Red vs. Maroon...The mystery resolved


 

Jon Tofte

TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
In earlier thread, I posted pictures of a hood that had been painted flat black :p that I was going to trash. I tried a little 0000 steel wool and Simple Green and discovered that this grill was originally what I consider to be a beautiful shade of maroon. My picture was taken outside in fairly bright Florida sunlight:

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I think because of the sunlight the color looked washed out and lead to questions about whether this hood was maroon or the standard red.

Now that I have the maroon inner part of the hood redone, here are a couple side-by-side pictures of it and my only true "red-head" part. These were taken inside with much softer lighting:

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The inside lighting shows that the maroon is actually fairly dark. I know many on this forum would put the true red at the top of the list. I certainly like them (and appreciate their historic merit). Personally, though, my favorite has always been the black lids. This maroon one, however, kind of bridges a gap in a way. What was once headed to the trash may well have to stay at home for me to use! My wife will be thrilled:(

Speaking of redhead grill lids, what do you all think of my attempt to make a color version of the metal Weber logo?

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As you can see, this one still needs some touching up, but I really like how the red kettle on the logo goes with the hood. (I think it would also look good with black, but NOT with the maroon.) I am going to try and make another version with the sanded down metal color for the letters and surround and only paint the kettle red. That would be a lot easier and probably would last longer, too. Let me know what you think. Hope to do another thread when I have logo versions done to get your feedback.
 
I will be looking forward to your custom paint jobs on the logs. I am also interested in how you got just the kettle to be red.
 
Jon that is a nice touch on the logo! Adds character, and color matching the lid is classy in my opinion! I bet a maroon kettle would look great on that color lid!
 
I really like the color logo too. I agree it would look great on a black porcelain lid.
 
I may start using custom color schemes on my logo plates. I still want to know how to use alternate colors on just parts of the logo, but otherwise, I would think a red background on a logo for a black lid would be kind of cool.
 
The way I made the one you see was to paint the entire logo with gloss black high temp paint. Then I used regular oil base Testors model paint and an artist brush to hand paint the kettle part red and the Weber name and the surround with white. This, of course, is the standard Weber logo colors. You can see my artistic talents are limited since there are still squiggly parts to touch up:eek:

I guess I am counting on the high temp paint to provide a base to protect the regular paint added on top. I haven’t been able to find high temp paint in red and white in bottles.I thought about using high temp spray paint accumulated in a paper cup but figured it would be a pain to deal with.

While I really like the standard Weber color scheme I don’t see any reason why it couldn’t be adapted. I mentioned doing a logo with the sanded metal look and only painting the kettle. Then you could paint the kettle maroon or green or any color that you thought would work. Easier to do and keep looking good compared to white paint.
 
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OK, I see you are hand painting the kettle. Thats cool. But I would be skeptical that anything but HIGH TEMP paint would eventually fail. I think they do sell high temp paint in cans, but probably just black. Something to look into though.

I think I will be trying some alternate color high temp paint next summer on mine. I have been redoing them all in black without considering the use of any other color. I just paint the whole thing black and then sand down the front until the aluminum is exposed on the raised parts. It looks brand new after that, but I think some alternate colors would add a little something to a grill rebuild.
 
I agree that it is iffy. I will try it out and see how it goes. If it flakes off quickly then I will try the high temp red spray paint accumulated in a cup. I will also be on the lookout for a source for small cans or bottles of high temp paint. Meanwhile I will hope for the best.
 
I have a feeling your choices will be limited in color for cans of "high heat" paint. I don't know why the spray in a cup wouldn't work. Also, since the temps probably won't be quite as high as the cook box lid, you might be able to get away with automotive high heat paint which is available in a lot more colors, but is usually only rated to about 550-600 degrees.
 

 

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