Vintage Montgomery Ward / Weber Kettle grill questions?

[Powersmoke_80]

Purchased a vintage grill from a local auction that was listed as a Weber Kettle with the intent to use the lid on an UDS. Upon seeing for the first time when picking up after a winning bid of $16, there were some noticeable differences.
1) For starters there are 3 daisy wheel vents on the bottom and 1 on the lid with no markings on either.
2) The legs are metal and attached with metal thumb screws
3) The Handles are all wood with 2 rivets On the lid and bowl with the side handles having "Montgomery Ward" on them.
4) There is an ash pan inside that covers the vents with holes around the circumference for the bottom vents to let air in equally under the charcoal grate.
I am assuming Weber would have built these for Montgomery Ward but not sure.
From what I have read at the Weber kettle Club the 1964-68 models had thumb screws holding the legs on but only had a wood handle on the lid and metal handles on the bowl.
Would any body know where I could get more info on this.
Thanks, Dean

[Jon Solberg]

Pic???

[Powersmoke_80]

Give me a minute.

[David Parrish]

I think you need to check in with the Weber Kettle Club. If this is a Weber, they'll know about it.

[Jon Solberg]

Hey it will take a Slow n Sear so lets look it over here : )

Dean you own an SnS yet? hehehehehehe

[David Parrish]

If it takes an SnS all is good.

[Jon Solberg]

Good deal. Won't be long and we will win the BBQ world over. I can't wait. The SnS Masters has a nice ring to it right?

[Powersmoke_80]

Yes Jon Solberg, I have #8/100

[JeffJ]

This thread is like the Pied Piper for Jon Solberg.

[Jon Solberg]

I do love Webers. Just this morning I was thinking of a new tat. The Weber logo or a vintage photo-real kettle. Not sure.

[Powersmoke_80]

In the rough,Are you Ready for it Jon? The lid fits my new 22 perfectly, It has a two tone effect with the lid kind of has a white specs in it

[Jon Solberg]

How much you want for it? I'll pick it up. : )

[Powersmoke_80]

Haa Haa, I bought for the lid actually thought of helping a buddy at work build an ugly drum but not sure what I'm going to use it for. the ash pan inside is interesting.

[Huskee]

Sure looks like Weber's shape to me. Like you say, the legs w/ thumb screws are pre-1969, when they switched to friction-fit.

1981 is when they switched from metal bowl handles to wooden ones, and 1981-82 they went from two rivets to a single screw. Your handles should be ~1981.

This presents a little problem since there are two conflicting markers on the bowl- the old pre-'69 legs and the 1981 handles. I'd say look at the wheels but they could easily be newer replaced wheels, in which case that'd be no help.

Could this be a remodel, a fixer-upper in which someone either installed old leg mounts or new handles?

One other thought, could MW have contracted out Weber's supply of old bowls after the '69 switchover & had Weber make them into MW-branded grills? Perhaps you got this hybrid here.

Also, I looked up Montgomery Ward's logo designs- which isn't much help either since the date range for this logo design is what we've already deduced.

Well, I didn't solve anything but this was fun!

[Powersmoke_80]

Sure looks like Weber's shape to me. Like you say, the legs w/ thumb screws are pre-1969, when they switched to friction-fit.

1981 is when they switched from metal bowl handles to wooden ones, and 1981-82 they went from two rivets to a single screw. Your handles should be ~1981.

This presents a little problem since there are two conflicting markers on the bowl- the old pre-'69 legs and the 1981 handles. I'd say look at the wheels but they could easily be newer replaced wheels, in which case that'd be no help.


Well, I didn't solve anything but this was fun!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n132915[/ATTACH]

You are correct my good Sir,
Although the handles are all the same and have two rivets so I think this is a numbers matching unit HaHaa.
The legs are metal not aluminium and the wheels are all white with black tread like a lawnmower wheel with white press on caps.
And look original since I know from experiance that the plastic will break when trying to remove those caps.
Yes this is fun, I found a few posts about Weber making grills for Sears with that difuser ash pan so the Search continues.
This looks interesting and may have to try. http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/sh...d.php?t=145861
​Thanks Huskee

[Powersmoke_80]

Update:
Found this info at at the WKC posted by Idahawk, Sorry Jon Solberg it appears not to be a Weber although I think there is more to this conspiracy theory!
Huskee, since the base looks like a pre 70's weber and the top was late 70's early 80's my feeling is they used an old bottom design that was discontinued or used old Weber stock or tooling and started a grill co.


" The Happy Cooker " The Truth

« on: May 22, 2013, 12:51:15 PM »
The Happy Cooker company or Unarco Home Products as it was known was located in Paris Illinois in the 70's. their primary business was stainless steel kitchen items . They added a porcelain enamel plant right next door in the late 70's and were looking to grow the business , when someone came up with the idea of a BBQ . They began to produce a kettle style porcelain enameled BBQ that looked very much like a weber , it was also more affordable and they managed to land a deal to supply Sears, which got Webers attention .Unarco was careful not to straight up just copy Weber , they changed the leg sockets , the lid , vent sizes and other small details but ultimately their design was to close to Webers and a patent infringement lawsuit arose forcing them to cease production immediately . Naturally Weber won and my source seems to remember it was a case of The Happy Cooker being told to not do it again or Weber would if fact prosecute , Anarco agreed and in the early 80' s Unarco relocated to Louisiana never to produce another BBQ . The old Anarco plant in Paris is a super fund cleanup site and many of the employees are gone or relocated to Louisiana when the company did leaving behind a grill with a short and checkered past as a copy cat . My sources include the Paris chamber of commerce , the editor in chief of the Paris area newspaper for over 40 years as well as the current owners of Anarco which is the Franke Company. After 40 plus years memories are vague at best and some folks I spoke with still think that Weber was somehow involved with the Happy Cooker but that was never the case.

As far as The Happy Cooker goes if you have one , well they only lasted a hand full of years my source wasn't sure of the dates only that it was late 70's and by the early 80's Anarco was gone. He said if you could find the date that they relocated you would find the final year or production , he did not know the first year of production exactly . For me it makes them a great part of a Weber collection because in fact Weber was involved , just not in the way many people thought . I for one ( sorry AJ ) will be hanging to on mine because its in such great condition and now has a story. I have an e- mail sent to the former VP of The Happy Cooker division which I hope can shed some light on dating these for future reference .

[JeffJ]

Fascinating stuff.

[Jon Solberg]

Powersmoke_80 Dean, Happy cookers were not the same size as Weber. When you said yours fit on your 22 base it threw me for a loop. I actually have a couple of Kenmores aka happy cookers.

Take this fact and the fact the Webers legendary sales guy came from Montgomery Ward lawn and garden... Kettles. darn them!

[Powersmoke_80]

So it sounds like Weber was sold at Montgomery ward but I can't find anything that said Weber put another name on their product. Also it matches a lot of the Happy cooker traits, chrome steel legs, wood handles on all and are riveted, small vents, internal ash pan. although the grate brackets look identical to my Weber.