Macgregor M75W Fairway Wood

[Swingingk]

Alright now we're getting somewhere.  I waited the 3 to 4 hours before recoating instructions on the can and pulled it out of the downstairs bedroom for a look-see.  I am very happy and relieved to see a nice even satin finish.  Oh thank yea Golf Gods!  😆

The finish is still pretty soft and I'm too chicken sh!t to abrade it and dip it again right now so I'll leave it until tomorrow for more coats.  I think I want to be patient here and let it set up.  Patience...  and burlap!  Don't forget the burlap.  I have the feeling that I'll be calling on it again before this us all over.  Haha! 

[northplatteriver]

That looks really, really nice!  Love that finish.  Making a strong case for dipping at this point.

[deejaid]

I think dipped polyurethane finishes have gotten a bad rap due to the many poorly refinished examples we’ve all seen where the finish looks an inch thick and is so glossy it looks like wood sealed in clear plastic.  Coupled with the fact the pre-eminent wood refinished Dave Wood uses a spray finish, dipped finishes always seem to be looked down upon.

 

 

As I mentioned in another thread, I like to use a combination of dipping and spraying.  Dipping a head in polyurethane allows the polyurethane to penetrate every bit of the the head which will surely better protect a club that is meant for regular play.

 

But as SwingingK has shown, you can get a nice dipped finish that isn’t too thick.

 

Looking good!

[RobotDoctor]

9 hours ago, Swingingk said:

Alright now we're getting somewhere.  I waited the 3 to 4 hours before recoating instructions on the can and pulled it out of the downstairs bedroom for a look-see.  I am very happy and relieved to see a nice even satin finish.  Oh thank yea Golf Gods!  😆

The finish is still pretty soft and I'm too chicken sh!t to abrade it and dip it again right now so I'll leave it until tomorrow for more coats.  I think I want to be patient here and let it set up.  Patience...  and burlap!  Don't forget the burlap.  I have the feeling that I'll be calling on it again before this us all over.  Haha! 

 

I would let the poly cure at least a day, maybe two before anything is done.  After a couple days of cure then light rub with 0000 steel wood then clean thoroughly then reapply poly.  Make sure to clean out the stampings and screws well between poly coats.  Do this 3 to 4 times and, voilà, restoration is done!

Edited February 6, 2021 by RobotDoctor

[Swingingk]

Mr. Wood suggests putting on two coats of poly before applying paint fill to the stampings and three before doing the score lines in the face, then finishing up with two or three more top coats.  That sounds like a pretty solid process when using spray poly but I'm dipping and my coats are thicker than what comes from using spray.  I'm thinking that perhaps I should apply my paint fill now after my first coat.  I'm pretty sure the wood is sealed well enough.  I'm concerned that the more digging and scraping I do to clean out the stampings the more damage I am doing.  Even with good lighting and a magnifier I can't see well enough to do a really good job especially with the tiny "Oil Hardened" stamp.  Also, I think that if I apply any more than about three coats of poly total that the satin finish will start getting cloudy.  Do any of you experienced craftsmen have any thoughts on this?

 

I raided my wife's art supplies and I think I have the appropriate paint fill products.  Now I need to decide on colors.  I'm leaning toward white for all the woodwork and black for the sole plate.  I do like the red but I don't think it'll contrast well enough with the wood to show up well.  That might be a good thing if I make a mess of it.  Maybe red for the face grooves...

 

Edited February 7, 2021 by Swingingk

[RobotDoctor]

I have to say I'm biased with regard to Dave Wood as he's my club restoration guy.  He's done several for me and has a few more that will be done over the next couple years.  When all is said and done all of my collection will be restored and most of the work will be by Dave.  The only driver I won't have restored is the Wood Brothers Texan (tour block made for Gene Sauers).  It's probably a higher value as is and it's in really good condition. 

[Swingingk]

14 minutes ago, RobotDoctor said:

I have to say I'm biased with regard to Dave Wood as he's my club restoration guy.  He's done several for me and has a few more that will be done over the next couple years.  When all is said and done all of my collection will be restored and most of the work will be by Dave.  The only driver I won't have restored is the Wood Brothers Texan (tour block made for Gene Sauers).  It's probably a higher value as is and it's in really good condition. 

I have to agree that as far as I've seen Dave Wood's work is the pinnacle of persimmon restoration.  His detailed online description of his rebuilding process is a great gift to the classic club world too.  I've tried to use his guide as a baseline for my own process through this whole thing.  Different tools, available products, and experience level needs to be taken into account though and my own process may need to be adjusted to suit.  And that's the challenge - how do I adjust his process to achieve reasonable results with the environment I have available to me?  In my case I decided to dip as I'd never done that before and figured I'd give it a whirl.  I know from experience that a single dipped coat goes on thicker than a single spray coat so it seems reasonable that to emulate Daves results using the dipping process I'll need to adjust something.  From what I can tell so far it seems like if dipping, one should reduce the suggested number of coats he describes by one.  That is to say, do the stamping fill after one sealer coat instead of two and do the face lines after two coats instead of three.  Then two more coats after that for a total of four rather than five.  I don't know anything for sure though so it's a bit of a crap shoot.  😆

[Swingingk]

So after the first dipping had dried well (about 24 hours) I scraped and picked out the poly from the stampings and face grooves.  I plopped a bit of white acylic artists paint onto the crown stamp, worked it in with my finger, and dabbed off the excess with pieces of paper.  This type of paint sets up quickly and with a dampened piece of paper I cleaned off the top surface leaving a nicely filled stamping.  The remaining scratches and pores in the surface of the wood picked up the white paint and it took a bit of work with another slightly damp piece of paper to soak it out without damaging the remaining paint fill.  From then on I masked off as closely as possible the areas around the stampings and grooves I wanted to fill.  That helped a lot to reduce the cleanup.  There's a bit too much paint right now but I'll wait until it hardens up good before buffing a bit.  Also I expect the small amount of excess to come off when I rough up the poly for the next dip.  It's not perfect but it's looking pretty good!

[LeftyMac]

I'm not sure I'd touch the stampings once they had poly on them.  A bit of work with very fine steel wool around the stamping after the poly has dried properly tends to get rid of the little lines in the poly that the acrylic likes to flow into.  I use a very fine painters brush to do the scoring lines and wipe quickly diagonally across the lines with a damp paper towel.  Temptation is to use more paint than you should because it looks easy to clean up but all you need is a few little marks in the poly for the acrylic to find.  I'm happy to be very careful and go at them 2 or 3 times to get it right.  To the point you made a few posts back.  The most important thing is patience.

[raggal62]

I probably should already know but I'm curious if anyone can explain the story of Swingingk's 4 wood soleplate. I don't ever recall seeing another with the slanted Eye-O-Matic font. All the others I've seen had normal block lettering.

Edited February 8, 2021 by raggal62

[Swingingk]

12 hours ago, raggal62 said:

I probably should already know but I'm curious if anyone can explain the story of Swingingk's 4 wood soleplate. I don't ever recall seeing another with the slanted Eye-O-Matic font. All the others I've seen had normal block lettering.

That's an interesting observation.  I hadn't noticed that but you're right.  I did a bunch of searching online and only found one image of a club with the slanted or italic font like mine.  I wonder what it means?

[LeftyMac]

Thanks Raggal62,

 

That was an hour down the rabbit hole 😀

 

Ok only found one other;

 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Macgregor-Eye-O-Matic-Tourney-Maple-3-Wood-Stiff-Steel/303551549920?hash=item46ad1511e0:g:w64AAOSwaeRZGbtw

 

Interesting screw pattern on the insert and the buyer says it's maple as well.  Were any Macs made outside the US?  Nothing in say Canada where you might get some small differences in things like stampings in sole plates?

[Swingingk]

2 hours ago, LeftyMac said:

Thanks Raggal62,

 

That was an hour down the rabbit hole 😀

 

Ok only found one other;

 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Macgregor-Eye-O-Matic-Tourney-Maple-3-Wood-Stiff-Steel/303551549920?hash=item46ad1511e0:g:w64AAOSwaeRZGbtw

 

Interesting screw pattern on the insert and the buyer says it's maple as well.  Were any Macs made outside the US?  Nothing in say Canada where you might get some small differences in things like stampings in sole plates?

That's the same one I found as well and similarly also the only pictures I could find.  I don't know what it's all about but I am located in western Canada for what it's worth.  It may well be that there was a manufacturing facility here at one time.  They probably left because of the bitter cold - it went down to -39C last night and windy too.  Thankfully it's only that cold for a few days a year but it's still nasty!  😩

[LeftyMac]

Well at least your work on the M75W isn't being put aside for you to go out and play golf.  A very pleasant 27C here in Melbourne  🙃

[Swingingk]

2 hours ago, LeftyMac said:

Well at least your work on the M75W isn't being put aside for you to go out and play golf.  A very pleasant 27C here in Melbourne  🙃

That sounds wonderful!  I'm usually in Mexico or the Caribbean for a couple of weeks right now but, well... you know.    😆

Edited February 9, 2021 by Swingingk

[Foozle]

3 hours ago, Swingingk said:

That's the same one I found as well and similarly also the only pictures I could find.  I don't know what it's all about but I am located in western Canada for what it's worth.  It may well be that there was a manufacturing facility here at one time.  They probably left because of the bitter cold - it went down to -39C last night and windy too.  Thankfully it's only that cold for a few days a year but it's still nasty!  😩

Brrrr! That's seriously cold! In north Scotland we have largely stayed below and only occasionally scraped above freezing since the start of the year. Not enough to thaw the course and allow play which is unusual as we normally enjoy year round links golf......

[Swingingk]

24 minutes ago, Foozle said:

Brrrr! That's seriously cold! In north Scotland we have largely stayed below and only occasionally scraped above freezing since the start of the year. Not enough to thaw the course and allow play which is unusual as we normally enjoy year round links golf......

That sounds like something I could live with.  Half of my family originated from County Angus in Forfarshire near St. Andrews and the other half from Wales.  Someday I'll visit the island and play.  Someday...  😆

[Jiggered]

MacGregor produced clubs in Scotland for a short time but the woods were laminated.

[raggal62]

10 hours ago, Swingingk said:

That's an interesting observation.  I hadn't noticed that but you're right.  I did a bunch of searching online and only found one image of a club with the slanted or italic font like mine.  I wonder what it means?

First year (1952) EOM had a similar slanted font engraved in the toe with only "MacGregor Tourney" stamped on the soleplate. 

[Foozle]

2 hours ago, Swingingk said:

That sounds like something I could live with.  Half of my family originated from County Angus in Forfarshire near St. Andrews and the other half from Wales.  Someday I'll visit the island and play.  Someday...  😆

You and your M75W would be made very welcome! 🙂

[LeftyMac]

The Eye-o-matic stamping on the toe of the 1952 clubs had an oversized "o" 

[Swingingk]

15 hours ago, LeftyMac said:

The Eye-o-matic stamping on the toe of the 1952 clubs had an oversized "o" 

I keep coming back to look at this picture.  I don't think I've ever seen nicer engraving and paint filling.  It's absolutely perfect.  Did you do this yourself?  If so then hats off to you sir.

[LeftyMac]

That is Dave Wood's work, if only it was me......  I reread some of his commentary on individual clubs and he talks about using a toothpick to do the paintfill and using printer paper and not a paper towel to clean up the excess as the printer paper folds flatter and doesn't draw the paint.  Dave is obviously extremely talented as an engraver which has me wondering whether I should outsource the stampings to a real engraver.

[RobotDoctor]

15 hours ago, LeftyMac said:

That is Dave Wood's work, if only it was me......  I reread some of his commentary on individual clubs and he talks about using a toothpick to do the paintfill and using printer paper and not a paper towel to clean up the excess as the printer paper folds flatter and doesn't draw the paint.  Dave is obviously extremely talented as an engraver which has me wondering whether I should outsource the stampings to a real engraver.

Dave does his own engraving.  He's an incredible talent and knows how these classics are to be done correctly.  This is a why he is my chosen club restoration guy.  I'm fortunate because he's now very selective on what clubs he takes in and/or clients he takes.  He's winding down his business so he doesn't want to flood his plate.  I only have 10-12 more clubs to have restored so I'm also winding down.  I have two M43T drivers going to Dave soon.  

[LeftyMac]

RoboDoc,

 

A good friend of mine just got his hands on a nice set on M43's that are currently sitting in my office behind me.  Driver, 3 and 4 wood.  The driver is a really beautiful block, crown stamping is great, the toe stamping ok.  The soleplate is almost totally smooth which suggests either someone got carried away sanding the last time it was worked on or more likely the soleplate wasn't reset properly and sat up a bit to high.  There is a small chip missing low on the heel near the insert that has been epoxy filled.  

 

I had spoken to Dave about restoring a 653T I have prior to COVID making a mess of the world and putting a halt to my regular trips to the US.  Hopefully he'd be open to not only my 653T but also my friend's M43 at some stage when I can get the clubs over there.  Might have to use our mutual friend Mr Schneider as a courier.

 

You only have to look at the Langer Last Supper driver to understand Dave's engraving ability is off the charts.

Edited February 11, 2021 by LeftyMac

[RobotDoctor]

44 minutes ago, LeftyMac said:

RoboDoc,

 

A good friend of mine just got his hands on a nice set on M43's that are currently sitting in my office behind me.  Driver, 3 and 4 wood.  The driver is a really beautiful block, crown stamping is great, the toe stamping ok.  The soleplate is almost totally smooth which suggests either someone got carried away sanding the last time it was worked on or more likely the soleplate wasn't reset properly and sat up a bit to high.  There is a small chip missing low on the heel near the insert that has been epoxy filled.  

 

I had spoken to Dave about restoring a 653T I have prior to COVID making a mess of the world and putting a halt to my regular trips to the US.  Hopefully he'd be open to not only my 653T but also my friend's M43 at some stage when I can get the clubs over there.  Might have to use our mutual friend Mr Schneider as a courier.

 

You only have to look at the Langer Last Supper driver to understand Dave's engraving ability is off the charts.

Yes, the Langer Last Supper driver is a work or art.  An incredible piece.  I've seen pictures of it.  It's amazing.  
 

I just love when classic MacGregors are restored well.  The M75W 4 wood here is done very nicely!!!

[ALIF]

That club is so beautiful. Love these old MacGregors!!!!!!! Excellent work!!!

[Swingingk]

So I haven't posted any more pics because now that it's got some poly on it more pics are literally just like watching paint dry.  After I slopped on the paint fill I waited for it to dry and did my best to clean it up a bit.  I dipped it again only to realize that I hadn't filled the screw heads on the face insert so I did that, matching the color with the red and white score-lines.  I didn't like that so I filled all six screw slots with red.  I wasn't sure I liked that either but I was getting tired of fooling around with this thing and just wanted to get it done.  With that I dipped it two more times for a total of four coats.  I think that'll be it.  I'll wait a few days or more to do the whipping just to make sure the poly is nice and hard. 

It's not hard to notice the blob/drool of poly on the sole plate.  That brings me to a slight issue I had with the satin poly.  The poly itself has some kind of suspended solids in it which I suspect are the "satinizing" agents.  These solids tend to settle out fairly quickly and I needed to stir the can really well before each dip.  That wasn't a problem but what was a problem was that those same solids also settled in the wet applied finish and as it drained down the head, showed up as slightly different shades of "shine" where it drained out of the stampings as it dried.  Because I had it sitting toe-up for drying the wet poly slowly worked it's way down the head towards the shaft as it set up - which it is supposed to do.  What it's not supposed to do is leave obvious little streaks of slightly settled-out finish trailing away from the stampings.  Before the final coat I sanded away those streaks with 1000 grit paper and dipped it again only this time I sat with it for half an hour, very slowly rotating it around as the poly set up, trying to keep it from moving in any one direction and streaking or collecting anywhere.  Once the finish changed from wet gloss to more like satin I set it up to dry in the address position so that the top of the head would look the best.  I didn't get the streaks but I did end up getting that blob on the sole.  I'm pretty sure I can sand it down and make it look better at a later time.  I am going to play this thing so I'm not going to get too obsessive about the bottom.  As it sits I am quite happy with it and I think I got fairly good results.

So there you have it - a beginners attempt at wooden golf club restoration.  I'll post final pics in a week or two but that's pretty much it.  I learned a huge amount doing this and would like to extend a big fat thank-you to everyone who lent their knowledge, assistance, and moral support to the project.  Hopefully this thread can serve to help others preserve and play their own favorite treasures.  I'm definitely going to do this again and probably again and again after that.  Haha!

Thanks everyone!  😆

[northplatteriver]

Bravo SwingingK!  Has been a great ride and I sincerely thank you.  I have learned a lot from this.  Your club looks fantastic, should be a great player, I absolutely love 4 woods!

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[Foozle]

Brilliant work Swingingk, she looks absolutely glorious! 😍

In the process of restoring this beauty you and the other contributors have created a valuable reference for others to follow. Thanks to all.