1958 Custom Kettle

[Cellar2ful]

Awesome!
So glad it made it safe and sound. What are your plans for restore?

Congratulations on the custom!  I love those more each time I see them!  Will this be a cooker or a looker Jim?  It looks to be in fairly good shape.

I am going to cook on it a bit before any restoration. I don't want to dismantle it and not have it finished it in time for the June WKC picnic. I have too many kettles dismantled now that I need to finish restorations on. Because the prime rib smell is so overwhelming, I am cleaning the inside of the lid and bowl today. Lid vent spins freely, bowl vents are frozen but l expect will turn with minimal work. The legs are rusted into the leg sockets. The wheels spin but are rusted onto the axle and will not come off. Had to ship the kettle whole because of that. The ash pan is missing one twist on hook, one came off in shipping, leaving only one attached. The triangle is rusty, with a couple of pin holes through the metal.  The biggest issue I expect will be on the front leg where the screw for the triangle goes through the leg.  There is substantial metal degradation around the screw/bolt head. Anyone have suggestions on how to deal with this area?

 

I don't think it's '58. 56 or 57 most likely. In 58 it would be a Weber Stephen  Woodale, not Weber Brothers Chicago.

Very well could be. This is my first kettle older than early 70's. 

Fantastic save.   How do you arrive at the 1958 date?  I see Weber Bros on the vent lid.

Customkettle had posted pictures of the kettle on the FB site Weber Kettle Fans, listing it as a 56-57. Harris commented on the FB thread, identifying it as a Generation 2, 1958.  Any help in identifying the year would be appreciated ( @harris92 & @Craig  ).

[harris92]

Yes, Generation 2 18.5"  1958 (ish) Weber Bros   

[harris92]

1956 Generation 1 = red wheels and the utility pan had 90% bends

[harris92]

Gen 1 1956 on right. Gen 2 1958 on left




Sent from my iPhone using Weber Kettle Club mobile app

[Cellar2ful]

That comparative picture is great. The wheel color difference I got but now I see the difference in the ash pans.  So the ash pan with twist hooks was an addition to Generation 2 kettles?

[harris92]

Look at the bends in the pans.  The one on the right has "hard" 90 degree bends.  The on on the left (not so, like yours).  Also the connection point to the front leg is different.

[harris92]

Generation 1 connection.  A tab (with screw) is welded to the front leg. The screw attaches into the utility pan





Sent from my iPhone using Weber Kettle Club mobile app

[Winz]

What an awesome kettle and a great story!  You helped him out, and he ended up sending the kettle your way.  That is how Kettle Karma is suppose to work!  Congrats on your custom.

Winz

[Cellar2ful]

What an awesome kettle and a great story!  You helped him out, and he ended up sending the kettle your way.  That is how Kettle Karma is suppose to work!  Congrats on your custom.

Winz

Funny thing is, when CustomKettle called me the first night, I honestly had no intentions buying it. I was just tying to help him post pictures and determine a value for the kettle by searching for Forum threads on Custom kettles. It wasn't until the following day I considering the possibility of purchasing it myself.

Yes, Generation 2 18.5"  1958 (ish) Weber Bros   

Mrs. Cellar2ful is very happy it is a 1958 (ish) as that is her birth year.

[dazzo]

Thanks for that image @harris92

Was always curious how that was done.

Generation 1 connection.  A tab (with screw) is welded to the front leg. The screw attaches into the utility pan





Sent from my iPhone using Weber Kettle Club mobile app

Sent from my Rotary Phone via 14.4kb/s

[greenweb]

Congrats! Seems to be in a great condition.

[Darko]

So, I'm guessing the change from Chicago to Wood Dale happened some time in 1958?

[56MPG]

Correct - here's an account that may fill in some blanks from member @Idahawk

   I'll just add this as told to me in an interview , I make no claims to it being fact only sharing information for the sake of discussion.

  What I do know with almost certainty  is that George's Father came to Chicago, is seen in the census records as employed as a sheet metal worker and then in a later census as president of the sheet metal works with the employer named as Weber Bros .

 The Weber Bros started in the Chicago area in 1885 and built various items over their long history . By the 1950s Weber Bros was a 65 year old company and that becomes important in this story .

Although George's father had been President of the company by the time George Stephen came along he had stepped away as President and HK had assumed that role. George's father was the majority stock holder and so George it was said was an idea man. He was looking for a " home run " product to help the Metal Works. If you look at the Weber Brothers Metal Works Photo of HK and George sitting together they were producing almost all the items pictured , the lamps the table in the back with the phone on it and of course the grills . Early on the grills were low priority HK the President wasn't sold on the idea and George had to go along as the company continued focusing on being a job shop for sheet metal pieces and parts.
As time went on
George was able to market his kettle successfully and more and more pressure was put on the metal works to produce these grills , spinning the parts is slow and labor intensive plus the company located at 108 .N Jefferson was on the top floor of a 5 story loft building.

By 1955-56 I'm told the kettle parts were now being produced and supplied to the metal  works and the company rented the basement of the loft building to assemble the grills . Things were really taking off at this point and the company and its shareholders had to make a decision, go all in on the BBQ with a big investment or don't, they would need a larger location more machines and employees. Not to mention giving up their other products and contracts they had supplied for years.   

HK was not big on the idea of spending more money on the BBQ and then .

  It was at this time that George's Father dies and everything changes. George Stephen now owns majority stock in the company and has decided to go all in on his Barbecue , HK also has interest and so the two strike a deal . HK sells his stock and buys the machine shop portion of the metal works from George and George gets the Barbecue company which he promptly moves to Wood Dale.  There's also one other issue and that's the name Weber Bros , both men know that in splitting the company the longstanding name of Weber Bros is important and both men want it. It's then agreed that both men will use the name Weber In the new names of their business' and they part ways .

I'm told George took 2 lathes with him when he left for Wood Dale and the Metal Works eventually  relocated to another state with all the machinery from the Jefferson St location.


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Anyone have the full dated version of this?


And here's George's home in Mt Prospect today. Fun to imagine what he left on the curb in the early 50's as he tinkered with his early designs.

[Vwbuggin64]

I am going to cook on it a bit before any restoration. I don't want to dismantle it and not have it finished it in time for the June WKC picnic. I have too many kettles dismantled now that I need to finish restorations on. Because the prime rib smell is so overwhelming, I am cleaning the inside of the lid and bowl today. Lid vent spins freely, bowl vents are frozen but l expect will turn with minimal work. The legs are rusted into the leg sockets. The wheels spin but are rusted onto the axle and will not come off. Had to ship the kettle whole because of that. The ash pan is missing one twist on hook, one came off in shipping, leaving only one attached. The triangle is rusty, with a couple of pin holes through the metal.  The biggest issue I expect will be on the front leg where the screw for the triangle goes through the leg.  There is substantial metal degradation around the screw/bolt head. Anyone have suggestions on how to deal with this area?

 

Maybe stick a smaller pipe (PVC?) in the leg to keep the original leg as a sleeve? Just a suggestion.

[Darko]

Good info. Thank you Marty.