Help Restoring a 1997 Mastertouch

[Richard Diaz]

I purchased a 1997 Maroon Mastertouch off CL. It obviously has some wear due to its age. I noticed that the front socket is compromised, there is some rust and it is soft/malleable. The two rear sockets are perfect, very sturdy & strong. The grill is in great shape with the exception of this. Any suggestions on trying to rehab this issue. When I inspected it I did not notice the spot as it is the same color of the grill. I can't complain to much, I only paid $15 for it. Its just hard to find colored kettles here in Florida.

 

[Dan W]

Originally posted by Richard Diaz:
I purchased a 1997 Maroon Mastertouch off CL. It obviously has some wear due to its age. I noticed that the front socket is compromised, there is some rust and it is soft/malleable. The two rear sockets are perfect, very sturdy & strong. The grill is in great shape with the exception of this. Any suggestions on trying to rehab this issue. When I inspected it I did not notice the spot as it is the same color of the grill. I can't complain to much, I only paid $15 for it. Its just hard to find colored kettles here in Florida.

Richard -- To deal with the rust I'd isolate the rusty spot, scrape it away with a wire brush, add a little bondo (availale at the box stores and places like autozone), smooth it out and spray a dab of high heat paint over it (autozone has a few color choices, so if you can get close enough to the original color, the spot is small enough, and you've really isolated it with tape, etc., it shouldn't be too terribly noticeable.) To get the rigidity back you could go a couple ways, but the one that I think would least affect appearance would be coating the inside of the socket with an epoxy (designed to handle high heat applications) and re-installing the leg. This would obviously mean you'd have a hard time getting it back out if you ever needed to, but other methods (like brazing, using fasteners) are more likely to affect appearance or mess up the surrounding paint. Good luck! Sounds like a great project, happy to bounce around ideas with you, I love these restorations.

 

[AJ S.]

If the socket is detached, you could try JB Weld. You would need to make sure that all the rust is removed first. Once you fasten it back. Be sure to seal it with high heat paint to prevent new rust. 2 things kill metal, water and air.
If you remove the majority and seal it from the elements, it should last for a long time.
How about some pics? Its hard to suggest anything until we can see it.
AJ

 

[Richard Diaz]

OK guys, here are pictures of the grill all cleaned up. I think if cleaned up real nice. Now to the restore. I have provided pictures of the problem areas. Please provide some suggestions to restore/repair the grill. I do not know where to start. I am having trouble figuring fixing the hook on the bottom as it does not want to stay in place. Here is the original post from when I found the grill. I appreciate all of your help. Any suggestions on resizing the pictures?
http://tvwbb.com/eve/forums/a/...401001116#7401001116

Here is a picture of her all cleaned up:

As I mentioned in the original post I am having a problem with the front leg, socket and hook. It is malleable.

Picture of inner bowl(you can see the welds)

A close up of the problem area(first pic is inner bowl, second pic is outer bowl):

Picture of the bottom of bowl, pre-cleaning.

 

[Pat Smith]

Very nice - and the ash catcher ring bar is intact and looks to be in reasonably good shape. The interior finish is remarkable, too. If you can get the One Touch mechanism removed, I think I would spring the $10 or $12 to replace the ash sweeper assembly. I find that I have to do that ever few years anyway. It's not hard if you can get the old one out. If you can't get the wingnut holding the sweeper handle in to come loose, then removing the assembly is the hardest part of swaping it out.

Good luck with that front leg. I've been experimenting with JB Weld on a couple of projects and so far so good, but its rated only to 600 degrees and that area of the grill could get hot. I've ordered some high temperature (2300 degree) bonding epoxy for some interior ceramics of one of my kamado cookers. It is supposed to work on metal as well. We shall see!

Good luck with the rest of the resto. And thank you for sharing! She is a very pretty older grill in a unique color.

Pat

 

[chad]

@ Richard
How did you get the inner bowl as clean as you did - special cleaner, special brush?

 

[Richard Diaz]

Originally posted by chad:
@ Richard
How did you get the inner bowl as clean as you did - special cleaner, special brush?

I used Easy Off oven cleaner, sprayed the inside with a nice coating. I took the the bowl and put it in a bag and the lid in a separate bag(black heavy duty bags), you can even do it with the charcoal grate and the cooking grate. Let it sit for an hour. I think use a 1 inch plastic putty knife/spatula and scraped the inside, you'll have some spots that are tough but use the putty knife and hit it from different directions to loosen it up. You may have to apply the oven cleaner a second time. I then used newspaper to wipe it down. Hosed it down with some water. I the used some Palmolive with some water and began to scrub the interior with a regular sponge. Hosed it down again. I finished it off with "0000" wool, it does not scratch the porcelain finish. I cleaned the outside with Palmolive and this used the "0000" wool on the exterior as well. I used the wool while the grill was still wet. Hosed it down again. Make sure to use latex gloves as you are dealing with chemicals that will burn your skin and wear some safety glasses/goggles, you don't water some splatter going into your eye. I would also recommend throwing a full chimney in the grill and let it burn off any chemical prior to grilling again. Post before and after pictures, you are going to be amazed. Good luck.

 

[Richard Diaz]

Originally posted by Pat Smith:
Very nice - and the ash catcher ring bar is intact and looks to be in reasonably good shape. The interior finish is remarkable, too. If you can get the One Touch mechanism removed, I think I would spring the $10 or $12 to replace the ash sweeper assembly. I find that I have to do that ever few years anyway. It's not hard if you can get the old one out. If you can't get the wingnut holding the sweeper handle in to come loose, then removing the assembly is the hardest part of swaping it out.

Good luck with that front leg. I've been experimenting with JB Weld on a couple of projects and so far so good, but its rated only to 600 degrees and that area of the grill could get hot. I've ordered some high temperature (2300 degree) bonding epoxy for some interior ceramics of one of my kamado cookers. It is supposed to work on metal as well. We shall see!

Good luck with the rest of the resto. And thank you for sharing! She is a very pretty older grill in a unique color.

Pat

Thank you Pat. I was thinking of using a high heat epoxy but I had concerns about the temperature. What brand of epoxy did you get that is rated at 2300 degrees? The socket where the leg does in, do you remove it completely and sand down the surface to the point where there is not rust then try to re-attached with epoxy? I'm going to try to get the ash sweeper assembly off, I haven't even tried yet, but it does still work. I plan on refinishing the handles as well but that will the last thing. I found a high heat paint with Forrest Paint Co. and Stove Paint that have burgundy/reddish/brownish colors, hopefully the do not flake. She is very pretty, not a very common color. I can't wait to cook up some steaks on her.

 

[ashish debroy]

WOW! You cleaned up your grill very well - I thought it was a NIB purchase when I saw the inside.

Good luck with the restoration. I'll be following keenly to learn somehting for possible future use!

 

[Richard Diaz]

Thank you Ashish, she cleaned up well. Once I get her restored I will really enjoy her and post additional pictures. I'm thinking of leaving the handles as is, they are in pretty good shape and I like the fact that it will show its age. If I restore the handles I will want to figure out a way to make sure I preserve the Weber logo and somehow get the logo dye in black again.

 

[Corey Elks]

i would just soak the handles in mineral oil for a while.

 

[Lawrence M.]

If the socket is about to fall off anyway why not just reweld it instead of using epoxy?

 

[Noe]

Richard, clean all the sockets as best you can, take a piece of wood and knock the sockets back out from the inside so the one touch cleaning system can work properly, take some JB weld or epoxy and spread evenly around the problem areas, paint the area with high heat paint, then what i would do is mount the grill on a table like a performer.

 

[Shaun R]

Hi Richard, first let me congratulate you on an incredibly nice job. That MT found a great home with you. I love the color as well. The cleaning process you used is about the same as mine. I did one recently that looked like it had never been used like yours. These Webers hold up pretty well don't they. It sounds like you are getting some great advice, so I will just stand back and enjoy the show. Thanks again for posting those pictures.