56" Vieluxe Redux


 
LMichaels said:
Oddly I have never used a counterbalance weight while spinning food (though I likely should have) :D Jon, those burner grates look like something off a large commercial kitchen stove. Very impressive. I am sure this will be a thing of beauty. What will it ultimately be for? Showpiece or an actual cooker? I know if it was me with one and as much ambition as you, I'd be turning out food on that monster
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Time will tell, but I don’t expect it to be just a showpiece for looking. I want it to look nice, but if I keep it, I will definitely be using it!
 
BABY STEPS

Very little time to dedicate to grills. Here are a few tiny steps toward having a restored Vieluxe:

The original drip pan was made out of aluminum, a poor choice vs. the porcelain covered, though much smaller, drip trays used on most earlier Weber gas grills. Mine has too many holes that are too large to have any hope of patching:
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I took the recommendation of Ray Chin and bought a stainless pan. Mine is a Walmart special, but is an almost perfect size match:
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I removed the knobs (plastic) and knob bezels (aluminum) and thoroughly cleaned. They are now ready for painting:
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I am a bit perplexed about original colors. It is clear that the plastic knobs were black, but the bezels - even the unexposed undersides - look like they were a dark bronze. There are so few good pictures of new Vieluxes, that it is hard to say what is correct. I am leaning toward painting both satin black. The 20+ year old knobs are not likely to look new even with multiple coats of trim restorer. I had to paint my equally old Summit knobs, and they have held up quite well. Painting black over black I think is a fairly safe way to go.

Finally, with kind advice from @LMichaels - who even provided an eBay link - I picked up a perfect Gleason - Avery Made in USA motor to replace the one missing from my Vieluxe. It is very heavy duty and fits the grill and the spit perfectly!

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Steve I've seen some of you craftsmen polish them up. Would that be a little better as paint would wear off (unless this ends up being showroom only).
Jon Looks like it's moving right along. Unlike me (honestly I think I may have ADHD much of my family thinks so as well). Anyway every time I start a project like this it begins best of intentions then I get side tracked, bored, impatient, etc. I always start with best of intentions but end up sideways.
A thought on the bezels................If the knobs are black perhaps if you polished the bezels the polished aluminum would look good against them. Kind of like an old classic Motorcycle with lots of polished casings against a black frame. Good catch on the pan as well.
But if there is anyone who will bring out the hidden gem here it's in good hands
 
Once polished they could be clear coated. My first motorcycle WAY back in the day was a Honda CB450. It had polished aluminum cases like my buddy's 66 Triumph but unlike the Triumph I never had to polish anything because everything had a clear coat on it. So, while my friend spent days polishing brightwork mine simply needed a wash :D But in all fairness that Honda was an awful bike to ride
 
This one looks like my early model. Still hard to say, but I think it shows black knobs, bezels, trim holding the hood handle as well as on the sliding side burner cover and ends of the control panel. Everything else is stainless.

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Bruce said:
That is an excellent idea Larry. Can you anodize SS or is it just for aluminum?
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I believe SS can be anodized but IDK. I'd had the idea a while back but I forget why I was looking into it. I had a project I was fiddling with here at home and I did some research. Lost interest and didn't carry it further
 
Bruce said:
Pieces like that might be a candidate for powder coating as well.
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Except one issue is aluminum does not take paint well (powder or otherwise). A little home anodizing like when you're dyeing the plastic knobs and such gets the color into the surface not "on the surface" where it can be abraded off.
 
Bruce said:
I never really researched anodizing.
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Well, you already have some good equipment for doing larger pieces with your big tub. Obviously for smaller ones like Jon needs no need for a big tub. But you might find some new and exciting finishing touches you can do on your grills
 
The control panel is all stainless. The unique thing about mine is that all of the markers for the control knobs, the instruction lettering and the logo are all ENGRAVED into the stainless. That makes repainting them within reach - if you have a good artist's hand. I am hoping a woman from my church can do it for me. I plan to leave it stainless and have the paint match the original - at least as close as I can get it.

You can see where the black paint for the markers just completely faded off where not covered by the bezel:

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The logo and name were originally blue, but have faded off to raw stainless:
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Jon Tofte said:
The control panel is all stainless. The unique thing about mine is that all of the markers for the control knobs, the instruction lettering and the logo are all ENGRAVED into the stainless. That makes repainting them within reach - if you have a good artist's hand. I am hoping a woman from my church can do it for me. I plan to leave it stainless and have the paint match the original - at least as close as I can get it.

You can see where the black paint for the markers just completely faded off where not covered by the bezel:

View attachment 116975
The logo and name were originally blue, but have faded off to raw stainless:
View attachment 116978View attachment 116977
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So, then perhaps some black (or perhaps another color) anodizing project would be REALLY cool looking. You can get your hands on some non critical aluminum pieces and give it a whirl. Experiment a bit. Thinking red or maybe that blue color in the video would look WAY sharp
 
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