Hens teeth. ABU 8500

[JOHN1]

Well with time on my idle hands latley i decided to treat one of my old favourite reels to a bit of a badly needed facelift i was in a reel servicing mode, had done a few and next up was this fairly rare hard to come accross 8500 i had done a bad job on it about 8 years or so ago.
in an original state they are blue i changed mine to black the last time, the side plates are made of brass so i decided i was going to try do a half decent job of polishing them a total strip down of the reel was needed for this,plates off so into the shed i went and after a couple of long polishing sessions i had them looking ok next stage to prevent the brass tarnishing was 3 coats of a two pack laquer applied by a mate of mine that owed me a favour. plates just back reel reasembled and now i have myself a fresh favourite reel back in action
This reel was made in 1974 and it just oozes quality, brass plates with stainless/ chromed innards. stainless pinion and brass main gear why dont they make them like they used to, i have some modern pieces of shite that abu put their names too for some reason and they havent got a patch on any of the older reels

The reason i have put this up is because i think most on here might never have heard of an 8500 never mind see one,but now you have

[JimC]

Looks well. I have a couple of old 7000s knocking around somewhere....

[JOHN1]

Thanks jim, yes i still have an older 7000 that i put to regular use its one with the good black plates not sure if they are stainless but still in very good nick also have the remains of a red one from the late 70s with aluminium side plates it was pure crap

[roger de dodger]

just like me , old but after a service and a bit of spit and polish still better than all the newbies

[bigsod]

As rare as rocking horse s@&€?

[davidtorbitt]

Jeez, just before I moved back home I bought two of these at a car boot in England for £3 and they work perfectly as well!!

[thelegend]

thanks for the post, my oul lad has one in mint condition too, wont ever let me use it and even tho hes not able to fish anymore, he says its being buried with him so he will have a top class reel to fish with when he goes to the other side lol, so true the quality of the reels made in the 70s were pure craftsmanship, not like the mass produced cack we get sold these days