Weber Kettle Club Forums
Grill Talk => Weber Grill Forum (Grills, Accessories) => Topic started by: Uncle JJ on April 13, 2015, 05:11:41 AM
-
Mornin' fellas,
I've had success polishing up the top vent when I restore, but the rivet in the middle just wont come clean. It always is an ugly rusty plug in the middle of a beautiful shiny vent! Tell me, restoration guru's, how do you clean the rusty rivet?!
Cheers, JJ
-
Wanting to know the same thing. How do you do the vent?
-
One thing you can try JJ is soak a papertowel that's been folded over and down into about a 2" x 2" square in evaporust, then allow it to sit for a min of 3-4 hours right on top of the rivet (keep checking the towel every hour and add a bit more as it dries out.)
You don't want large amounts of evaporust getting all over the kettle so this way it's only touching the metal portion of the lid vent that you want to clean. After a few hours go after it again with the steel wool... if that doest work you could also try a tiny bell shaped wire brush on a Dremel but again, protect the surrounding vent with something just in case.
Good luck!
-
Have you tried barkeepers friend with scotch sponge?.
Barkeepers friend imhas worked really well with removing surface rust ...
If rust is heavy..try lightly sandinging with 220 -300 grit paper to remove bulk rust and then use barkeeprs friend..thatbshould clean herbupbfor you
-
How do you guys do the vent itself?
-
(http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/wcsstore/CVWEB/staticproductimage//N3303/full/7110006_mrs_05100_pri_detl.jpg)
-
^ yup
But when doing the vent look carefully and it will actually have a grain to the metal. If you sand or use steel wool try to sand in the same direction as the graining and it will both clean easier and will have a more uniform finish after final polish.
-
I bought Brasso at home depot for the legs. So just do them the same way. Light scrub with steel wool and then polished up.
-
That's pretty much it! Have a look at the resto guides as well:
http://weberkettleclub.com/weber-charcoal-grill-restoration/cleaning-and-polishing-old-aluminum-legs/ (http://weberkettleclub.com/weber-charcoal-grill-restoration/cleaning-and-polishing-old-aluminum-legs/)
-
I used that for the legs. Wasn't sure if I could follow the same guidelines for the ash pan and vents.
@SixZeroFour Thank you for the guides by the way. They were easy to follow and extremely helpful.
-
Thanks, fellas!
-
One more question. I seem to remember someone found a way to repair cracks in the rubber tread on old metal wheels. Anybody have an idea how to fix?
-
Wasn't sure if I could follow the same guidelines for the ash pan and vents.@SixZeroFour Thank you for the guides by the way. They were easy to follow and extremely helpful.
Vents are a crapshoot. Some buttons come out clean, others are toast. Not much you can do with a toasted button. I use Simichrome on everything, and have had good luck. If you can see yourself taking the pic in the button, that's a bonus. 8)
(https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8249/8628197820_8656c2a693.jpg)
(https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8240/8627053841_71cd4e8c00.jpg)
-
Wow! MartyG those vent rivets are amazing! Guess I'm on my way out to find some Simichrome. If all my vents looked like that, I bet my wife would let me grab another grill! Where do you get Simichrome, any stores handle it?
-
I've never seen it in stores. Amazon has it.
http://www.amazon.com/Simichrome-390050-Metal-Polish-Tube/dp/B0002YUQ4E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428959501&sr=8-1&keywords=simichrome+polish
-
Any help on rubber tread repair?
-
Dang..thats mirror clean..nice work
-
Any help on rubber tread repair?
I've used black silicone caulking to good success. On narrow cracks you can just smooth it out with a wetted finger and use a tooth pick to make new tread lines. On wider cracks it might get a bit more involved. The caulking will shrink as it dries so you might want to apply a bit more than what you think looks right. Don't try to get it shaped just perfect because the shrinking will alter your work anyway. My feeling is that excess caulking is more desirable than having it shrink away and leave an indented area. After it has dried you can use a razor blade to carefully slice or shave away the excess and to cut tread lines.
I had one rubber tread that was actually cracked all the way through and the tread therefor came completely off the metal wheel. To repair this I used a round wooden toothpick to make two tiny 'splints' about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch in length each. I then drilled two holes side by side and about a half inch apart in each face of the broken tread - four holes total. The holes of one side should be lined up with the holes on the facing side. The depth of the holes must be at least half the length of the wooden splint. ['Splint' doesn't quite seem to be the correct word. Maybe 'pin'?] The holes should be slightly smaller in diameter than the toothpick pins. The pins were then inserted into the two holes on one side and then the rubber tread wrapped back onto the metal wheel. At this point you could probably ad a bit of glue of some sort to the pins and then slip the exposed ends of the two pins into the corresponding holes in the opposite end of the tread. Because the old rubber tread is cracked and shrunk it's likely that the two ends will no longer fit tightly together but hopefully you've got only a fairly narrow space that you can now fill with black silicone. This is hard to describe with words alone. Photos would make it easier to follow, of course, but I don't have any.
If anyone has any of these old metal wheels with broken apart treads and you don't really care to try repairing them as I've (poorly) described, please consider selling them to me. I'll be tackling a project this spring or summer that will require four such wheels. :-)
EDIT: If the crack you are attempting to repair is fairly large, then it may take quite some time for the silicon to dry all the way through. It may appear to be dry on the outside but still soft inside and you might mess it up if you start to 'sculpt' it too soon. In this instance it might work better to apply the silicone a little at a time in multiple sessions. Not certain about this however.
-
Any help on rubber tread repair?
I've used black silicone caulking to good success. On narrow cracks you can just smooth it out with a wetted finger and use a tooth pick to make new tread lines. On wider cracks it might get a bit more involved. The caulking will shrink as it dries so you might want to apply a bit more than what you think looks right. Don't try to get it shaped just perfect because the shrinking will alter your work anyway. My feeling is that excess caulking is more desirable than having it shrink away and leave an indented area. After it has dried you can use a razor blade to carefully slice or shave away the excess and to cut tread lines.
I had one rubber tread that was actually cracked all the way through and the tread therefor came completely off the metal wheel. To repair this I used a round wooden toothpick to make two tiny 'splints' about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch in length each. I then drilled two holes side by side and about a half inch apart in each face of the broken tread - four holes total. The holes of one side should be lined up with the holes on the facing side. The depth of the holes must be at least half the length of the wooden splint. ['Splint' doesn't quite seem to be the correct word. Maybe 'pin'?] The holes should be slightly smaller in diameter than the toothpick pins. The pins were then inserted into the two holes on one side and then the rubber tread wrapped back onto the metal wheel. At this point you could probably ad a bit of glue of some sort to the pins and then slip the exposed ends of the two pins into the corresponding holes in the opposite end of the tread. Because the old rubber tread is cracked and shrunk it's likely that the two ends will no longer fit tightly together but hopefully you've got only a fairly narrow space that you can now fill with black silicone. This is hard to describe with words alone. Photos would make it easier to follow, of course, but I don't have any.
If anyone has any of these old metal wheels with broken apart treads and you don't really care to try repairing them as I've (poorly) described, please consider selling them to me. I'll be tackling a project this spring or summer that will require four such wheels. :-)
EDIT: If the crack you are attempting to repair is fairly large, then it may take quite some time for the silicon to dry all the way through. It may appear to be dry on the outside but still soft inside and you might mess it up if you start to 'sculpt' it too soon. In this instance it might work better to apply the silicone a little at a time in multiple sessions. Not certain about this however.
Dale I was just going to call you out to help with that question!
I have seen the finished product that you describe and it looked great.
-JC