I just recently remembered that I bought this old boat rod at a yard sale sometime ago. I want to rebuild this rod for party boat striper fishing but I am at a loss to if its worth it. I stripped the old guides and wraps off and there is no serious damage to the blank, just some minor cosmetic scratches and the top finish is worn as one can see.

The only major problem is that the old metal furrel is rusted shut as a result of the rods age. I've tried everything to get the two pieces apart: Heating, chilling and just using brute strength to get the two pieces apart. I am trying to see if liquid wrench will have any effect. With that said my major questions are

1) Is this rod worth rebuilding?
2) Could anyone figure out the age and/or maker of the rod by the pictures I included?
3) How on earth do I get the two pieces of the rod to come apart?

Thanks
Evan

Really not worth the time to get into that imo. Start for scratch with a new build....

I'm totally green to rod building so I was maybe thing of using this rod for a practice project.

If you have already stripped the guides , you have done the hard part. Get some cheap guides and wrap them on. Paint the blank first with some spray paint if you want.

I would just treat it as a one piecer now. If you tried hot and cold and brute force then not many alternatives left. If the penetrant doesn't do the trick, its a one piecer now.

Daiwa and Garcia used to have some hollow glass blanks painted silver - could be one of those from the early 70's. It would be a good project rod to learn some rod building skills on. Like Saltheart said, lightly sand it down with 220 or so and spray it. Protect the paint with a couple of coats of spar varnish or a good polyurethane. Set yourself up with some Fuji AlOx guides on the cheap, a spool of thread (or more if you want to try inlays, etc), some Flex Coat and you're good to go. Plenty of sites out there to steer you in the right direction. A good one to start with:

Thread Work - The Rod Builder's Library (http://www.rodbuildingtutorials.com/threadwork.htm)

Thanks all for the advice. The only other snag I have ran into is getting the tip guide off. I tried heating it, no dice. Suggestions please?

I normally use heat and have only ever had 1 that I couldn't het off. Unfortunately it was one just like the one on you rod! :) Eventually I cut it off and lost the inch off the tip.