Rescue or blasphemy? Updated

[5280Jeff]

This redhead is the 1st kettle I bought off CL. With the vent code pat. 3538906 and engraved weber logo I believe it may be dated at 1976. Anyway it the lid was pretty rough, handle was bent up and bolted on with lots of damage to the coating. I decided to have a buddy try and weld the handle back on which resulted in even more damage  . So I decided to prep and paint the entire kettle  . VHT flame proof primer rated at 1800 degrees and VHT caliper paint rated at 900 degrees were used. The ratings are good only if the paint is cured properly by heating it up which wasn't hard in a kettle. So a chimney was fired up and the kettle heated up between coats and after final coat for a total of 4 times. Here are some before and after pics. Hopefully, I'm not banned for life and just issued a suspension. Thanks to Brian for the great looking handle and Stu for the ash pan

[pbe gummi bear]

Looks fine to me Jeff! It looks crimson. I'd love to hear about how the paint holds up.

[MacEggs]

That looks outstanding! Very nice work, indeed. 
You rescued a kettle, and brought it back to life. That's what it is all about. 

[DirectDrive]

Excellent job !

[crumbsnatcher]

I don't know about everyone, but I love the white color in that primer. Would've looked just fine in the white color too. The red also looks outstanding. How did you smooth out the handle area?


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[OoPEZoO]

Hell yeah.....that turned out great. Did you do any prep to the porcelain coating before you painted it?

[1911Ron]

It looks great, nice rescue. 

[Duke]

I have mixed feelings about it. It looks good, but since it was already red touching it up might have been okay. You could have also went with another color entirely like yellow. Having painted a few in the past I have found that the paint will eventually start peeling if you use it. Something about the retraction and heat. Please do a few cooks on it and report back. I'm guessing the main problem is the paint closest to the charcoal will burn, but that not a problem. Again, I think it looks pretty good and nice handle fix.

[landgraftj]

Jeff it's your kettle so do what makes you feel good, not what pleases anyone else. Looks great to me, nice rescue and restore!

[Jeff]

Yeah, I'd like to hear more also how you prepped the kettle prior to the white primer, then what kind of paint you used, and how many coats.  It sure looks like a new grill now.  I hope it holds up well for you, but with past attempts by others, the paint never held up very well.  I'm hoping your hard work will be successful in the long run!  Follow up please!

[5280Jeff]

Thanks guys, I'm happy with it.

I don't know about everyone, but I love the white color in that primer. Would've looked just fine in the white color too. The red also looks outstanding. How did you smooth out the handle area?

I did consider leaving it white but I figured it would be a dingy brown after a few cooks. The paint is not going to clean up anything like the original coating does. Heck maybe I would have a brownie after a few years  . The handles were first TIG welded on and then MIG on top of that to build it up. Took a lot of grinding 1st with an angle grinder and finishing with a dremel.

Hell yeah.....that turned out great. Did you do any prep to the porcelain coating before you painted it?

Thanks, I cleaned it with oven cleaner twice just to make sure there was no grease on it. I tried to hand sand it but honestly the coating is so tough I don't think sanding it did much. Grinding the coating was actually much tougher than I thought it would be.

I have mixed feelings about it. It looks good, but since it was already red touching it up might have been okay. You could have also went with another color entirely like yellow. Having painted a few in the past I have found that the paint will eventually start peeling if you use it. Something about the retraction and heat. Please do a few cooks on it and report back. I'm guessing the main problem is the paint closest to the charcoal will burn, but that not a problem. Again, I think it looks pretty good and nice handle fix.

Thanks, I'm hoping curing the paint between each coat will help save it from peeling. I plan on cooking on it regularly so we'll find out if VHTs claims of heat tolerances are true.

[Weber MD]

Rescue.  Great job!

[jcnaz]

I like!

[Craig]

Nice work! I will be interested to see the results on the paint. Please keep us posted.

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[Heyjude]

Did you grind off the original finish from the entire grill?