Early 1970's Weber Ranch Kettle


 
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Jason in FLA

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I have been blessed by my folks with their old 1970 or 1972 Weber Ranch kettle since they recently bought a new one. This Weber has seen multiple east coast to west coast moves as well as far southern US to far southern US moves since he got it new from a long time friend that worked for Weber. I don't know exactly where to start but I have read how people have restored their webers on this forum so I went out and got the appropriate materials, i.e. high temp black paint, sand paper and ordered new wheels, bottom vent dampeners as well as a new bottom charcoal grate. The grates are in pretty good condition but I just didn't take a photo of them. The top grate actually has a bar section that has come loose on one side but I figure that I can get someone to weld it back or use some copper wire to hold it back in place. It doesn't effect the cooking, just doesn't look right, but new ones at weber are almost 200 bucks! ouch!
Here are my questions.
1. I have some thinning/completely rusted out portions of the bottom kettle. Any ideas on how I should approach/restore, i.e. see if a welder can patch it or place in metal to help support the thinning areas where the legs are located?
2. Sanding. Since I have more than just a touch up job, any objections to using a orbital sander or just hand sand the large gouges/rust areas on bottom kettle front leg areas and other areas. Maybe a light sanding over it all and heavy sanding on deep gouges and paint the whole thing?
3. Should i sand and paint the inside bottom kettle area after i degrease with simply green product and rinse? My thoughts are to stop the rust progression on both sides of the kettle BUT i'm afraid that the paint might be harmful to people when I start cooking, i.e. off gas to my meat.
4. Vent dampeners are stuck/or area missing to put them. I got to drill out the old ones but a little afraid since the kettle dampener portion is already missing on one of the three vents...Any ideas would be great on it. Might be a welding job???

I guess thats it. I do appreciate the time and knowledge that ya'll submit. I don't plan to start this endeavor until March, so I got a lot of learning/asking to do.
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Pictures would really help.
Many ideas are out there and only time will tell if they have been successful.
Please let us know if your intent is to cook on this on a regular basis or bring it out for the occasional party or family gathering.
You don;t want ot paint the inside, it won't hold up and can be toxic. Once you have the metal all repaired, you can cost the inside with cooking grease and let it season in like cast iron. That will help keep the rust to a minimum.
Should be lots of fun to bring this family heirloom back into action.

AJ
 
AJ,
I had trouble posting the pics, should link should to pics should be on original post now.

I plan on using the Rancher occasionally for summer pool time events that require 40 burgers/hot dogs and for holidays for my family and friends only. Once I get a pad poured for my Webers (WSM, 22.5 Kettle and the Rancher) thats where they will stay. The reason why the gouges and scrapes is bc a friend of ours decided to help their selves to the Rancher to entertain a church function about 25 years ago. Needless to say, my dad wouldn't of mind but he didn't ask (we where off on vacation) and it wasn't secured to the back of his small pickup and it fell out at 40 mph. Gotta love my Dad for his forgiving ways. I would at least told him to fix what was broken.
I just added another picture that shows this Weber ready to smoke 4 or 5 rack of ribs, deer tenderloins and a Tbreast back in april 2011. So though bad in condition it still does a fine job of q'ing!

if not here they are:
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Wow, that thing has been around! I think you have more rust than you can repair. I would try ot slow it down and not do any welding.
I don't know much about these as this is the forst i have ever seen. Is it supposed to have any kind of ash pan?
First thing I would do is clean it real good with some degreaser or oven cleaner. The get some fine steel wool and try and polish the lid and bowl. Then you could posssibly try some kind of rust neutralizer. I have heard of a product called Por-15 ,but have never tried it. I would do some research to see if its tolerant to heat.
Hopefully the experts are going to give some advice.
That thing is cool, but the damage is pretty scary.
I will definitely follow this thread and process.
AJ
 
wow...that poor grill certainly shows its mileage. I wouldnt know where to start. If it wasnt an old Ranch, I say it might not be worth it. I know you said your parents have had it and you think its from 70 or 72, but are you sure about that? From what I can see on the Weber Timeline, Those original steel handles on the lids of kettle grills where no longer used in the 60's....kind of a 50's thing until about 1958 on the Westerner.
Now I havent seen too many old Ranch's before, but I wonder if this grill is alot older than you think?
 
Very nice indeed! That's just what I hope to find one day. That looks like a really fun project!
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Jeff,
Concerning the possible age. You might be right, it might be older. I know that my father got it in 1970 or 72 new. Thus leading us to believe it was manufactured then. Maybe the family friend at Weber who gave it to him had to clear older stuff to make way for the new models. Thanks for the info on the handles.
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Jeff Kolodziejski:
wow...that poor grill certainly shows its mileage. I wouldnt know where to start. If it wasnt an old Ranch, I say it might not be worth it. I know you said your parents have had it and you think its from 70 or 72, but are you sure about that? From what I can see on the Weber Timeline, Those original steel handles on the lids of kettle grills where no longer used in the 60's....kind of a 50's thing until about 1958 on the Westerner.
Now I havent seen too many old Ranch's before, but I wonder if this grill is alot older than you think? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
 
it is in pretty rough shape. I wouldn't try to really restore it. I would get new legs, and new wheels. Those are on ebay for cheap. as for the rusat and finish, just clean up what you can. Scrub the outside with 0000 steel wool. Spray the whole thing down with Pam and see what it looks like. Maybe you could get a vent replacement off of a new rancher from Weber. Refinishing it would be too much work. However if your gonna cook on it you can still keep it in the fight. You can prob stop the rust from getting worse. Rustoleum makes something that turns rust black. I would brush that stuff on the outside, then sparay the whole thing with pam and rub it in. Get it hot and spray it again. With new legs and wheels and a little shining up I bet it would look good. Your not gonna get it all the way back to new but you really don't need to either. Just keep it from getting worse, and keep it cooking.

Brian
 
take a look at a product por 20 high heat paint its aluminized base and then top coat with quality high heat BBQ paint of your choice...JUst make sure after application to heat up the paint past 300 degrees to cure it. Little prep and rock solid results
 
Jay,
I wrote POR 15 company and got this from them after asking them what they would use:

Jason, I have nothing for you internally. We offer our Black Velvet for the exterior of the grill. The proper prep for this product would be sandblasting. Thanks, Mike

Michael A. Albrecht
Vice President, Sales
POR-15, Inc.
Po Box 1235
Morristown, NJ 07962

1-973-417-2132
malbrecht@por15.com
www.por15.com
 
Looks pretty thrashed. My main concern would be the legs or leg attachments giving way and a hot grill falling down during cooking. But if it is solid but just a little rusty knock the rust off best you can. I'd fix the dampers, wire brush the rust inside. give the outside a hand sanding to remove rust and scuff up the paint and hit it with a can of high heat black.

Then I'd fire that antique baby up and cook my *** off and tell everybody you won't see someone cooking on some Chinese crap after 25 years outside.

The only other accessory I would add is a fancy cooler so your fans can grab a beer to drink while they all wish they were man enough to have a rig like that belching smoke in their own backyard.
 
Hey just an update...

I guess over the years the porcelain is deteriorated to the point that I can scratch it off with my fingernail.

I'm at a turning point about how I should go about do: Prep/sand just spots that need it then finish off with High Temp Paint (probably POR 15 makes a product Black Velvet) OR sand the whole outside and paint with same BV product.

I'm not a painter but I've always heard that the finish is only as good as the base its applied over. Any ideas?

Also POR 15 makes FIRE SEAL 2000 putty which the company says is safe in BBQ grills so I plan on using it like bondo in places i need it, i.e. vent dampeners areas.

And probably the last bit is that I'm looking into a welder to possibly cut out the bad vent areas and welding/replacing with new metal. This possibly might also go for the leg areas to beef them up so a catastrophic event like Chris E talked about won't happen. I'm not a welder, so I contacted one that is local. I'm not against having him fab up something to help hold the weight also.

Lastly I had a wild hair and contacted a few facilities who do porcelain enamiling just to see how much or if they would even do it. I did this just for the educational side of things hoping they can steer me right on some questions I have. I sure hate to start sanding the whole thing down and later find out that porcelain dust or the Weber coating process in the 1970's (or earlier) might have some negative effects on the body.

Hoping I'll know more next week...
 
If the porcelain is really delaminating to the point that you describe, it might be an easy proicess to have the whole thing sandblasted. At that point you could decide what metal repair could or should be done. Just hope that you have a really good welder or metal man.
As for a final coat, that all depends on your budget. Can't wait to see the final result.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Chris E:
Looks pretty thrashed. My main concern would be the legs or leg attachments giving way and a hot grill falling down during cooking. But if it is solid but just a little rusty knock the rust off best you can. I'd fix the dampers, wire brush the rust inside. give the outside a hand sanding to remove rust and scuff up the paint and hit it with a can of high heat black.

Then I'd fire that antique baby up and cook my *** off and tell everybody you won't see someone cooking on some Chinese crap after 25 years outside.

The only other accessory I would add is a fancy cooler so your fans can grab a beer to drink while they all wish they were man enough to have a rig like that belching smoke in their own backyard. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well put brother! I wish I had written this, I couldn't agree with you more.

Brian
 
Well I got the job done. I'm hoping that it'll last a few decades more.

The setup:

Washed with Green degreaser thats biodegradable. Sanded, wire brushed leg areas of kettle and thumped them out with hammer. The bottom kettle still had most of the porcelain in place still. Top part of kettle was totally sanded down to metal. the porcelain could be flaked off by my fingernail.

To fill in some cracks/holes in vent areas and legs I used POR 15 product FIRE SEAL 2000. Comes in a medium size tube about as twice as big as one of the small travel tooth pastes tubes. It bonds well and is designed to be used in a high heat areas. I blue taped one side and smeared it in the other side of the kettle with a small flexible plastic putty knife.

POR 15 product called POR 20 Black Velvet 2 pints, sanded by hand and tack clothed down before the painting of BV with a 4" brush. Two coats, 24 hrs in-between coats. Last coat dried in 4 hours and fired up the grill to 400 degrees to set the paint as per instructions.

I guess we're ready for the summer. Thanks for all the input bc it was surely needed and greatly appreciated.

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for me it would be less is better. keep the caricture of the grill. some cleaning and a light sanding on the rust. i treat the rust on my grills with pam. thats it.
 
So have you cooked on it yet? It looks really good. Looks like you kept this soldier in the fight for a long time to come. Nice save on that grill. Really nice piece to have in your cooking arsenal.

Brian
 
Nice Job Jason.. That grill will live on for a long long time..
Now can someone please find him some original wheels. That thing just don't look right with new shoes!
 
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