Giving new life to a CL find

[Atalanta]

In my "Introduce Yourself" I mentioned that my BF wouldn't let me clean his grill to smoke, I should get my own. So I did. I didn't want a black one, I saw a blue one at Crate and Barrel for $400. LOL That wasn't happening. Then I saw one on CL for $150. Hmm, for $150 I could buy a fancy new one copper colored. Well, I managed to talk him down and brought home a nice blue weber.

This is what I brought home. Nice looking except for the rust where the handle joins. Suggestions on tackling this rust welcome.


The inside was a bit scary looking.


But not as bad as I feared.

Following the guide from Weber Kettle Club, I attacked the inside. Only took me 2 hours to get to this point (though there are a few rust spots):


I need to clean out the soap residue and replace the sweep (it looked even worse after I had done cleaning). The sweep and new charcoal grate is on order, I already had a new cooking grate (that opens to put in coal). I'll have to look into upgrading it to having the ash catcher.

More pics to follow.

[morganjim]

Nice transformation. As for the rust on the handle I have no real idea. There used to be a RustOleum product called Rust Reformer. Applied to the rusty areas it would turn it to super hard rust free surface that could be sanded and painted. There is also POR paint these days. Paint Over Rust that does wonders. You need very little.

Good Luck and enjoy !

[RonB]

Looks like a good job on that Weber. I don't know if you will find a high temp paint to match, but after removing the rust you will need to protect it. And I love blue.

[Breadhead]

Get the rust off, paint it up, get a SnS and you're off to BBQ/grilling heaven.👍 Nice find.

[Atalanta]

I think I saw some blue engine paint, but what you see on screen and what you see IRL may not match. I'm hoping that I can find some small thing that's close to that shade to get something to match.

RonB I too like the blue. The guy I got it from commented that it matched my car (which is a shade darker).

Breadhead Didn't have enough in my Amazon account for the SNS ... this time.

[morganjim]

You can still get the rust reformer and for paint I suggest hi-temp engine paint -- Ford Blue. That will at least ballpark your color. Besides, those little oddities are what shows the grill has been used and isn't just a thing to look at.

[Atalanta]

Thanks for the color suggestion. I had looked at engine paint blues which was enough to give me the blues - there are so many.

[fuzzydaddy]

I have a copper but would buy a blue one in a heartbeat. I agree with taking care of the rust and matching hi-temp paint as well as you can. Congrats on your find and a great job on cleaning the interior!

[Nuke em]

Paint some yellow eyes around the rust area(high temp) and make it a Humpty Dumpty face or a moji face. Good find

[Atalanta]

I thought emoji faces were a bit more yellow

[j_keegan]

Atalanta I haven't checked other threads, but did you ever end up doing anything with the paint job? Did you have a finished photo? I've been eyeing an imperfect blue Weber on CL recently, so just wondering...

[Atalanta]

I need to post a finished photo. I haven't done anything with the paint. My MVA last fall kind'a halted work on it. I need to get in one run soon!