Giving an Old Rusty Smoker New Life

by Andrea M

5 Materials

1 Day

Easy

Years ago a buddy gave my husband a rusty wobbly smoker. Although it worked just fine, I thought it would be nice to make it look new for him.
We started at 9am and finished at 6pm with some other projects in between.

First step was to remove the vent flaps handles and old rotten wood shelf.

Then we moved it onto a paint tarp and sanded. This took a little over an hour and resulted in lots of sneezing!

Using some sticks we propped the doors open enough to paint every outside part at once.

We used Rustolum High Heat matte black finish spray paint. We put on three costs of paint.

While this dried we sanded some 3/4" x2 1/2" oak boards to replace the shelf. I discovered that the wood handles were the same dia. as closet shlef rods and we had a small piece in the scrap pile! Ya, free handles!

We stained the wood with Minwax Tudor polyurethane stain (three coats).

Back, sprayed.

Final step was to reattach the vents and handles and spay the bolts black to blend in and we used brass screws in all the wood pieces (less to rust). We also counter sunk the screws in the shelf for a more leval surface. And then all leg bolts and bracing was tightened (no more wobble).

Vary last was to heat it up to cure the High Heat paint.

Not wanting too waste the heat... Fall of the bone ribs were made. These were amazing! (Savory Spice, Carolina Rib Rub is great).

Most time on this project was spent waiting for paint/stain to dry. We did some shopping, picked up some cabinets for my husband's office and clients up the yard in between steps... Because, have you ever waited for paint to dry!

$12 for paint, $10 for screws and bolts, $18 for wood.

Not a bad cost for a free smoker.

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2 of 22 comments

Donna Bennett on Sep 14, 2015
Good job. My husband and I used the same paint on a pot belly stove and it still looks good. That was 40 years ago.

3 Reply
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