Mothership II has left the building....(pic medium)

[Duke]

Here are some pictures from the pick up and unwrapping. Fantastic job as usual Brian! I will share more as the work begins and I have some thoughts on it, but I have a meeting to get to and will share those later. This is what you call a really bad case of Weberitis. Enjoy.......................

[glrasmussen]

Just awesome guys! So is the bottom a different color than the lid?

[zavod44]

It was painted about 20 times before G got it who in turn stripped it and traded it to me...


Oh and here are a few pics of the crate going into the newly built fire pit...


Here is the crate





Sawn into bits












all gone and now it's all Duke's

[glrasmussen]

Nice Fire Brian! Good Idea to leave the handles off. Mine were burnt after the my first fire...

[Craig]

Congratulations Duke! Nice teamwork Brian! Now I see why you wanted those wheels. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for the buildup. Keep us posted.

[G]

So is the bottom a different color than the lid?

gl-more info can be found here.....

http://weberkettleclub.com/forums/weber-kettles-accessories/ranch-resto-updatequestions/15/

[Duke]

After taking a closer look at the specimen I have determined that the original lid color was indeed red. (like I'm some kind of scientist  ) However, I believe it wasn't porcelain, but some kind of high heat paint that didn't last and was pre colored porcelain era. If I had to put a year on it I would go with 1955 because I believe that Rielly's Animal is a 1953-54 because it has the flat top before the lids were changed. We know of 1956 models that had colored porcelain. I also believe it was an early fifties model going by the leg sockets because they are the really old pieces of welded pipe like Zorknard's old 22. I would like to see what Brians Mothership III has for sockets to be sure since they may have continued using the same style on these. Maybe I am over thinking this, but in the fifties it was a popular grill trend to paint the body black and the lids red and I have seen a few examples like this.

I will add that I like grills that look the way it does now and have no plans to make any changes to the lid. It just looks like it has some great history below all of those layers of paint and belongs that way. Of all of the old Webers I have owned this is my favorite so far. I just want to do some serious ribs and chicken on it once it's up and running.

[MINIgrillin]

pure awesomeness..!  nuf said. pure 190 proof triple distilled awesomeness

[Weber MD]

Brian,

Fun post although I think your initial post was more pic light than pic medium.

Just curious, has anyone used Grey Hound to ship anything? A co-worker of mine told me he used Grey Hound to ship a vehicle bumper from somewhere in the midwest to Baltimore.  He said it was the best price he could find.

[MartyG]

The hound dog works well for big stuff - I shipped a pair of copper tympani across the country for around $70 as I recall. If it fits, it ships. So - that's like two ranch kettles! Now that I think about it, a copper ranch would be rather awesome looking.

[Duke]

Yep, I have shipped by Greyhound several times and have never had a problem.

 BTW, I took a closer look at the infamous red lid in the sun and from what I can tell it was a regular faded black, but was painted without any primer directly over it. It's definitely not a porcelain red like the newer ones have, but like I said before there is still a possibility that Weber did it. We may never really know, especially since it's been painted over at least a couple times since then.

[zavod44]

Brian,

Fun post although I think your initial post was more pic light than pic medium.

Just curious, has anyone used Grey Hound to ship anything? A co-worker of mine told me he used Grey Hound to ship a vehicle bumper from somewhere in the midwest to Baltimore.  He said it was the best price he could find.

Grayhound told me it had to be under a hundred pounds.  It has to be no larger than 45 inches length and width, and no higher than 30 inches.  I was fine on the dimensions but it was more than 100 lbs...

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[zavod44]

Yep, I have shipped by Greyhound several times and have never had a problem.

 BTW, I took a closer look at the infamous red lid in the sun and from what I can tell it was a regular faded black, but was painted without any primer directly over it. It's definitely not a porcelain red like the newer ones have, but like I said before there is still a possibility that Weber did it. We may never really know, especially since it's been painted over at least a couple times since then.

There were a few spots where you could see the original red finish.  I think someone ground off the original porcelain and tried to paint it, then it was painted five times after that.   The real old porcelain on the old Webers is very different from the new stuff.  I tried to scrub grandpa with steel wool and it just scrubbed it off and it started to look like the finish on the mothership II.  I'm sure it was bright red and some ding dong 35 years ago tried to sand it and paint it.  Look close on the lip of the lid you can see a few tiny spots of bright red porcelain...

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[Duke]

I think you are correct Brian. Someone probably tried to get rid of the red at one time. Just curious, specifically what differences have you found in the porcelains newer vs. older? You mentioned grandpa was shedding?

[zavod44]

It's totally different.  I could scrub it right off if I wanted to ....