56" Vieluxe Redux


 
Mike Lang, the author of "Another Pint Please" and our honored guest at TVWBB Upper Midwest Meet from a few years ago, wrote a nice article about using a Vileluxe:


The one he cooked on did not have the newer bezels with markers, but it also did not have the front logo engraved like mine. I am guessing they gave up on that early on.

Here is the one Mike cooked on where you can barely see any logo left - and NO engraving:

Mike Lang article close up of knobs.jpg
 
If it’s recessed you wouldn’t even need to hand paint it. You could spray it and then carefully wipe it while wet with a solvent soaked rag.
Good point, Cody. I had thought about that...I guess I could experiment before paying someone to do it for me!

On the instruction lettering, I am thinking black except leaving the lettering on the front without paint. It is legible enough, and I don't see it in black in any pictures:

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What would actually try, is a really light dust coat. Let it dry and the use a dry scrub daddy. And do several light coats so you wouldn’t get much build up of paint to remove each time - if that makes sense?
 
A LITTLE MORE

I removed all the side burner parts. The VERY heavy brass trivet and brass flame diffuser circle cleaned up but didn’t look too good. The original finish was badly faded.

I decided I would take a chance and paint them with 1200 degree paint. Hopefully, it will cure OK. I don’t expect a lot of heavy duty usage. I used a bench grinder wire brush to clean up the bottom piece. I couldn’t get everything and was starting to be concerned about being too aggressive with the softer aluminum. Altogether, they should look way better underneath those massive grates:

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Those grates are clean but awaiting seasoning. I will post when ready.

The liners for my drip pan arrived. I tried hard on the massive stainless drip tray. It no longer looks like this:
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But while it is very clean, no amount of scrubbing and heavy duty cleaners would budge those long burnt-on stains. It is a GREASE tray and it stays out if sight in the closed cabinet.

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Compare this holder clip for the drip pan to ones used on the Genesis😲!
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I also removed the six main burnets. @R Chin, I really wish these heavy duty burners could be salvaged like yours, but they all seem to mr to be a lost cause:
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The smoker box burner is the only one still intact, but it is stubbornly refusing to budge. I am trying very hard to not damage this unique burner, so patience and lots of Gibbs penetrating oil is needed!
 

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I also wire brushed the flavorizer bars that could be salvaged. Some had completely disintegrated:
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The prior owner’s solution to this was to pile on some cheap flavorizers from some other grill and keep on grilling!

I plan to buy a new set of 11 bars - without the welded bottom connectors - but having 7 spares will hardly be a bad thing😎. Much more importantly, at least one of the two triangular “smoker tubes” was fully intact and cleaned up well.
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The smoker tubes are pricey to replace. I plan to do like @R Chin did and have Dave Santana make me an extra long one for the back of the firebox and eliminate the need for the flavorizer welded-on bottom brackets as protection for the burner crossovers. p.s. ALL of my crossovers were almost completely dissolved! The tube I restored will go in the front. More on how that all works down the road.
 
A BURNER SOLUTION:

Since there are no original Vieluxe burners available for sale any longer, if - like me - you cannot refurbish your originals, the only semi-viable fix is to use 1st generation Summit burners that are a half inch too short. Even this is starting to get iffy, as I noticed that GrillParts.com has warnings of low stock on these burners:confused:. It could become very difficult to even get them in the not-too-distant future...

What others have shared and commented on is that if you push the Summit burner all the way in on a Vieluxe, the front part barely touches the valve. Understandably, some expressed concerns about the potential danger of going this route, since the fuel flow may not all stay contained in the burner tube.

THIS PICTURE SHOWS JUST HOW CLOSE TO THE EDGE THIS WOULD BE. A SECOND SHUTTER HAS BEEN OVERLAID TO ATTEMPT TO HOLD THE BURNER IN PLACE. THE VALVE IS JUST BARELY INSIDE THE BURNER TUBE:
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So, to avoid this risk, the alternative idea is to add some extensions to the end of the Summit burner tab to allow it to go into the back of the grill but also allow the front of the burner to be fully connected to the valve:
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There are some problems with this approach, however. When installed this way, the holes for crossover do not line up and the openings are way too close to the front of the grill:

Summit burner too close to front.JPEG

But, if you put the Summit burner all the way in, things line up much better, and the end of the burner fits perfectly into the Vieluxe back:
Summit burner pushed in all the way.JPEG
Pair of Summit burners installed all the way in.JPEG

I pondered some dubious ideas that I shared with my friend @Bruce. Leave it to Bruce to come up with a really clever and elegant fix to this problem. It is safe and doesn't require complex parts. It does take some of his welding talents, however. Bruce recommended that we try welding on a tube extension to the burner shutter end piece. Fortunately, this part is identical on virtually all Weber burners, so using some old Silver B ones he has in overflow leftover stock will work fine. Here's what Bruce came up with as a prototype:

Summit burner with Bruce's Welded on extension.JPEG
Summit burner with Bruce's Welded on extension Close Up.JPEG

The really cool thing about this fix is that since the end piece/shutter is not subjected to so much heat being outside the firebox, it will last a long time. When a burner fails beyond restoration, you can just take out the small screw and pop this customized piece off to substitute on a new burner! I think this safely solves a lot of issues, keeping the gas channeled into the burner tube while the burner is also in right location, well seated and with its openings lined up where they should be.

THANK YOU, BRUCE!
 
STAINLESS CONTROL PANEL - FIRST EFFORTS

I removed the almost 5-foot-long control panel (just 4 stainless screws). It cleaned up pretty nicely with just some grill cleaner and Bar Keepers Friend liquid paste:

BEFORE
Control panel before cleaning.JPEG
AFTER
Control panel AFTER cleaning.JPEG


I even experimented with painting the lettering and markers on one section (with overflow - I am no artist) and then removing the excess paint. It works great, but it unfortunately also highlighted the roughed-up areas where the prior owner had used Brillo or something similar to clean around the burner knobs. I showed @Bruce and he liked the paint job but commented that it was a shame the scratches detracted from this impressive piece of stainless's appearance:
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At Bruce's recommendation, I talked with @Josh Dekubber about trying to sand my way out of this problem and also looked at some short articles about removing scratches from stainless. Josh agreed that using progressively finer grit sanding might be a possibility and suggested I not start out too coarse.

I bought a set of progressive sanding pads with a pad holder from Amazon for about 15 bucks.


Stainless Sanding pads.JPEG


I started out with 400 grit, working my way to a final sanding with 3000 grit. Sounds hard, but it was actually pretty easy. The 400 grit did most of the work, while the finer pads mainly brightened things up. I also applied some stainless cleaner/polish to the small area I experimented with.

The section on the left of the "LEFT" main burner had the same scratches as the section to the right of it still has in this photo. I am really happy how this works. It is a LONG control panel, so removing the rest of the scratches and doing the rest of the paint work will take some effort. I am eagerly looking forward to the final product on this important part:coolkettle:!
Control panel section sanded 2.JPEG

Doing this reminded me of the stainless disaster I worked so hard years ago in the blistering Florida heat to bring back. It was on one of my unusual projects: A Lazy Man grill:

 
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