PAT Pending Restoration Tips?


 

MikeInVT

New member
1969 PAT Pending Kettle Restoration Tips?

Hello everyone,
I have been lurking on this forum for about a month and decided to sign up. This is my first post, so please be easy on me if it is not in the correct sub-forum.

I recently added custom wheels to my 2013 black kettle (photo below). This small customization inspired me to find an old kettle for restoring.

When I was at a friend's house a couple weeks ago, I noticed an 18" red kettle in the backyard of his landlord's yard. My friend said his landlord wouldn't mind if I took it and tried to restore it. When I took a closer look, I noticed the PAT PENDING on the lid vent, suggesting a 1969-1972? kettle. Below are photos of the original condition, as well as the condition after I sprayed her down. I plan on polishing the legs and triangle - As you can see from the photos, a little scrubbing on the triangle will make it shine. I had planned on giving her a vinegar bath to help remove the rust, and then coating the rust spots in canola oil and firing up the grill HOT to season the bare metal spots. My question is: is it worth trying to remove all of these rust spots or should I leave her AS-IS and just buy some new grill grates?

Custom Wheels on 2013 black kettle:
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Original Condition of 18" red kettle:
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Mike in VT,
That is a nice and not too common find. Your work looks great already. There are definitely different views about restoration of these old kettles. The majority of serious collectors, I think, would agree with your plan to season the battle scars as part of this 50-year old grill’s story. I definitely would do all I can to save the original wheels and riveted wood handle.

Myself, I am not above some minor touch-ups with red brake caliper paint and clear coat. It just needs to be done judiciously with no over spray on the porcelain. Buffing a blend with a Dremel or something similar might help, too. You could try that on some of the smaller, obscure chips and see what you think.

I would suggest you sand down the handle, restain and coat with spar urethane. You can also find replacements for the bottom vents and the twist on ash pan that I assume are both missing. It all depends on what you are after and willing to spend. If you plan to actually USE this kettle and are willing to spend a little extra, go to KillaGrilla.com and buy a high quality stainless grate. I recommend the one with the single extra large fold up, but he also makes the dual fold up. A Weber replacement for the charcoal grate is a cheap fix. If you only plan to “display” this grill, I would just buy a new basic Weber cooking grate.

http://killagrilla.com/

I restored a similar black kettle that is a few years newer and which had less battle scars. I display it to some great curiosity in my work office:

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Hey Jon,
Thanks so much for taking the time to respond. I plan on using this kettle as a weekly BBQ in the Summer months. I don't trust myself enough to be able to conservatively use high heat red spray paint, so I think I am just going to re-season with some vegetable oil. Before I re-season, should I try to remove the rust? If so, I was thinking an overnight vinegar bath. I think I have a round plastic tote (keg holder) that would appropriately fit the kettle. I am thinking the vinegar could potentially get into those small rust spots. I may need to pull out my angle grinder for the larger rust spots.

Should I sand the handle with it attached to the grill or drill out the rivets? Probably leave the rivets, right? I have the original twist ash pan, but my friend is using it on his kettle until I can find him a replacement. I don't plan on purchasing new bottom vents, as I usually just leave the vents all open when grilling... that might be a project for next Summer.

Thanks again for your response - I want to keep this kettle's story going for as long as possible!
 
Mike,
My rivets were tight enough that I just sanded the handle in place. The Weber logo on mine is not historically accurate but was hand painted by my artist friend because I just liked the look. If yours is really loose and not fixable, you can get new authentic wood handles that look like they are riveted. They are really nice, but they aren’t cheap.

If you are going to use this grill regularly than I agree with your seasoning plan. I am not an expert, but I think your vinegar idea will work well. I would lean towards being cautious rather than too aggressive on rust removal. If you season it (and perhaps re-season occasionally) you should be good for a long time. I would put my money into getting good grates. I know the KillaGrilla ones aren’t cheap, but they are so far above regular OEM nickel ones you will never go back. And the 304 stainless cleans easily and with some care will be the last set you will ever need. Nickel plate are good for a season, if that. Best wishes and keep us posted with picture updates!
 
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Jon, Thanks for all of the tips. I have come across a product called Evapo-Rust, which has some sort of magical powers. I will give it a try and report back with photos when I am complete. I have a question about the wheels: Were the wheels on my kettle originally painted black?
 
Mike,
I am attaching a link to the Weber Kettle Club article about kettle dating. Unfortunately it is mostly about the standard 22” kettle. The wheels you have don’t really look exactly like the one they show for the “Patent-Pending” era. You might want to join the WKC and see if someone there can give you a concrete answer. I tend to doubt that those wheels were anything but white with plain black rubber.

http://weberkettleclub.com/determine-age-of-old-grill/
 
I bought a concentrated solution similar to Evapo-rust called Rust911. The disassembled grill parts were soaked for 24 hours. Attached are some progress photos of the wheels. I will have complete before and after photos within a week or two.

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Thanks Jon. Someone on a different forum mentioned that the wheels on this grill are not authentic, since it looks to be a different wheel than what is spec'd. While I believe this person because the rubber tread DOES look different, I am hesitant to believe that anything on this grill is not authentic. For example, someone would not have gone through the effort to change wheels on a charcoal grill and then decide to leave the grill outside through snowy winters for 40 years... right? Nevertheless, I don't plan on adding a whitewall to the wheels because there isn't a defined line for the whitewall.

Below are completion photos. After I removed the rust, you can see from the photos there was some flash rusting in the bowl and on the wheels. Next Spring, I plan to sand/stain the wood handle, and most likely add daisy wheels to the underside of the grill. I am hesitant to add the daisy wheels, because these would be the only items not original to the grill and I am contemplating keeping everything as I found it. The only other non-original piece if the white leg cap. I took it off of a small propane gas tank, but it is very flimsy. Does anyone know a part/model number of a better white leg cap?

Behold the freckled redhead:

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Looks great. The battle scars are part of the beauty, never paint over them.

Paul,

I am just really curious why so many kettle fans and collectors are opposed to doing paint repairs. I do agree that you should never paint over porcelain and that there is a limit to what you can repair with high heat paint. And, yes, I have seen some pretty botched paint jobs. Still, it just seems to me that a grill like the one shown in this thread could look a lot nicer if at least some of the obvious damage was CAREFULLY repaired.

I ask, because I have a redpatent pending 26" flat top "The Aristocrat" that looks about like the kettle shown here. I tried offering it for sale, as is, on the WKC site but got no real interest. After sending close-ups, one person commented - understandably - that they didn't realize how "rough" mine was. I am now more inclined to try some restoration work like I do on my Weber gas grills. For those people do NOT value battle scars and the goal is to make the older ones look authentic - but also like they were when new.

I am toying with trying to use JB Weld high heat as a "filler" to bring the chips back to close to level and then painting with several coats of dark red high heat caliper paint. Finally following up with some buffing, etc. - maybe with a Dremel tool - to feather out the transitions. I think it would be possible to make one of these look a LOT nicer and more attractive.

Sorry for rambling. Just really curious why so many seem opposed to restoration of the kettle surface.

Here is a 22" kettle that I did some repaint work only with red caliper paint:

BEFORE

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AFTER

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Yes, you can see the repairs, but I still think this kettle looked way nicer when I was done. I wish I had more before pictures so you could see more of the damage I repaired.
 
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Paul,

I do agree that you should never paint over porcelain and that there is a limit to what you can repair with high heat paint. And, yes, I have seen some pretty botched paint jobs. Still, it just seems to me that a grill like the one shown in this thread could look a lot nicer if at least some of the obvious damage was CAREFULLY repaired.
Based upon this, does that mean the only way to change the color of a kettle is to grind off all the porcelain and then repaint it with a high temperature spray paint? I am asking because I picked up a first generation Performer (metal table) that has a blue kettle that needs repairing (has a nickel sized burn through hole on the bottom side of the kettle) and has some rust spots on it. I want to upcycle it and give it to a friend as a present, so giving it to them with rust spots isn’t really acceptable. I was thinking to paint it a darker color, but need some guidance please.
 
I appreciate what you are trying to do, but I don’t think grinding off porcelain and then using paint is the way to go. Personally, I would instead seek out a used regular kettle that doesn’t need all that. Salvage the hardware from the Stainless Steel Performer (SSP) you have to adapt it. Whether you want to drill a hole for the igniter depends on the condition of what you currently have. You can have a Performer without a gas assist.

You can find some decent black kettles being unloaded pretty cheap. I actually think black looks better on an SSP.

If you are determined to keep your blue one, I guess I would try to make a patch for the hole and only paint the repairs with high heat blue.
 

 

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