its a dark day in derbyshire ,with a reel shame .

[Chavender]

I have a confession to make about my last day of this seasons fishing .and how it went from bad too worse ,I got too the river set up my centrepin but after a few minuets it was obvious the wind was making things differcult so I decided to switch too plan b ,I was using my jw avon quiver rod and a old model speedia (trotting reel) ,so I got my other reel out the bag and set about changing the rods tops so I could switch to quivertipping and my mitchell 410 & while my back was turned the reel had flung itself off my stool and onto the only stone on the bank ( doh! ) .and its foot broke off ,well that was it .I stood there and let rip on it ,swearing and shouting how through its Selfishness .it had not only ruined its day it'd ruined mine too ,and then I threw my pint of maggots in and packed up and went home in disgust . looks like i'll be buying a new body for it or a replacement now.I've had this reel since 1985 ,30 years and its never let me down .till now .....



but all is not lost ,I've ordered another housing body of good old metal-micky .it'll just be a job of swapping everything over too the new body ,I might take the opportunity to repaint it a different colour maybe back too blue or perhaps a nice red like this one



Maybe not....

[AshbyCut]

Sadly, I'm not sure Cascamite will work on that Chavender, Sir ! Glad Metal-Mickey has sorted you out .

[Paul D]

Bugger, what a shame, wonder if it could be welded?

[Chavender]

aluminium is tricky at the best of times to weld well ,but something that's cast probably just burn up ,a new body housing is costing about a tenner with postage ,so cheap enough to replace ,I could of glued it with superglue & baking soda but no glued part would ever be 100% and always be a weak point (as I found out with my hodder centrepin ,when I broke that for a second time) so replacement is best bet to be sure it'll last another thirty years and this broken one I can use to try a few things out .

sometimes I think if it wasn't for bad luck .I'd have no luck at all ...

[Chavender]

well my replacement housing body has arrived today ,i'll have to strip the old paint off ,and i'm hatching a plan as I've had a idea for something ...

[Chavender]

just spent a couple of days ,getting the paint unwelded from the replacement body ,but it left me a nice shiny bare housing ,now to what colour I was going to make the reel .it was green but I have a better green one ,I could take it back to 410 dark blue (doh ,just striped that off) or maybe a maroon & cream combo .but none of that i'm going to try something different ,i'm going to take it from new like shininess to a aged look by creating a false aged paternina .

doesn't show too well in the pictures ,looks better in natural light but you'll get the idea. hopefully it'll look old & used (although it is old and used just doesn't look it stripped) and darker greyish rather than brite alloy,I've still to dismantle my broken reel and strip the green hammerite paint off (should be a doddle compared to original Mitchell paint) and add the technique too it so its looks old and worn .

[Chavender]

well after some work with paint stripper and wire wool i'd cleaned up the rotor head and it had pit marks ,and I remembered the last time I done this reel it was pitted and that's why I painted it with hammered finish hammerite to fill & cover the pit marks so my plans too age the shiny cleaned surface wouldn't work as the pit marks would ruin the effect .but i'm happy with how the the body housing turned out .so I will use this in the future to age other reels

I've cleaned the aged look effect of the housing body (luckily I hadn't yet sealed it) .the rotor head was shiny but pitted ,so I've used some high build primer to fill the pits and scratches etc Given it a sanding back then a fine coat of Etch primer and its all drying for now .



I'm now going to goto plan 'B' and repaint the reel .it'll get another rub down and fine coat of etch primer then the final colour .which I've not decided on the colour it'll be yet ,I have some lighter blue left that I did my 410a in ,or some plastikote midnight blue .good match to the darker blue on the older 410's .but I could easily go green again or I could go for chrome ! ! .

[Barney]

Steady Chavender, or it could finish up pink with yellow spots,looking forward to the finished reel,
Barney

[Chavender]

well by a weird coincidence I've just put it back together again today ,its turned out rather good (well to me anyways ,just how I imagined it would) .but wont be to everyone's taste as although I went with a Mitchell colour its not your standard black or blue ,and neither is it green as it was before.I was teasing a little previously as I already had the colour in mind all along ,even when I broke the foot my anger was tinged with a little excitement as it meant I had the opportunity to rebuild it in tribute too a Mitchell i'd long admired & desired from afar ,so even in the darkest hour deep in Derbyshire every cloud as a silver linning .Or in this case where there's darkness let there be light .

I've taken my old 410 which i'd previously painted green about 5/6 years ago (I painted both my 410's green as i'd admired the green Mitchell off the Mitchell museum site) using hammered finish paint which was ok but only ok.



then disaster struck



but out of despair came opertunity to repair & repaint ,i'd flirted with a aged look



but I knew what I really wanted was a Mitchell like this ,the White Mitchell ,off the Mitchell museum site



So as I had to use a high build primer to fill in some pitted marks and scratches (that Mitchell paint doesn't come of easy) I gave it a coat of etch primer .



the plain white primer made it obvious that a bright white would look garish in natural light ,too contrasting .so I got me some crème de la crème (off white) from plastikote ,still white but a softer hue .

I gave the reel parts a couple of light coats ,as I like to colour coordinate the baffle plate & balance weights ,I painted them red (well no ones going too see them ,but i'll know) ,i'd collected some accessories to dress the reel with ,a red & black spool strip (I pinched it off my blue 410a ,& replaced it with a black/silver one) a spare red gasket/spacer from a 410a I had laying about a "s" sticker for the handle ,a plastic badge from a 311a which I cut the numbers off and painted my own 410 on ,I had a spare handle with a red grip i'd made ,but in the end I went with a original black grip to balance out the blacks ,I painted the drag adjuster in the crème colour to tie it into the body colour .I've tried to balance out the colours for a more even effect.



i'd also upgraded the drag washer in the spool to a carbontex one for a more improved drag / clutch .its just a case of swapping the white poly washer for the carbon one ,which is basically a soft carbon impregnated cloth



I fiddled with the gears a bit as I rebuilt & shimmed the reel ,as I rebuilt it I added the accessories so it would look more like the original reel ,only slightly different after all its in tribute not a copy or fake one ,just my take on it .

some pictures of the finished reel

the baffle & spool



a rear view



side view



the reel





and the reel in comparison with original



I'm rather happy with it .

[Paul D]

That Sir is lovely, that really works