Grill Project. Show Me Yours

So I moved into a house in which the landlord left a sizable gun safe. I gave away what i couldn't shoot and ended up trading some .38 special for a grill/smoker that needed some TLC. It took a few weekends as work was quite busy and i had plenty of other things to do on the weekends

This grill was in some rough shape. Had a ton of leaves and ashes in it. Doubt it was cleaned even once when it was used. It had also been sitting uncovered in the Florida rain and sunshine.

This is the smoker half. You can see the amount of ashes still left over.

Most of the inside paint was rusted and chipping. Had to do a lot of sanding and since i don't have a wheel or palm sander, it was all by hand. Also, the angles probably wouldn't have work out anyway so the effort worth it.
The wood was way past its prime. It was split, dry rotted and warped. Thought about replacing it with a solid block of cherry but more on that later.

This was right before sucking out the ashes and sanding in the main cooking area.

First coat of VHT primer. I used the same rattle cans when painting my guns. It has been over a year and no signs of chipping or melting on them after a lot of range time so i figured it would work out here as well. I used a matte black on the legs as well to finish the bottom.

Other side of the grill. This was the first coat of primer, did some light sanding in between.

First coat of OD. Well, actually it is Italian Olive something or other. The actual OD was out and I am impatient. Also, i thought it looked a bit too dark so this is more of what i was looking for.

Front of the grill and Pickles. He helped me out by jumping in the pool and generally being in my way. Same black on the handles to match the legs.

Initial layout of the pin up. I've got a thing of nose art and initially i did not think it would turn out nice. I can barely draw with pencil and paper let alone paint. Stencils and spray paint i can do though.

After i decided to go with the nose art, i was going to do a random plane. After looking at ideas i just decided to emulate one of the most famous ones. Couldn't think of a better one than the Memphis Belle. Bock's Car or the Enola Gay were also ideas but they didn't have pin ups so this was the final decision.

Didn't have enough room for all the names so just the pilot here.

Bombs were printed out and cut out with a pair of crummy scissors but i like how everything looks a little worn. John Deere semi gloss with a dusting of OD on top. I ended up taking the arms off because the wood shelf would cover up the bottom half of the grill.

This was the actual serial number of the Memphis Belle over the multitude of missions.
The final product. Paint pens filled in the pin up and name. I know she looks more like a Simpson's character than a pin up but the paint i bought initially did not stick to the primer. Still think it looks half decent for a few weekends.

 

great project. I love it. Is all the decorative paint high heat?

 

Wow. That grill is almost too pretty to use.
I had to weld up a new charcoal pan for mine because the factory sheet metal one was totally gone after just one season, but it wasn't nearly as fancy as that.

 

It isn't all high heat, just two coats of VHT engine primer. I used the same set up on my AK and the barrel hasn't shown any signs of wear after many many trips to the range. I'm going to test it out this weekend and see how it does.