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February 22, 2015
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Here’s a restoration I did a couple of years ago that I thought I would post. 
I had a friend ask me if I could redo this sailfish that his grandfather had caught a long,long time ago. It was a hybrid or “Frankenstein” as I call it. A fiberglass body, real skin along its side, real bill, pectoral fins and tail, aluminum pelvic and ventral fins, and cardboard dorsal with wooden rays/spines. I would have liked to have been able to replace the dorsal but he did not want to. I stripped the paint as best I could, repaired damaged fins and replaced an eye, then repainted.
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Turkey Killing Machine
October 23, 2014
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Looks good !
A.J. Stehling Co LLC / Taxidermy Websites
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September 27, 2012
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That’s a cool looking fish ! Great job !
Tommy
September 26, 2011
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Good job. They can be a real pain.
I know a lot of them that come out of Mexico are plaster bodies with the skin strip you were talking about.
We got stuck restoring 10 of them for a restaurant chain called ” Sailfish” in Chicago. They cracked along the seams of the skin/plaster , had crappy wood sails like yours and quite a few of them had no interior wood block. Instead of stripping the paint, we actually buried it with an industrial sealant.
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920.650.5457 a.n.stehling@gmail.com
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February 22, 2015
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I’ve heard all kinds of horror stories about doing restorations on fish like these. I think I was fairly lucky as this fish wasn’t really bad. I forgot the name of the shop that originally mounted it but they were in Ft. Lauderdale, FL and noted for mounting their fish this way.
Dead End Game Calls Prostaff
Jeb’s Chokes Pro Staff
Turkey Killing Machine
May 6, 2012
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Joe, good job! that fish was mounted by either Al Pfugers or J T Reese. I never could figure why they put White Marlin feeler’s on a Sailfish. Sailfish feeler’s are totally different than a White Marlin. good job anyway!
