I finally received my custom wrapped TiMSH 102 2MT spinning rod today. It's a beautiful blank and the wraps came out well. I purchased it for an insanely low price because it already had an EVA grip installed, and the rear grip had been installed backwards (bad fume day I guess).
So I have a great rod with a sloppy joint at the butt cap and an uncomfortably thick grip at the reel seat. I'm looking for suggestions on a remedy. Here are my ideas/questions:

1. If I remove the grip, will I be able to install a new EVA grip, or will working against the taper be too difficult? I'm not even sure it has a taper over the last foot.

2. I'm leaning towards removing the the grip/cap, cleaning up the Ti sleeve and using a Quickgrip or Sharkskin heat shrink sleeve. I'd even be happy with cork tape. Having an EVA grip seems to defeat the sensitivity of a Ti sleeve.

3. Are there any tricks of the trade for shaping the existing EVA grip. Like wrapping it in brown paper and rolling it under a hot iron in order to compress a taper into it. I have no idea how to work the material. If I can taper it at the reel seat, I will replace the cap with composite cork rings and hand shape it.

I'm a good craftsman, so I'm not timid about 'tearing' into a project. I appreciate any advice or suggestions to fix it. Besides looking goofy it's just too fatiguing to hold for a day's fishing.