18 Inch Pat. Pending 'Cado

[WNC]

Here's one my brother found for me. He's stationed out in Arizona, and shipped it out for me. This was a while back around my birthday, so this one wound up being a present. All I know of it's history was it was found on Facebook, my brother called the lady and said he could be there in 5 minutes. A few weeks later and it's found a new home in NC.

It came in pretty rough shape: a few chips, a little crazing, super gunky, and filled with ash. It also seemed to be used to burn some weird stuff. As I went to clean it, there seemed to be some fabric burned to the inside of the lid, and down on the grates some sort of melted metal, like lead or aluminum. Who knows what was burned in there?! I usually like to restore the grates and keep everything original, but given everything I found in there, I thought it best to just replace them all.   

It was also missing the ash pan, so I made one for it as seen in this post.
http://weberkettleclub.com/forums/weber-kettles-accessories/diy-flat-edge-ash-pan/msg199202/#msg199202 

On to the pictures!
Before:













Here's the worst of the damage, all the other welds on this, and the other sockets are fine.


After:







As always Brian's handles make all the difference!


Under the skirt. Now that I've found Bar Keeper's Friend I might go back and get rid of all the staining around the sockets.


I know the white hubcaps aren't correct, but I just like the look of 'em




Thanks for looking!

[MrHoss]

That's a well done restore WNC. Gotta love a Brother that looks out for your Kettle interests.

[firedude5015]

Awesome restore!..beautiful kettle

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[SmokenJoe]

Nice cleanUP!!!   Great 'fade' on that 'cado.                       SJ

[tb6844]

Very nice @WNC.  How did you do the wheels?  I've got a set in similar condition I'm debating what to do with.  Yours turned out awesome. 

[SixZeroFour]

Wow! What a Cado!

Fantastic work on the resto Justin. You have it looking really sharp!

[crowderjd]

Looks great to me!  Well done! 

[captjoe06]

Outstanding!
Congratulations. 

[WNC]

Very nice @WNC.  How did you do the wheels?  I've got a set in similar condition I'm debating what to do with.  Yours turned out awesome.

Hey @tb6844 Wheels are pretty easy. Just give them a couple/few days soak in Evap-O-Rust, tape off the rubber tread, paint with a high gloss black spray paint, and contact @zavod44 for some whitewall tape.

The couple tricks I've learned are: you want to get as much of the original paint off as you can (It'll give you a smoother surface) so you might need to use some super fine steel wool. And then the most time consuming part is taping off the tread. I found using a bunch of little pieces works best.

Here are some pics from another set I did. These didn't give up their original paint easy...




But I learned all this from the site. There used to be a restoration sticky at the top of this forum with links to all sorts of projects and some "required reading". That's where I learned most of the stuff I know. What ever happened to that sticky that was good stuff? @Troy @pbe gummi bear

[weldboy]

Fantastic job on the restore. Looks great


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[zavod44]

I have Whitewall tape if you need it, it's die cut to fit perfect, just let me know......

Sent from a rotary phone

[pbe gummi bear]

The restoration thread is still around but unstickied since it has been updated in a while. Search for "technical reference library"

[Maxmbob]

Great work WNC.

[1911Ron]

Nice restore it looks great! @WNC  Where is your brother stationed in Arizona?

[GregS]

wow! great clean up for sure!