Thanks to the members who responded to my post looking for advice about an old kettle listed on OfferUp about 40 miles away from me. You all encouraged me to go for it, so tax season or not, I made a Saturday morning trip and got it!
You are all right that it is an 18" kettle apparently of 73-74 vintage:
I am hoping my new friends here at the WKC can give me some good advice about specifics for fixing this cool old grill. I have done a number of gas grill renovations, but I know this is different. I did spend some time studying the GREAT articles about restoration of old kettles on this site.
For now, this find will have to stay dry-docked while I try to make it through tax season. When April 17th passes - and if I am still alive - I hope to breathe some life back into this well-worn survivor.
Here are a few questions I have right now:
1.) There appears to be no provision for wooden handles on the sides. I assume the "lesser" 18 inch kettle did not include these at that time. Does this sound correct?
2.) The wooden handle on the top looks to be the riveted variety. It wiggles a little but is still on pretty well. There doesn't appear to be any evidence that it ever had "Weber" or any of the other logo/words that I have seen on replicas referred to here on the WKC. Would it be likely that the most authentic fix would be NO logo or words? (I suspect that this is the case, but I would LOVE for this grill to have one of those "One and Only" handles!!!)
3.) The bottom charcoal grate is probably restoreable with some elbow grease. The cooking grate looks way too rusty too me. Is it a bad thing to replace it with a new 18" grate or is there a better option?