Vanquish salt prep

Here's another rather new reel preparation for salt water bashing. The reel in question is a Shimano Vanquish, a medium heavy spin setup mostly for fresh water fishing and also occasional salt water assault on reef species. My cousin didn't want to take any chances and would like to prepare this reel for long life operation as well as beefed up drag upgrades.

Limited edition which comes with some handle bling.

First thing that needs some beefing up would be the well worn stock drags.

Knob bearings are still in good condition as it hasn't been exposed to much salt water yet. Best is to clean them out and pack them full with marine grease for maximum protection.

Knob shaft cleaned, bearings packed, ready to be reinstalled into the factory bling knob.

Line roller bearing's quite dry too as it's been fished a bit fresh out of the box. Bearings need to be cleaned out and loaded in with marine grease.

Line roller assembly also needs to be stuffed full with marine grease as the Vanquish uses only 1 bearing hence more space in the assembly.

Packed to the brim to prevent water intrusion.

The insides are a little dry. Typical of a factory reel.

Note how dry the main gear is? The Vanquish doesn't have rubber seals on the body housing to shield the main gear bearings, make shift prevention would work fine as it will not be exposed to direct water spray.

Main gear's coated with Shimano's heavy grease. Main gear bearing's generously covered with the heavy grease too.

One-way bearing's a little dirty, degreased, contact cleaned and re-oiled with one-way bearing oil for stopping efficiency.

Well used stock drags replaced with custom cut carbon drags for overall stopping performance and smoothness.

Prepped, beef up drag and ready for fresh or salt water assault.

Stock drag's bagged and to be returned together with a battle ready Vanquish for some light jigging. Overall, a very nice reel only second best to the Stella, much more hand me down techs than expected for a reel at this price point.