Help On How To Refinish A Bunch Of Old Rc 1 & 3

[CL Rods]

A buddy from one of my fishing clubs wants me to repaint a bunch of old RC 1 and RC 3 crankbaits. After looking them over I am real undecided on how to proceed. Some have a bit of bare wood exposed either at the lip or around the screw eyes. Many have cracks in the paint. Some have the paint cracked off of the lead around the belly weight/screw eye and the lead is all oxidized.

I have two initial thoughts, one is I am going to charge him more, but the other is in order to refinish these I will have to sand them a bit and then I could use either ETEX or thinned D2T and put a seal coat on before I starting to paint them. Now with all of the imperfections and old dirt and ..... on them I am thinking thinned D2T just to avoid the fish eyes possibility from ETEX.

I don't have propionate or that might be a good choice.

What amazes me is how far we have come commercially for crankbaits. These old baits have the screweyes and weights off center and the bills are crooked on most. Yet these old baits caught fish, but this goes back to the old thoughts about only 1 in X ran good and or straight. By todays standards I think they might have a real hard time selling these.

Any and all suggestions on how to clean and seal these before repainting would be greatly appreciated.

[BobP]

Sounds like you have a real rescue project! I've never been able to sand soft raw wood and hard finish when it is side by side without distorting the shape of a bait. I think the best you can do is sand where you can to get rid of punky finish without touching bare wood, then wipe it down with denatured alcohol and coat the baits with D2T cut with lacquer thinner.

Edited December 13, 2009 by BobP

[Net Man]

I like to find old baits like that and refinish them. A few years ago I did a dozen or so for a friend. They were RC3's. Almost all of them were cracked and chipped and even had rubber worm sticking to them. What I did to restore them:

1) I sanded them down to get them smooth. Some I sanded to the bare wood. The wood is not that soft on those baits.

2) I coated them with sealer. I scuffed them up and dipped them in clear laq. a few times.

3) I sanded them with 600 to get them smooth.

4) Primed and painted

5) Coated with D2T

If there was any bad spots that I had to fill I did that before I sealed them. Becareful with the cracks too. If you don't sand them out you could see them come back. My dad was a cabinet maker and said that the cracks come from moisture getting in the wood. When the wood gets hot and cold it would expand and this would happen. I hope this helps out.

[CL Rods]

Yeah it is just a bit of work. I didn't want to take them to the bare wood, so I have sanded them well, removed the screws enough to get the flaking off, sanded some more, wiped them with denatured alcohol, dried them well and am going to use thinned D2T to smooth them out and seal them.

Then I will just scuff and paint and top coat with an automotive clear since I am using thinned D2T to re-seal and smooth out. If they had been for me and I was investing my time just for me I would probably sand them down much further. But since I am not charging him an arm and leg for my time like we all should when we put in that level of effort, I am taking a bit of a short cut. I am going to get a few RC3s along with payment so on those I think I might sand them alot further depending on their condition.

I'll post some pictures when I am done.

[weighinalimit]

Yeah it is just a bit of work. I didn't want to take them to the bare wood, so I have sanded them well, removed the screws enough to get the flaking off, sanded some more, wiped them with denatured alcohol, dried them well and am going to use thinned D2T to smooth them out and seal them.

Then I will just scuff and paint and top coat with an automotive clear since I am using thinned D2T to re-seal and smooth out. If they had been for me and I was investing my time just for me I would probably sand them down much further. But since I am not charging him an arm and leg for my time like we all should when we put in that level of effort, I am taking a bit of a short cut. I am going to get a few RC3s along with payment so on those I think I might sand them alot further depending on their condition.

You're probably going to think I'm nuckin' futs.....but after painting a BUNCH of old RC's & Poe's, I can promise you the easiest way is to use a propane torch to set the paint on fire for a few seconds, blow it out then scrape the old paint (now quite soft) off with a fairly dull paring knife. You'll be amazed how clean you can make a cedar bait in under 5 minutes, then a little sanding, seal it with your fav. sealer as if it was a new wood bait.

Give it a try on one bait & you'll see it's true... a lot less pain in the arse & when you come from base wood up with the better sealer/paint/clearcoat we all use now, those baits will last 10x as long without the cracking, crazing & other defects many had.

[CL Rods]

You're probably going to think I'm nuckin' futs.....but after painting a BUNCH of old RC's & Poe's, I can promise you the easiest way is to use a propane torch to set the paint on fire for a few seconds, blow it out then scrape the old paint (now quite soft) off with a fairly dull paring knife. You'll be amazed how clean you can make a cedar bait in under 5 minutes, then a little sanding, seal it with your fav. sealer as if it was a new wood bait.

Give it a try on one bait & you'll see it's true... a lot less pain in the arse & when you come from base wood up with the better sealer/paint/clearcoat we all use now, those baits will last 10x as long without the cracking, crazing & other defects many had.

HMM, interesting concept, but how in blue blazes to you avoid melting the lip and or how do you get the nose of the bait cleaned/sanded. Have you ever tried an electric heat stripper? again they get so ... hot how do you avoid melting the lip while getting the front of the bait clean? I have an electric heat gun that might do it but I'd hate to melt the lip.

[Army Doc]

HMM, interesting concept, but how in blue blazes to you avoid melting the lip and or how do you get the nose of the bait cleaned/sanded. Have you ever tried an electric heat stripper? again they get so ... hot how do you avoid melting the lip while getting the front of the bait clean? I have an electric heat gun that might do it but I'd hate to melt the lip.

I know this sounds nuts too, but I've done a few of these already and the best way I've found to get the old paint off is with a dremel with a nylon circular brush loaded into it.Tape off the bill with a couple coats of masking tape first. MAKE SURE IT'S NOT STEEL OR BRASS. It's the black colored brush. It isn't hard enough to cut into CEDAR, and takes the paint right off. Don't try it with balsa, or you'll have a mess on your hands. Try it. I promise it works on cedar baits. I've done RC's, Stanford cedar shads, and a bunch of the 300's and 400's already.

Here's the brush I'm talking about:

http://www.dremel.com/en-us/AttachmentsAndAccessories/Pages/AttachmentsDetail.aspx?pid=403

After you get the good majority of the paint off, clean it up with some 800 or 1000 grit sandpaper, seal with some thinned D2T, and prime and paint.

Hope this helped.

Chris

Edited December 31, 2009 by Army Doc