1980 Weber Imperial Sequoia Restored

[Hogsy]

First of all a massive thanks to Scott Pearce for the heads up and to @Bear for being my number one agent.
Thanks to everyone for the advice on restoring although a few said to just oil, I found that that the timber as so weathered it just made it a lot darker so after debating what to do I decided to go the full restore.
And glad I did, I had so much fun pulling this thing down and getting stuck into it. I did have to employ the services of my apprentice being such a big job


First step was to pull the whole thing apart and scrub down with a bristled scrubbing brush and hot soapy water
Here she is in all her glory. It's in amazing condition considering the age with all the timber and hardware in tact and a very well looked after kettle


All pulled down

After washing I gave it a light sand with 120 grit then 240 to finish. I was great seeing the timber coming back to life

Once it was all sanded back came the hard part. Deciding whether to restain or just oil, after testing some oil on the timber it was obvious it would go back to its original dark colour if I didn't stain. It was obvious that it had an original stain as the the shelf and inside of the doors that hadn't weathered stil had the stain and looked really good. This is the original stain untouched by me


After spending a bit of time researching everything on the net about Sequoias including other resto threads and all the old catalogues
and restoring weathered redwood. I decided to go with a spirit based stain rather than an all in one stain/sealer as these tended to be really thick and not enhance the grain
I trialled 6 different colours before deciding on
Prooftint Maple by Feast and Watson
One light coat applied with a cloth is all it needed


And then a coat of outdoor furniture oil which really made the grain pop
Top door just has stain, bottom door has stain and oil in this pic

Next was the hardware, I reused all the originals just removed the rust and touched up with flat black spray paint
The only thing I replaced was the axles which I upgraded to SS and the wheel hub caps
The kettle got the usual clean as well as the ash pan and wheels, just waiting on wheel inserts from Brian

Any way here she is all ready for service






















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[bear]

 

[MacEggs]

That looks incredible !!  Great work, Hogsy. 

[Mr.CPHo]

Wow that is amazing.  Truly an exceptional restore. 

I also like that you got the youngin' involved; The future of our club.

All around an awesome post to wake up to.  TFS.

[mhiszem]

What an amazing restore! Looks great!


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[simon]

Amazing mate


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[DellJones]

Wow!!!


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[WNC]

Awesome!!!


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[inkaddictedchef1]

Beautiful restore!

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[Rub]

Showroom fresh. Well done!


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[JEBIV]

Can't think of an appropriate thing to say besides WOW

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[Neil_VT00]

Wow, amazing restore!


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[Bob BQ]

F*cking beautiful, @Hogsy! What method did you use to restore the sheen to those wheels?

[ken1968]

Awesome!!! Great job on the restore.


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[Hogsy]

F*cking beautiful, @Hogsy! What method did you use to restore the sheen to those wheels?

I removed the white walls by tapping them out with a nail punch. The plastic was breaking down and powdery so I gave them a light sand and hit it with gloss white spray paint. Probably gave them 5 coats before it had a nice sealed finish
The wheels I just cleaned and sprayed with gloss black
Removing the white walls broke the lugs that fix them to the wheels, but a few dabs of silicon has them sitting tight on the wheels again



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