrench in this but may have been replaced (Hard to Say)  and a Few other little things with a Single THICK Drag  FIBER (probably Asbestos) washer that is actually Recessed in the Main Gear and Fits over a Protruding Sleeve and this thickness is Critical to the operation of the Drag adjustment as over the Years it gets compressed so it no longer tightens with the Single Thick  Brass Slotted Washer when the  adjustment Star pushes the Spacer against it .
The Star just bottoms out  .
Here is what I did .

Reel as I Received  it










With the Old Line Removed  Corosion was Just Starting  on Spool


 
I was able to polish most all of it off the Spool and Foot .



Old Drag Fiber Washer was just too far Gone and Compressed to it's limits



So I made one from my stash of Disks to fit





Cutting and sanding to fit then SUPER GLUE .It will work Folks and be here from now on







Here you can see the protrusion of the Sleeve in the Main Gear where the Disk fits and it is important that it sticks up above the Top so you will have Drag adjustment and that takes some sanding to get it just right or it will be TOO TIGHT





Final Sanding/Fitment  and Took a While to get this right.

Incidentally there are No Keyed Washers in the Stack .Just the Lonely One Thick Fiber and the Slotted Thick Brass Washer  and That's It.


In the Basket to Clean pieces




Cleaned parts



Was Able to sand out and Polish a lot of the Scratches on Plates



Smoothed the Sleeve and gears and put a Carbon Fiber Disk under Main Gear instead of the old Card Board one .



Bridge Assembled with new Drag and washer



FINISH









The Side Plate with most of the Deep Scratches Polished Out






I wonder  what Stories this Ol REEL Could Tell!
READY TO FISH FOR MANY YEARS TO COME

[gt2003]

I told Wompus Cat I would get on here and give a little back story to this reel.  I just turned 53 yrs old 3 days ago.  My father passed away when I was about 4.  Ya know, you just can't question those things and I know the Good Lord above knows what he is doing.  Sad though as He and I both love/loved hunting and fishing but never got the opportunity to enjoy those things as much as we could have.  My recourse has been taking his old/vintage hunting and fishing items and restoring and using them again to honor him.  I've got an old, excellent condition, 16 gauge belgium made browning A5 shotgun that i've used successfully, i've got an old Mitchell-Garcia 300 and a Mitchell 300 (1954 and 1965 I believe) that i've disassembled, cleaned and fished with quite a lot last year and caught some decent fish with no reel issues at all, a PENN Leveline 350 that I went through and serviced and this Ocean City Bay City 112 (not 250 like i thought).  Well, i met my match w the drag on the 112 and Henry saved the day.  Thank you for this Henry.  You are allowing me to continue the tribute to my late Dad.  We'll have a lot of years together 'upstairs' when my time comes.  You'll have to come join us on the water or in the field upstairs once we are all there!  Thank You for this Sir.  You are VERY APPRECIATED!

[Wompus Cat]

It was a Pleasure and an Honor to be able to do this for a Reel with your History behind it .
Enjoy it and pass it on because it will last .

[oldmanjoe]

  Very well done , that clean up real good .     Are you buffing those parts or are you using liquid polish and micro fibers pads ?   

[Wompus Cat]

On this one I pretty much use Steel Wool then  hand sanded all the Flat surfaces Front and back side of gears and the Sleeve  on a Marble block with a couple of fine grades of sandpaper then finish off with polishing compound .I do the same with the brass Washers .
On the side plates I use super Fine steel wool and different grades of Wet Sanding to get scratches out then polish with
compound and a wax.
I have all kinds of buffers and grinders but still do it by hand ....lol I Have ultra sonic cleaner and a tumbler for my ammo brass  I use to reload . Sometimes if not in a hurry I will throw some stuff in the Tumbler overnite.
Mothers on the chrome rings works reely good . The ultra sound I just don't use it that much as haven't been too impressed with it.