1969 PAT Pending Restoration Tips?

[MikeInVT]

This is my first post, so please be easy on me if it is not in the correct sub-forum.

I recently added custom wheels to my 2013 black kettle (photo below). This small customization inspired me to find an old kettle for restoring.

When I was at a friend's house a couple weeks ago, I noticed an 18" red kettle in the backyard of his landlord's yard. My friend said his landlord wouldn't mind if I took it and tried to restore it. When I took a closer look, I noticed the PAT PENDING on the lid vent, suggesting a 1969-1972? kettle. Below are photos of the original condition, as well as the condition after I sprayed her down. I plan on polishing the legs and triangle - As you can see from the photos, a little scrubbing on the triangle will make it shine. I had planned on giving her a vinegar bath to help remove the rust, and then coating the rust spots in canola oil and firing up the grill HOT to season the bare metal spots. My question is: is it worth trying to remove all of these rust spots or should I leave her AS-IS and just buy some new grill grates?

Custom Wheels on 2013 black kettle:


Original Condition of 18" red kettle:












18" red kettle after spray down & quick clean:

[dogman]

The car guy in me is wondering whether you have a body shop nearby that would do a California flame job on the housing and chrome the legs and hardware.

[jkolantern]

I'd leave it as is. You did a nice job cleaning it up to that level.  I'd do the canola trick and do some cooking.

[1spacemanspiff]

Well done,  add a couple daisy wheels.  It looks really good

[Filibuster]

   Wonderful job so far, if you hit the triangle with sandpaper you will take off the remaining plating with the rust. There's a store called "the container store" don't know if they're east coast only or nation wide, got an under the bed plastic container, inside dimensions are 24 1/2" × 21 1/2". Big enough for 26" triangles and 22" grates. Soak your triangle in two gallons of evapo-rust, the rust will be knocked off and the beautiful plating will remain. Evapo-rust works well on grates also, you will see portions of missing plating where the flames made contact. That's one of the reasons why I switched to SS grates.

Sent from my SM-J700P using Weber Kettle Club mobile app

[Hell Fire Grill]

Probly my best tip would be to keep the porcelain parts off the concrete/pavement.

[MikeInVT]

   Wonderful job so far, if you hit the triangle with sandpaper you will take off the remaining plating with the rust. There's a store called "the container store" don't know if they're east coast only or nation wide, got an under the bed plastic container, inside dimensions are 24 1/2" × 21 1/2". Big enough for 26" triangles and 22" grates. Soak your triangle in two gallons of evapo-rust, the rust will be knocked off and the beautiful plating will remain. Evapo-rust works well on grates also, you will see portions of missing plating where the flames made contact. That's one of the reasons why I switched to SS grates.

Sent from my SM-J700P using Weber Kettle Club mobile app

Thanks. I did some research on Evapo-Rust and it looks like that product has magical powers.  I found a concentrated version called Rust911 which I plan to purchase so I can submerge the entire kettle as well.  I have a couple questions:
Once I have completed the evapo-rust dip, should I apply some sort of wax to the triangle and legs to prevent future rust?
What color were the original wheels - were the painted black?

[MikeInVT]

Probly my best tip would be to keep the porcelain parts off the concrete/pavement.

Noted!

[Cellar2ful]

Those wheels do not appear to be original Weber metal wheels.  Probably replaced somewhere along it's life.  Original metal Weber wheels would look like this.  They are painted black with a white pin stripe on the outside of the wheel.  I use black satin Rust-Oleum when repainting them.