Thread: ISO someone who can repaint "greenie"

Hey guys, I'm sure this has been brought up before. I did my best to search through all the threads first but came up empty. I just bought a Penn 707 that is in B+ condition. Overall a beautiful reel. But if there is someone out there that can restore it to near mint condition I would be willing to pay good money to have them do so. No crazy colors. I would love to have it as close to factory green color as possible. If you could pass along some contact information to me I would really appreciate it. Thanks.

I don't think Larry(the reel doc) is doing any work right now, but my friend over here in Gulf Breeze is a magician with reels, especially old school reels. He can make it look like it just came out of the box. His name is Joe Prestridge(Pompano Joe on Pensacola Fishing Forum). Give him a call or text at 850-516-2409. He is an amazing guy, wonderful to do business with.

The 707 and 705 are right hand reels converted to left hand, not a left hand mirror image of the right hand version. There are internal issues, concerning the main gear and crosswind arm fit, that are designed to fail. Beside that working a right hand manual roller left handed is a royal PITA. I would cut my losses before investing in a paint job on that reel. Use the money you save to get a real lefthanded reel like a Van Staal or a Mitchell 303 if you want that old school look. Of course you could just get a modern reel with a bail on it, that crosses over between left and right in seconds

Thanks for the contact and info. I've been searching for this reel for years. Possible problem or not I'm going to fish the stew out if it. But if you wouldn't mind can you please explain the exact problem with the crosswind. That way I'll know what to look out for and hopefully engineer a solution. I've been fishing a 705 for years without a hiccup, so any insight would be helpful.

If it works for you do what you want to do. Don't worry about it.

There's no doubt I'm going to use it. But if there are design flaws, I'm interested in hearing them. Google didn't turn up any results of people explaining them. Thanks

The problem is that the crosswind arm isn't attached to the main gear. There is a roller bushing between the arm and gear and everything is held in place by the back tension of the spool shaft on the 704 and 706. On the 705 and 707 the back tension on the shaft wants to separate the arm from the gear, putting all of the task of holding everything together on the side plate. The side plate being much softer than the arm will wear down and will eventually allow the roller bushing to ride in the slot of the arm crooked, then things snowball from there up to and including binding up the reel completely and ripping the pin, that the roller bushing rides on, out of the main gear.

If the explanation doesn't register, just take your side plate off and try to reel up a two ounce weight. You will see an exaggerated example of what I described above.

B+ condition.....leave it as is.....original