Posted by TSea4 on June 11, 2002 at 19:52:23:
I moved last month, and in the process, I went through MOUNTAINS of old junk. I found a bunch of old tackle which belonged to my Mom's late father that Dad had bestowed upon me a few years back. When he dropped it off two years ago, I just stored it and forgot about it.
Once I tossed out the rotten, rusted, and broken rods, I ended up with two usable reels; an old offshore rig that will end up on a bookshelf somewhere and a Garcia- Mitchell 302 Saltwater spinning reel. After spending an hour on a Mitchell collectors' site, I've determined the thing was made between 1963 and 1970. Probably early 60's judging by Grandad's handwritten date on the line tag under the spool. Cool...
Here's the kicker. My Dad, God bless his redneck heart, hosed the reel down with "redneck preservatives" (better known as WD-40 to the world outside of Texas) to keep it functioning. A little Simple Green and some elbow grease was all it took to add a vintage, WELL working piece of equiptment to my arsenal. I'm ordering a few oddball parts that could use replacing for aesthetic reasons, and now all I need is a new G-Loomis 8-footer to hang it on to complete my new big tackle surf rig.