Was looking for a winter workhorse. Now twins, Told you I'd fall in love.

[getlego]

So i went on a road trip and didn't get what I was after. Instead I settled on this pair of 1995 kettles for $20.00. Yes $10 a piece. When I saw them on offer up I just thought they were dirty. So my wife and I picked them up this afternoon in the rain and went home. We come to find out they were spray-painted black. So my wife loves the internet and discovers that acetone will remove non oil based paints. In the mean time I'm scraping one down with a razor blade (which happens to not be a good idea. It will scratch the porcelain.) She comes out and withing 15 minutes we have this thing stripped down to the porcelain. She's beautiful except for the razor scratches.

But, guess what, I don't care, it was an experiment. But now I'm sad, I was the one who scratched it.

So long story short, one of the wheels was held on by bubble gum. The lower dampers snapped off in my hands, and the triangle brace on one was taped up with about a mile of electrical tape. But dang it I'm in love again. And I have a set of twins. One cleaned up and one from the wild. I will post pics when I can figure it out.

Bottom Line, I haven't found my work horse for the winter. The twins are too cool.

[1911Ron]

Congrats on the twins!  I feel your pain I had just got done assembling my 26" grill and was taking it outside when I stumbled and off flew the lid and scratched the lid!

[kettlebb]

I have not scratched porcelain yet using a razor blade. Using a very low angle and light passes.


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[Schaefd2]

Was it black underneath?? I’d assume they spray painted it black to cover another color?


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[getlego]

Ok I think I figured out photos. It's all cloud based crap and I can never get photos when I want them. So here are some photos of the "twins for twenty bucks".

The best part of this story is I finally got my wife interested in something I like. She came up with the idea of the acetone and it worked great. She said it would only work with non oil based paints. I have no idea what they painted these with. It worked like a charm and even seemed to shine up the damper without much effort.

We then used the tub o towels to clean up the mess and goo gone bbq cleaner to finish it up. I would do more if the weather was better but I was shocked at how nice this came out. All of this was done with towels and 000 steel wool. I didn't have any 0000.

Now I realized that these twins are the year of my daughters birth. How will I ever find a winter beater??? Hope the photos load.

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[JEBIV]

Wow, that did clean up nice

[jimz]

How does a flat razor blade work on a round surface? I keep seeing that suggestion? Not trying to be smart a*% seriously curious.

[1spacemanspiff]

Nicely done, one is out there.  Keep looking.  Maybe a member (that's close by) for what you're looking for.  You never know. 

[kettlebb]

How does a flat razor blade work on a round surface? I keep seeing that suggestion? Not trying to be smart a*% seriously curious.

I can’t really explain it except that it just does.
I use this one:


https://m.grainger.com/mobile/product/6R029?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8JPt6b3A3gIVBB6GCh3dPw8pEAQYAiABEgJwevD_BwE&cm_mmc=PPC:+Google+PLA&ef_id=W@HpAwAABE1w5tko:20181106191827:s&s_kwcid=AL!2966!3!264955915862!!!g!461779184394!

Keep the blade flat and at a low angle, done quite a few kettles this way and many others have. If you like your method and results then don’t change! Do what works for you. Congrats on the score.


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[getlego]

Come to think of it I may not have scratched it myself. It just seemed to be exactly in the spot I scraped and in the same direction. Considering these are 23 years old maybe the scratches were there already.

I will definitely do more experiments on the other one since these are not so much collectible.

Now I’m trying to decide if I should leave the other one painted for a while. I kind of like seeing them side by side. It’s one thing to have before and after photos but seeing the results in real time is something else. My wife keeps rubbing the shiny lid in amazement.


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[1911Ron]

Turned out great!