Anyway, I've had in mind to strip the rod and replace that seat since I finished the review two years ago, but never got around to it. I actually ordered some rod wrapping supplies just before all the pandemic precautions hit, and then worked on some practice rods before tackling these $400 rods!
I took an ARK Rods Reinforcer spinning stick that had a broken tip from shipping, stripped it, and converted it to a triggerless BFS casting rod. I took a Kistler KLX7107XXH swimbait stick with the same malady, stripped it, and spiral wound the guides. I replaced a damaged guide on an Abu Garcia IKE casting rod that was mangled during shipping.
The most frustrating part of all of this is ordering parts. Takes forever for stuff to get shipped out and to arrive. The pandemic precautions don't help there, but wow, talk about maddening.
My original strategy with these G.Loomis sticks was to install split reel seats. I didn't realize after stripping the rod down to practically a bare blank (I left the butt end), that I'd have to deal with all that epoxy where the reel seat was. Split reel seat was a non starter. So I chose a Fuji TVS seat and had to figure out how to cap all the ends, adorn the locking mechanism, and what to use as a filler underneath the seat to cover up the "exposed blank" sections of the seat. Fortunately there are parts made to go hand in hand with all of the above, but getting answers on sizing and whether or not this or that part is the right fit for what I wanted to do was near impossible. It'd be a lot easier if you could just go to a store, fit all the pieces together in person yourself, and then go to the counter and purchase them. Of course, even if that were available, it wouldn't have been during the pandemic precautions
ANYWAY... I say all this to say I certainly will not be offering my services to wrap or repair a rod for anyone other than myself or immediate family. Respect and appreciation to the custom builders I've worked with in the past (mattman - I think you're the only one on this forum still)... If I had undertaken this journey 30 years ago when I still had my eyesight and steadier hands, it's something I could have gotten into, but at least now I can repair broken sticks that arrive for review or correct some after their reviews are done. I just stripped and re-wrapped the spiraling guides on 6 sticks that arrived from an un-named manufacturer YEARS ago as part of a set. They were spiraled to the right despite my telling them I fish rods spiraled to the left in previous conversations - and receiving acknowledgement that any rods sent to me in the future would be spiraled left. A minor annoyance that I was finally able to correct on my own.
Here's a before and after photo of the GLX re-build. Oh and I stripped the guides off an NRX spinning rod and installed them on one of these builds too just for fun
From the review, fished with an Exist LT
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