Weber 18" Kettle Restoration

[james1787]

Nice save! You gave that grill new life! Looks awesome..

[lunchman]

Thanks all, for the kind words. This was a fun project, saved a perfectly good Weber from the landfill and most importantly, is fantastic to grill on.

I continue to make progress on the additional handles. The other two blanks are cut -



and the first one has received about 6 or 7 coats of Teak Oil, I've lost count. But this is where that marine gloss starts to appear. It'll probably be another week before I'm completely done.



Regards,
-Dom

[Kneab]

Very cool handles. Nice job on your restore.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Weber Kettle Club mobile app

[MacEggs]

First off, welcome!

I am very impressed with this restore. You have a beauty 18 OTG there.

Skill and patience are what that's needed to make this handle by hand, and it appears you have both. Great job!

[Stewart]

Nice job on the custom handles.

[lunchman]

Making more progress. All three handles are cut, shaped and in the finishing step.



As mentioned, they'll attach from the rear as I didn't want the screws to be visible. However, I can see why Weber puts the screw right through the handle. It's going to be a tad difficult working an offset screwdriver behind the handles on the kettle base, there's not much room to work with. My oversight. But once they're installed, they'll look nice. Depends on how much cussing I do during the install.

I wound up having a change of heart re: the multiple coats of Teak Oil. Sometimes, and this was one of them, when I reach 6 or 7 coats, the stuff takes forever (days!) to dry. I got tired of waiting, scraped and sanded it all down to almost bare wood on handle #1. Applied a single coat of oil to each handle and am using a spray Minwax Spar Urethane which is seen in the picture. I hope this stuff dries overnight and I can get these installed tomorrow.

Then I can get back to grilling with this kettle!
 
-Dom

[lunchman]

Finally, some pictures of the handles on the Weber! I've got to say, they came out pretty decent and were a lot of fun to make, combining my two favorite hobbies of woodworking and grilling. Installation wasn't too bad, I kept the cursing to a minimum. Attached with Stainless Steel screws.

Enjoy the pics.





Thanks for following along on this restoration!

Regards,
-Dom

[dbhost]

New member here. As stated in my intro, this is my first Weber Kettle. I also have two Kamados - a Bubba Keg and a Goldens' Cast Iron Cooker.

My neighbor had placed a grill out at the curb with the trash. Trash day came and went, grill wasn't picked up. It sat for two more days and it was bugging the heck out of me. On closer inspection, I realized it was a Weber. Do I need a third grill? Not really. Do I hate seeing a Weber being tossed in the trash like that? Absolutely. Am I up for a restore? You bet. Oh yeah, and free is good!

It's an 18" Kettle, code DU (2002), in tough shape. I referenced the topics on this site about restoration and set to work. Never realized a razor blade, some #0000 steel wool and some of my auto detailing supplies would do the trick.

Before shots -





Legs aren't properly attached (axle flats are positioned backwards) and the legs are in the wrong locations, causing the handles to be improperly positioned and the grill to not be level. Cooking grate needs to be tossed. Charcoal grate is ok, but I replaced it with a new one.

It so happens I've had a Craycort Cast Iron grate hanging in my garage that I haven't used in years. I won't bore you with the cleanup, you've seen it before, but this cooker cleaned up quite nicely!

After pics -









My three grills (Bubba Keg has just been restored also) -



I also bought a Slow N Sear Charcoal Basket for the Weber, used it for the first time last night. Seems to work well. You'll notice in the pics there's also a tool rack hanging from the base.

To avoid burning my fingers on the vent control when gloves are not handy I fabricated this in my wood shop this morning -





It's Meranti wood, finished in Teak Oil. Friction fit. But now I'm thinking I should probably start on matching handles. I know they can be purchased, but there's great fun in making my own.

And that's it for this restoration and a Weber saved from the trash.

I'm happy to have joined the Weber family. And yes, it cooks every bit as good as I expected. Still some learning to do regarding vent control, but not much different than my other grills.


Thanks for checking out this post!

Regards,
-Dom

I've been lazily putting off making wood handles for my vents for too long. Fine, I'll do it!

Awesome recovery job on that Weber. Sad to see them get tossed to the curb the way they do sometimes. I am not 100% innocent of that either. Most folks don't know you CAN get parts and fix these things up.