I will just leave this here


 
Jon Tofte said:
Oh yeah, I forgot about that one! I am almost certain that one was a scam. This one is totally legit, just a little high priced.

And as Steve already noted, the Flat Top shares a lot in common with the 1st generation Summit. I picked up a somewhat abused one last winter but just am still too overwhelmed to do all the projects I would like, so it has just sat in my shop. 2 years and 2 months to semi-retirement where I hope I can FINALLY do more. Anyway, the one I picked up, in spite of obvious neglect, showed ZERO signs of rust on the firebox front which is the same as my Summit. I attribute this to the open top that vents off heat much, much faster and probably spared the porcelain the more severe expansion and contraction that results in cracks in the porcelain and then Swiss cheese rust holes!

When I picked it up. A guy from New York tried to corner the market on 1st gen Summits and Flat Tops back during COVID. I contacted him and we struck a deal where he would bring this Flat Top to Indianapolis when here for a trade show. I also bought two sets of additional Summit grates and a bunch of control knobs and some other stuff from him.
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Firebox front. Dirty but NO rust!
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Well, actually I did mess around some with the sliding covers. I toyed with having them recoated in porcelain by IPE in KC. Jeff there quoted me $200. When you add shipping there and shipping back, it just seemed more than I could justify for a grill I want to COOK on not just look at. So, I tried the Pam trick and was surprised to see a considerable improvement. Since then, I have bought that "Pimp My Grill" metal treatment which seems like it works better without leaving greasy residue that will only come off over time.

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I also bought a couple black silicone trivets that will cover most of these two sliding covers. It will be good enough for when I can finally don a Crocodile Dundee hat and do a big steak on the barbie!
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Well, I received my bottle of "Pimp my Grill" yesterday and gave it a try this afternoon. I got similar results as Jon. For minor fading, I would say it does a good job but it is not permanent as Jon states. Just how long lasting it would be, I don't know, but after spraying some simple green on it and scrubbing with a clean microfiber will bring back some of the fade.

I did try it on a lid with an area of bad fade and it didn't do near enough to mike me happy. BUt on the medium to slight fade, it had good results. It has a solid petroleum smell to it. I am guessing a light coating of motor oil would do similar but probably would not be as durable or long lasting.

I wish it was a magic bullet, but it is not. What it will do is make a slightly faded look lid look really good and I think barring any HD scrubbing will stay that way for an extended period of time. Just know that you probably don't want to treat the lid with this stuff and then break out the cleaning chemicals and start scrubbing the lid or you will undo much of the benefits. I have no idea what heat will do to the treatment, but I assume that if it is petroleum based, it likely will handle it pretty well.

I plan to keep it with my grill stuff and use it very judiciously on the marginal lids. I would think with a small bottle you could do dozens of lids. Maybe 100. It goes a long way.

Semi faded Clean lid before treatment:

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I taped off one side of the lid:

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After treatment on the left side:

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With the tape removed:
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After scrubbing with simple green and a micro fiber towel:

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A different black lid with a bad faded area. I stuck a stencil letter M on it in the middle of the faded area before treating it.
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After treating and removing the stencil. Notice the area around the stencil still shows significant remnants of the fade.1747169507164.png
 

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It looks like it certainly does help, but the simple green took it right off. Has anyone used that stuff on weber fade and then cooked on it? I could see using it on a grill I own, but if it isn't going to last would definitely be hesitant to use it on a grill I am planning to sell.

But thanks for the in-depth write up! It is much appreciated!
 
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