Heavily Customed Abu Garcia 5500cs Pro Rocket

[woodch0p]

Hey All,

Long time since I have been on the forums. I have always had a soft spot for Abu Garcia Ambassadeur reels and have always liked fiddling and customising reels. This is one I customised last year.

Upgrades

Internal

3 standard bearings upgraded to ceramic (2x spool & 1x shaft)

Custom drive shaft with ceramic bearing (std 0 bearings)

Custom dual ceramic bearing idler gear (std 0 bearings)

Dual ceramic bearing wormshaft upgrade (std 0 bearings)

Ceramic wormshaft pawl

Stainless steel drag plates

Carbonex drag washers

Reel-x lubricant on all bearings

Re-greased all internals with Cals Universal.

External

4x ceramic ball bearing carbon handle

Total internal bearing count increased from 3 stainless steel to 8 ceramic. The 4 handle bearings are a nice extra but do not effect the overall performance so don't like adding them to the total count. I have caught some solid tailor on this reel and the start up drag inertia is close to nil and overall smoothness is insane. I run this reel on a Nitro Upgrader Undertaker 6'6 4-6kg.

While it cost me some decent dollars to do this I would do it again for the quality of reel I now have.

[Twinfisher 4.9]

Well done woodch0p. Love it when some one takes a good reel and makes it into a great reel. Have to appreciate Swedish engineering.

[JohnDory]

Wow nice Job

I have a 5500 in the garage that I bought when I was 13 (40yrs ago) Didn't that set me back a lot of pay packets, for the love of fishing!

She doesn't work like new any more, but after seeing your effort I should show her some love!

JD

[Blood Knot]

Thats great work on the Abu Woodchop - always like read through the reel upgrade or maintenance posts - are you making any of the bits yourself ?

Blood Knot

[rockfisherman]

Nice work pimping up your reel, looks blingy and I bet it's pretty smooth...

How much for the make over?

Harry

[Guest Guest123456789]

You have a gift there woodchop. What you've described never in a million years could I do.

[Guest 4myson]

I've got the exact same Rocket myself in black .. Might have to get you to do mine .

[woodch0p]

Thanks all,

Blood Knot - I don't make any myself, I'm quite time poor so hardly get a chance to modify my reels with sourced parts let alone making my own. Only downfall with sourcing parts is that I am limited to what is available, but I have a few sources which cover most parts.

Fishingphase - bit embarrassed as it pushed close to 200USD to do, the price I pay for having an addictive hobby. Once I upgraded my first reel I was hooked, every reel I own now has something custom about it. This one by far is the most custom.

[rockfisherman]

Thanks all,

Blood Knot - I don't make any myself, I'm quite time poor so hardly get a chance to modify my reels with sourced parts let alone making my own. Only downfall with sourcing parts is that I am limited to what is available, but I have a few sources which cover most parts.

Fishingphase - bit embarrassed as it pushed close to 200USD to do, the price I pay for having an addictive hobby. Once I upgraded my first reel I was hooked, every reel I own now has something custom about it. This one by far is the most custom.

That's not to bad,you could do worse, like gamble it away, you got some satisfaction out of it.

Harry