1963 Weber Plainsman Grail Find - Beware pic overload and a long read!

[SixZeroFour]

Well guys, after an agonizingly long wait I finally got my hands on a kettle that is very special to me – a 1963 Wood Dale Plainsman!

This has been a grail kettle of mine since the early days of the WKC so you'll have to excuse both my excitement and the length of this post! Feel free to skip to the photos if you like but I personally enjoy learning the story behind grills like this so I'll do my best to share.

This crazy journey all began a few months back in early December when I was hunting through CL for kettles and other Weber stuff. After striking out locally I decided to check the Palm Springs area as my parents live half the year down there and had just flown back down for the season. They love doing road trips around the area to explore and always offer to snag a grill for me if something pops up close by. I start scrolling... nothing at all exciting for the first few pages of listings but as I continued it started showing search results from an extended area. I then came across the listing below and my brain began to melt!



For some reason all I could do at first was come up with reasons as to why it couldn't possibly be real... was it just some random photo used for the listing? Is it some sort of hoax post? Is this really even what I think it is? Then I saw that the ad was over 2 weeks old and that pretty much sealed the deal. There's no way... right?...

I call up the number on the listing and almost immediately a very polite man named Sam answers the phone. I let him know I was calling about the grill and of course asked if the photo shown in the listing was the actual grill he had for sale. He said that indeed it was and agreed to send me a few more photos. We ended up chatting a bit more and I explained the scenario that I was a collector and that I would have to arrange to have it picked up by a family member. He was super accommodating and generously agreed to hold the grill for a few days until I could sort something out. He also took the ad down which certainly helped a little bit with my blood pressure! I was ecstatic, but was desperately trying not to get my hopes up as it was FAR from being "in the boot" as the AUS boys say.

Here are the additional pics he sent over:











Now comes BIG issue number two.

In all my excitement I had failed to realize just how far this grill was from my parents place. Being the amazing people they are, and knowing how much I love kettles, they had very graciously offered to keep an eye out for grills for me. But this was a whole different level of a request - the grill was in Prescott Az which is a 4 hour drive each way.

Once again I began to think it might not be in the cards as I felt silly even thinking about asking them to do something so ridiculous. Had it not been my all-time grail I wouldn't have even considered asking, but I was/am weak and couldn't resist at least mentioning it when we spoke the next day. I had hardly finished the sentence when I hear my Dad cover the phone and say to my Mom "Hey, want to go to Arizona to pickup a BBQ for Matt?" and without hesitation she said "Sure, when do we leave!"

Pretty sure I started sobbing tears of joy at this point lol and proceeded to make arrangements to put them in touch with Sam. When I called him back his was once again so friendly and accommodating and agreed not only to hold the grill, but to be available for flexible pickup hours so that they could make the trip over without any worries of missing a meetup. Plans were then made to pickup the grill later that week. At this point I was feeling much better about the whole scenario as Sam really seemed to be a stand up guy.

Of course the day of the meet-up I'm still nervous and calling to check in with my parents as they made the trip over. As they approached the house they said they would give me a call once they had it in the car. Almost 30 min later I finally get a call and they only confirm what I suspected – Sam was extremely kind to them, showed them around his extensive exotic cactus farm, and even sent them home with two large potted decorative purple cacti!! (This little detail is even more crazy as I've had another big kettle score years ago with a seller who was also a cactus fanatic named "Cactus Marty"!) Either way it was really nice meeting such a kind and caring person and my parents had nothing but nice things to say about the pickup.

Apparently the grill once belonged to an elderly neighbour on a connecting property. Years ago the mans wife had passed away and he ended up moving down permanently to a place in South America. Sam helped him with the move and the house and in turn was given the grill. He said he had cooked on it a few times but had other grills that he would tend to used more often.  So the trip was an all round success, and my folks both said they loved the Prescott area. Some beautiful high desert scenery along the way and very interesting terrain. I still can't believe they made the long trip for me and wish I could put into words what amazing people both my parents are. They would literally do anything for me and in this case did – and that makes this already special grill all the more special to me personally. I will cherish this one forever.

Here is a shot of Sam posing with the kettle as they were just about to leave. Cheers to you sir if you ever happen to read this!:



The following day they were kind enough to send me a few more pics. Not the greatest shots but at least gave me a little bit better idea on current condition.
Rust stains were a bit of a concern and turned out to be quite difficult to deal with:









Bowl:


Lid:


Now comes the part which proved to be a lot harder than expected... Waiting to actually get my hands on this beauty to do a restore! Rather than pay to ship it up to Canada $$$ I decided to wait a couple months as our family already had a trip booked down for a visit in early Feb. I desperately wanted to post details ages ago but also wanted to get it cleaned up first to see what lies beneath! Now for another long 2 month wait until they bring it back to BC, but at least I have some cleaned up pics to share until I get to cookin' back home. I believe I may have also reached a new level of kettle nerdiness??... I packed the ash pan, temp wheels, thumbscrews, and a mini cleaning kit in my luggage so that I could get after it while on holiday

I just love the grill! All-in-all it's in great shape and structurally super solid. Vents are tight but turning, sockets and handles all still holding nice and firm, and only a few character marks here and there
I still want to work at tidying up the lower vents a bit more but a significant improvement over what was started with.

Here are a bunch of photos detailing some of the resto process and also the final results:

































Fresh new thumbscrews!























@AZ2FL hooked me up with some steel wheels which I plan to install as soon as the grill arrives here at the house. Will post a few final updated pics once all complete with correct wheels/new treads etc. Also a very big thank you to @Foster Dahlet who generously offered to send me the proper chrome triangle and refused to accept anything in return. He noted the great community we have here at the club and the willingness of many to help others – he certainly proved that and I agree completely. Thank you again, I really appreciate it!

Cheers all, and happy hunting!

Matt

[AZ2FL]

Wow! Great story and write up Matt! She's a beauty for sure, congratulations on finding your grail kettle.

You have some great parents.

I can't wait to see it with the proper steel wheels.

I agree the WKC is an awesome community.

Cheers

[cigarman20]

Congratulations on your grail Matt!! She is a beauty.  Grate story indeed


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[Chesapeake Weber]

Great read and pics!  Making me wonder about whether to clean some of the rust stains off the weathered warrior I recently acquired.  Congrats!


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[RRRanger99]

What a beaut! The result so far is eye candy!

[michaelmilitello]

Congratulations!  Grate story and even grater grill!  RRR!


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[Mr.CPHo]

I am so happy you found your grail, Matt.  Congratulations!  It looks amazing!

Kudos to your parents, AZ2FL, and Foster Dahlet for the assistance bringing it back to life.

[ASpitzer]

What a great story and it looks fantastic! It's amazing how well they clean up with a little (or a lot) of elbow grease. Wonderful that your parents will go that far for your hobby. Thanks for posting all the photos.

[1spacemanspiff]

Congrats on finding a grail and a tip of the cap to everyone who assisted.

[JEBIV]

Wow Matt, what a grate story and grill, thanks for sharing

[OkieGirl]

Congratulations, that's a beauty!!  I love your parents' sense of adventure!  This is a great story and an amazing restoration.  Can't wait to see this treasure hanging on my wall in next year's calendar! 

[rich]

Holy Shiznit Matt! You aced the cleanup.
Congratulations!!
If I may ask, why did you use tape around the bottom vents?
Great grill, nice luck, awesome parents.

[crowderjd]

Love it!  That is an absolute stunner!  Congrats again and great story!

[bamakettles]

BIG congratulations on that score!  What a great story to go with it too..... Amazing job on the restoration.  Can't wait to see your first cook on it!

[Cellar2ful]

Sounds like it took a Village to secure this "Cactus" Plainsman. I don't see anything strange about taking a Weber cleaning kit with you on vacation.  Great job on the clean up.  I agree with you that rust stains on porcelain are one of the more difficult restoration issues. Congratulations Matt.