Earlier this summer, I had the itch to paint one of my reels just for challenge and the fun of it.  To do this, I carefully planned out my steps and followed through as best as I could realizing a couple things that were against me:

1)   I am not skilled at taking a reel apart without a schematic to say the least and I didn’t have one.
2)   I can’t paint worth a darn, but hey, it’s spray paint.
3)   Zero experience, but I had to start somewhere.

I decided that my Trion LP was the reel (i.e., victim) of choice to experiment with.  I was going to paint it purple on the outsides with a metallic silver inside.  Ooohhh, the excitement was unbearable.

I am normally a very patient person, but for some reason, I couldn’t wait for Pflueger to send me the schematics.






The first step was priming the parts of the reel that were going to be painted.



Promising Prospects

Laying on the purple; I was getting really excited here. Things were looking great.



Then the metallic silver




At this time, it sure was looking good. 
 
From Promising to Uh Oh to Disturbing

But we all know that just because something looks good doesn’t always mean that it is good.  I do not know why, but the Metallic Silver (Rustoleum metallic silver) would not adhere to the primer.  Anything that touched the paint damaged it, from napkins to fingerprints.  The bonding was so weak that the Goo Gone I used to remove the fingerprints actually removed the silver paint!! Unbelievable.  I guessed perhaps the primer I used and the silver paint didn’t mixed so I removed the primer and painted the silver metallic paint without it.  Fortunately the silver covered the original paint job nicely.  Unfortunately, the result was the same.  To say the least, I was very disappointed.  The silver looked so crappy that I didn’t even bother to take photos.

I also tried multiple times to apply the silver and all attempts yielded the same poor results.

My art consultant (my 8 year old daughter) told me that she too was disappointed since the color scheme was her idea.  She recommended that of all the colors we had in the garage, only yellow would somewhat match the purple.  Huh… Oh well… Kind of Husky (University of Washington, but they use gold) colors.




I was so upset.  All this hard work; carefully taping, removing tape and paint, re-taping and I have to settle with yellow for now.  At least the yellow stuck well.  But I am not satisfied.  I am going need to find a shade of gold to make it a truer Husky reel, perhaps a shade that also matches the handle.

-ib

I hate when I put so much work into something and then it doesn't come out right.  I give you credit for posting the results even though they were not what you wanted.  I do have an idea though.  Of all reel brands, I think Daiwa would be a good candidate for this type iof project.  Reasons:  They make parts for older reels, unlike the other companies.  Their parts are seperate and defined making them easier to paint before assembly which would give a cleaner look.  Most of their schematics are available online.

Just a thought.

1)   I am not skilled at taking a reel apart without a schematic to say the least and I didn’t have one.
2)   I can’t paint worth a darn, but hey, it’s spray paint.
3)   Zero experience, but I had to start somewhere.

for schematics( and a lot of other cool stuff) see: http://www.americananglersfishing.com/index.php/topic,5015.0.html

i think a lot of 'enthusiast' guys custom paint their reels using an airbrush and probably a high quality auto paint. it seems like a complete disassembly would be required to get a good finish, you can find a lot of info on the subject on line. it seems like a really tough and meticulous job. that said, try again man! you'll get it right next time. and for god sakes, get rid of the LSU colors (try gray and red!!!!)

the primered shot looks pretty cool

Sorry dude.

You going to strip it and do it again?

Sorry dude.

You going to strip it and do it again?

Yes, but not now. Definitely a winter project.