Rare Abu Cardinal 55 reels

[BeechmereLake]

Congratulations on acquiring such rarities BL

Thankyou sir, I have since carefully been inside the Zebco 555 reel and found something that makes it totally unique to the reel, having been documented as a "Test Reel" it was great to find something that made it stand out from all the 1st version Cardinal 55 reels, I did take the obligatory photos and sent them to a collector in Europe who has a boxed version of this reel and its been decided to keep back what the difference was solely to protect the reels.

[BeechmereLake]

Just a quick update on the reels, with the Cut-away and Zebco 555 being serial number stamped with the same dates I decompounded the cut-away today to see if they had the test reel parts inside, happy to say both reels are identical inside, in my last post I found parts that were totally different to what you find in the Cardinal / Ambassadeur 55, the housing on both reels will only take these parts also.

[Dave Burr]

Not sure how I missed this post Martin but wow, what a trio. They are definitely in the right hands

[BeechmereLake]

Not sure how I missed this post Martin but wow, what a trio. They are definitely in the right hands

Thank you mate, they have been a long time coming but now altogether they can remain that way. When a German collector told me the 555 was a test reel you would of thought something was different and now I have discovered what it actually is its even more impressive to own them

[BeechmereLake]

Not sure how I missed this post Martin but wow, what a trio. They are definitely in the right hands

Thank you mate, they have been a long time coming but now altogether they can remain that way. When a German collector told me the 555 was a test reel you would of thought something was different and now I have discovered what it actually is its even more impressive to own them

Dave Burr, just so you know I was woken up by my dog barking at 3.30am one morning so did the rounds outside the house before coming back in and putting the kettle on. Up and awake I went back in my office with my mug of tea and seeing the Zebco sitting on the shelf was reasonably new to my collection thought I would try and find out why its listed as a test reel, dog back in bed I took the reel apart carefully looking for any signs of difference between this reel and a Cardinal 55, now for reasons to protect the reel I cant show photos of what I found but a few parts were so much different to an ordinary Cardinal 55, these parts even made the frame of the reel different to that of a Cardinal 55 which was an eye opener.
Knowing this reel has been classed as a test run reel of very small numbers I decided to see if there was any similarities in my cut-away reel, with only 4 units known worldwide could there be anything that linked the two together? Yes there was, serial number on both are identical but so were all the internals including parts that are not available as spares. Thought I would share this with the forum and sorry for no photos, in todays world certain things need protecting even parts in a fishing reel