PITA 18.5” Red BBK

[Mr.CPHo]

This little guy has been troublesome from the start.

I found it on LetGo on a Saturday evening in Central Florida in early April and I sent a message that same evening.  I got up at 5:30 the next morning and saw the seller had just responded and would be available all day to pick it up.  Sweet!  Nothing better than a Kettle-acquisition road trip on a beautiful spring Sunday. 

I started coffee and plotted our course to the seller's general location, a little bit southwest of Orlando.  Even better, we could grab some good eats on the way through Orlando and plenty of shopping to entertain the wife.  With a plan in place, I packed up the truck for a day trip, woke the wife and dog up around 8, and we were on the road by 9.  I sent the seller a message as we embarked for our day trip.

An easy traffic-free drive into Orlando put us at our favorite dim sum spot for brunch around 11-ish.  Still no response from the seller, perhaps attending church service?  After eating we hopped a little further southwest towards the seller and stopped at a mall to kill some time.  (This is the unspoken reciprocation with my wife for my impromptu and often illogical kettle road trips).   Still no response from the seller.  I'm starting to think maybe he isn't an early-riser like me and their message from 5am was before they went to sleep after a night of partying.  I send another message through LetGo and on a whim, check OfferUp and I see the same grill from the same seller - sent ANOTHER message.  It's early afternoon by now, and time to start thinking about an early dinner before routing home.  We opt for Korean BBQ not far from our current location... in the last chance hope the seller will respond while we eat.  No luck... we make the three hour drive home Sunday evening full-bellied but empty-handed.  I knew the risk and it just wasn't meant to be.  I'm ok with that, we still had a great day. 

Of course, Monday morning, response from the seller via OfferUp, "you can come pick it up any time today".  Dammit.  Just my luck.  Fortunately, I'm part of a really awesome grillfella network that can help in such a situation.  I enlisted the help of our infamous @Rub who lives nearby and he graciously agrees to pick it up after work.  Once secured, he sent a couple pictures which confirms this is indeed an 18" red Bar-B-Kettle with the user-installed daisy wheels, racing triangle, and wheels without whitewalls; the most basic variant once the One-Touch was introduced.  I didn't know there were 18" versions of the BBK, let alone red.  Neat!  It's an ER code which matches my red SSP.... Color looks kinda funky though. 

As luck would have it, I had work meetings in Orlando the following week and once those were done, I met Rub at his place to pick up the BBK, perv his collection of cookers, and generally just shoot the shit for awhile.  It is always nice to hang with other WKC'ers and this was no exception.  Rub is a great guy and still to this day I talk about how his money muscle changed my life.  True story. 

Later on that week, I started a fire in it and the fumes and discoloration confirmed my fears, someone had spray painted the kettle.  So now I'm in the process of painstakingly scraping off all the red paint from a red kettle that barely has any flaws.  As far as I can tell, there is some rim rash painted over, but no other flaws in the lid.  I've more or less finished the lid and handles and will start on the bowl this weekend.  I'll most likely have to cut off the bowl vents to remove overspray too. 

I'll post the fully restored kettle once completed, but I'm definitely laughing at myself for undertaking such a PITA for a $12 grill.  More importantly, I wanted to give a shout out to Rub for agenting this pretty neat BBK.  I think I will name it Albatross once it's back in cooking rotation. 

Thanks for looking
☀️✌️


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[JEBIV]

I mostly liked the part about waking up the dog !! cool story, nice grill

[michaelmilitello]

Grate story!   

I can identify with the reciprocal shopping trip for the wife.  Been there, done that. 

Did you get the two bottles of lighter fluid?!


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[ABROB]

So they painted red over red?

[PotsieWeber]

I forgot who it was that found a yellow that was painted over, I think with black.  If memory serves, it was in pretty bad shape & he wound up doing a lot of work on that grill & it made an interesting thread. 

Because of that thread, a couple times I've seen a kettle that was obviously sprayed over & I asked if they knew what color it was before they painted it.  Although, so far, I've never had any response.  Maybe I'll try rephrasing the way I ask, to make it clear that I am actually interested & not just busting their chops (or something) for painting it.

[PotsieWeber]

By the way, I've taken spray paint off of porcelain streets signs before & it was pretty easy using something I had picked up at Menards (kind of like a Home Depot).  It took the spray paint off very easily without harming the porcelain.  I sprayed it on, covered it with paper towels I think, waited a short while, & basically used a plastic putty knife to VERY EASILY push it (not even really scraping) off.

The brand was Motsenbockers, see https://www.menards.com/main/paint/solvents-cleaners-removers/paint-preparation-cleaners/motsenbockers-reg-lift-off-reg-graffiti-paint-remover-22-oz/41101/p-1444444131720.htm

[Rub]

Happy to help Charlie. It's a quirky little grill for sure. Looking forward to the finished pics.


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[johnny 2 shack]

wow ! interesting story , but you got it and it's looking good already ! nice

[Mr.CPHo]

Upon closer inspection, I discovered the interior of the bowl had been painted black.  After removing the bowl vents, I applied a coat of Citristrip gel to both the interior and exterior of the bowl, and then wrapped in a garbage bag overnight.  The process of scraping off the paint was much easier.  I was able to remove most of the paint in one evening.  There were only 4 spots of porcelain loss, around the front handle, the front leg socket, and two grate strap blowouts.  Otherwise this BBK is in pretty good shape and almost back in rotation.  I still have to remove overspray from the vents and the ash catcher was painted black too. 

I'm unsure how I will put this little 18" BBK back together.  On one hand, I might keep it original, even though I dislike the OE triangle and wheels.  My other inclination is to mod it to the max.  Not sure what'll happen, but I'll post when completed. 


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[PotsieWeber]

Looking good!

[Mr.CPHo]

Finally finished with this restoration after removing paint, reshaping, and reattaching the bowl vents. 

I decided to use a twist on ash pan, but kept everything else original. 

I'm relieved to finally get this restoration done.  It will receive a burnout this weekend and will go into cooking rotation.

Here's a picture with my red SSP, also an "ER" code.

Thanks again to Rub for the agent assist.


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[JEBIV]

Nice restore Charlie

[WNC]

Looks like it'll be a great cooker!
Nice work on the restore too
And who would ever think painting the inside of a grill was the right thing to do!?!


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[RRRanger99]

Wow! Turned out really nice, Charlie!

[PotsieWeber]

Very nice looking Charlie.  You brought her back.