Cleaning up SS rod grates


 
No, Jon, I would be extremely surprised if that would work. I guess you could try it, but I wouldn't expect good results.
 
Bruce said:
No, Jon, I would be extremely surprised if that would work. I guess you could try it, but I wouldn't expect good results.
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You are probably right, although if I was willing to try, it how long would you have to test it to feel that is ok to sell one done that way?

Otherwise, I guess I will have to completely wire brush a lot of my end caps to smooth metal on the outside. I guess it is ok and probably easier to maintain, but it doesn’t give the original Weber “look”.
 
Bruce said:
You don't paint the outside or inside of the firebox. they are ceramic coated. You just clean them up.
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Bruce,

I believe he means the cast aluminum bottom not the porcelain covered hood. For the aluminum firebox part, the pictures I have seen of media blasting make me wish I had that option available. I briefly looked at a few cheap Harbor Freight media blasters but they all had a lot of negative reviews.

I know it isn’t cost effective to take it to a shop unless you have a friend who will cut you a great deal. I wish a group of us were close enough to go in one good unit and share. I bet the angle grinders would be laying around looking for something to do;)!
 
I would say get the grill up to peak temp (at least 500) and then let it burn for a half hour. If it holds up to that, then you might have something. But, I would still be wary.

I have wire brushed a lot of my end caps completely clean and just went with the smooth look. I think it is fine. My personal Redhead is smooth. If the end cap just has a couple small issues, I remove any loose paint around the area and then repaint. It is hard to see small imperfections, but anything close to the size of a dime is too much and I clean the whole thing off.
 
WRT media blasting, I might have to look into getting one because it would definitely make cleaning up the inside of the cookbox much easier. As to the end caps and outside of the firebox, yeah, you don't want to lose the texture. But sometimes, you come across end caps that have flaking paint. There's no way to get that texture back that we are currently aware of. So, it might make sense to take those caps down to smooth, bare aluminum before repainting. Yes, texture will be gone, but you'll have a consistent finish, not a spotted one.
 
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