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Trudex reels

Hurgen Akindji

Senior Member
Hi all.

I recently won a pair of Trudex reels on eBay. They look in decent condition for their age but wouldn't mind refurbishing them a little. At least a new coat of paint. I've never done anything like this before and would appreciate some advice.

Regards Hurgz
 
Very difficult to do well Hurgz. To do the job properly at least, any c’pin reel that needs refinishing would first need to be broken down into its constituent parts. Given that the line lays are nearly always riveted at both the back and front plates on the drum, this would require drilling out and then re riveting when reassembling. It’s a huge job.

You could of course either rub back and spray paint the reel after masking up the parts that don’t get painted, or, alternatively brush paint round all these parts but every attemp I’ve seen at doing this looks pretty crap to be fair. If you also consider that any durable finish will either be anodised or powder coated and that both spray paint or brush enamel are both considerably more fragile and prone to chipping….

I have to be honest, I really wouldn’t bother myself. In fact, two Speedias I fettled with I ended up stripping and going for a bare metal finish. That said, I’ve always fancied having one of them gloss powder coated in British Racing Green.
 
Thanks for your response Haydn.
To be fair that's what I thought anyways. I knew it wouldn't be as simple as I wanted it to be.
 
@Alan Rose @Haydn Clarke

So I just spoke to Gary Mills and he was saying not to bother with the paint etc and to just take the spool off and submerge both back plate and spool into 50/50 Dettol and water solution for 24 hours. Take out of solution, rinse off with lightly soaped warm water and with a toothbrush the paint should flake off, leaving a silver finish. He
Mentioned that all the screws,moving parts etc shouldn't suffer any ill effects as a consequence of the Dettol. (Yikes 😳)
He then said a little WD-40, machine oil should do the trick.

He mentioned a plastic part that can crack really easily when taking the spool off. That would need to be changed if that was the case. Apparently alot of them suffer cracks but many anglers realise when it's too late.
 
@Alan Rose @Haydn Clarke

So I just spoke to Gary Mills and he was saying not to bother with the paint etc and to just take the spool off and submerge both back plate and spool into 50/50 Dettol and water solution for 24 hours. Take out of solution, rinse off with lightly soaped warm water and with a toothbrush the paint should flake off, leaving a silver finish. He
Mentioned that all the screws,moving parts etc shouldn't suffer any ill effects as a consequence of the Dettol. (Yikes 😳)
He then said a little WD-40, machine oil should do the trick.

He mentioned a plastic part that can crack really easily when taking the spool off. That would need to be changed if that was the case. Apparently alot of them suffer cracks but many anglers realise when it's too late.
Garry is the business :)

The plastic bit is the spool cap which houses the grub screw and spool release mechanism. Garry sells replacements for a few quid if they do crack.
 
Go with Gary’s advice Hurgz. These old reels look nice bare metal anyhow.
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15lb 8 oz 30-7-2010 Sharnbrook pit 5.-Edit-2.jpeg
 
@Haydn Clarke Those reels look absolutely lovely Hayd!

I'm just a bit weary about dunking the reels into Dettol,parts and all.
Garry said to separate the backplate and spool before submerging it into the solution. Why not just put the reel in one piece?
I'm probably just overthinking it.
 
You’d need to seperate the drum and back plate to scrub all the paint off so you may as well just do it before submerging in the fluid.

I’ve never used Detol for this but I know of others who have and successfully too. I always used industrial grade paint stripper as I have it to hand for work purposes.

Try to ensure you don’t get any crud in the spindle boss as it will be a bugger to get out. I believe Detol is slightly acidic so best to neutralise it with something alkaline like soapy water and thoroughly rinse and dry.

Give it a lube - two or three drops of 3in1 or sewing machine oil to the spindle, definitely not WD40! And Robert is old man’s brother.
 
The Dettol tip does work, or at least it did for me when stripping the paint off a couple of Speedia Pins. Note however I used neat Dettol and soaked the spool and back plate for 48 hours.
 
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