Patience

[dwnthehatch]

Cool story! Thanks for sharing.

[MacEggs]

Outstanding story!  Patience always pays off. 

[Jeff]

Sorry Im a bit late to this thread Gerd.  That grill is actually pretty nice considering how old it is and where it sat for so long!  Great story.  Looking forward to seeing pics of it when you are done with it!!!  Nice rescue!

[G$]

I had a few minutes Sunday to work on this guy.  It will probably be a couple weeks before he is done, but I wanted to snap some in progress shots:

The inside cleaned up in a snap.  I did not have Oven Cleaner on hand, which is a usual must for my laziness, but soap and scrubbing did the trick in any case.  I wish there was less damage at the handle welds, but as bad as it looks it is structurally solid.    I am reminded of the unique tone that this era's colored kettles had. Every PAT PENDING I have seen has this interior color which I find somewhat distinctive:


Bottom vents all move freely now.  I marred one of them a little bit, but not too bad.  This is likely as clean as I will make them:



Top Vent could use one more cleaning but looks a lot better after "the first treatment".


More to come.

[MartyG]

Low and slow - the only way to restore a Weber. Thanks for the update. Take your time with the next - there's no hurry!

[Craig]

Holy cow! This is what I get for not being around last week, I miss all the fun! G$ I remember that old thread about guessing it's bowl handles! Great score and awesome story!! Like Thin Blue Smoke said, I too love the small tabbed era kettles. That's cleaned up great! I see the inside of the lid is grey like my 60's era 18 red. Those pics of it bagged and the vent/wheel poking out give me a "Christmas morning" kind of excitement!

[OGlenn]

Beautiful work so far, I can only imagine what more you could to do to bring that back to its former glory.

[mrbill]

wow!

[glrasmussen]

Looks great! Handle? Couple freckles on the inside, I think most old ones do, that were used.

[G$]

[glrasmussen]

Stunning!

[G]

Lookin' good G$....

[Craig]

G$ that is pure beauty! Love the way this turned out!

[G$]

Thanks fellas.

Per usual, I tried to keep everything original to the kettle, even at the expense of perfection.  So, the wheels were simply cleaned.  I did not repaint them (as you can see!) or go the decal route because it would have looked a little out of place with the 'character' of the kettle.

Likewise the legs and triangle ARE original.  The legs got a 'home remedy' acid wash, sand, steel wool, and polish and look pretty good.  They will always have some permanent pitting from the salt water.  I had mentioned that the triangle was beyond hope earlier.  I gave it a whirl anyway.  After MUCH sanding and scrubbing, it looks better, but the pitting, flaking and some 'permanent' rust will always be there.  I am surprised it came as clean as it did, but the pictures look better than real life.....

The handle is still ever so slightly bent, but I coaxed it back as far as I felt reasonable.  My pushing prompted a little porcelain flaking so I put the stop to it prior to perfection.

Exceptions to the 'all original kettle' are that G provided me an ash pan, as it was missing on this one.  Brian supplied the handle.  Ace Hardware supplied the leg tip.

Thanks again for the comments on this rusty rescue.

[vader06]

Very nice!