Ugh, I Did It Again, Restoring Another Smoker

WeberWho

***Disclaimer*** Big Green Egg is the best and this smoker below sucks. Don't buy it. Only buy Big Green Eggs. Now onto the post and keeping the Buffalo happy with the disclaimer. 

Yep, I'm an idiot. I picked up yet another smoker that needs to be restored. This GIF pretty much sums it up....



Fortunately this smoker didn't require an 18 hour round trip this time.



The smoker is called Backyard Bomber BBQ. It's a vertical fed smoker that was made in Cannon Falls, MN. Unfortunately the business isn't around anymore. I'd imagine it's a tough business to be in given the area. A neat connection being from MN nonetheless. I believe it's the Bomber model which was a limited run. I've read the cost in material and time didn't offset much of the purchase price.

I found this particular smoker on Craigslist. The previous owner had his daughter list the ad for him so she became the middle man for questions. I didn't want to bother her much but I did ask how the overall condition of the smoker was. She mentioned it was good condition. Good enough for me...or so I thought. I didn't have much of a chance to look it over as the owner had it strapped up on his utility tractor ready to be dropped in the back of my truck. This was helpful as rain was on the way, so we made it quick and had a nice short chat.

When getting it home and unloading it, I noticed the condition of the smoker wasn't as nice as I might have imagined it. Not the end of the world with it only being cosmetic but I really wasn't hoping for another restoration. Here are a few pictures of the smoker:



I noticed the powder coat started peeling towards the bottom lip on the lower left side which I knew that was going to be an issue. 



The other issue or time consuming thing was the inside of the smoker being rusty. I wasn't able to look over the inside of the smoker as he had it ready to be loaded, which was maybe a good thing, as it may have dampened my mood or purchase. It was priced very, very much in my favor even with these issues. 



My friends stopped over here a few weeks back for fantasy football. Since I had them over here, I took the advantage and had them help me lay down the smoker to see what was going on under it. Kind of what I expected when I noticed paint flaking on the bottom lip. 



So I went to work. 



Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the bottom after priming and painting. I did take the opportunity to clean up the casters and soak them in WD-40 and run some grease through the zerk fittings. I also took the opportunity to sand whatever I could before getting it back upright. I had the guys back over last week for the Vikings game. It took all four of us to lift it back up. The smoker is a beast. 

Here is the smoker all taped up, sanded, and waiting to be primed. 



I had a chance to spray some primer on it yesterday. 



Too hot and windy to paint today but figured I'd post some pics of the process of the restoration for anyone who might be interested....

Canugghead

Sucker for smokers! jk
Good to see it coming back to its former glory. Any chance it's some sort of gravity feed?

lousubcap

Another great restoration project.  You have an enviable skill set and equipment to enjoy your recovery projects.  Waiting for the finish and test run.  

WeberWho

Canugghead said:

Sucker for smokers! jk
Good to see it coming back to its former glory. Any chance it's some sort of gravity feed?

You nailed it. I'm a sucker for cheap smokers. Ha! Gravity fed smokers have always intrigued me. I'm interested to see how close the flavor profile might be with a stick burner if you can fully ignite chunks of wood below the lump/charcoal. 

WeberWho

lousubcap said:

Another great restoration project.  You have an enviable skill set and equipment to enjoy your recovery projects.  Waiting for the finish and test run.  

Thanks much! When I messaged you about the brisket and the offset I kept thinking to myself if I only had this freaking smoker finished!!! 

Photo Egg

I’m really anxious to see your results cooking on this!

dbCooper

Nice!  Will be waiting for the finished pics and cook.

Now, what about that 63 Chevy in the first picture.  

WeberWho

Photo Egg said:

I’m really anxious to see your results cooking on this!

Thanks! This was one of the main reasons why I was so gung-ho about getting that smaller offset to run on sticks!

WeberWho

dbCooper said:

Nice!  Will be waiting for the finished pics and cook.

Now, what about that 63 Chevy in the first picture.  

Thanks! Good question about the Chevy. It's a friend's neighbors house. It's a roller. I'm not sure if it's going to be a parts car or something that's going to be restored. I know he has a nicer Impala inside the garage that I've never seen moved. So it's hard to tell what's going to happen to the one outside. It might just be a parts car for the other Impala. He also has an old GTO in the garage. I've seen him drive that one. 

GrateEggspectations

She’s gonna be a beaut. I can feel it. 

WeberWho

GrateEggspectations said:

She’s gonna be a beaut. I can feel it. 

Hey thanks. It's not going to look pretty once done but that's going to be somewhat international. It will make a little more sense hopefully a little bit later this week once I get a chance to paint it.

alaskanassasin

Give it a cool color like yellow or lime green…

WeberWho

alaskanassasin said:

Give it a cool color like yellow or lime green…

You're not too far off with the lime green comment. 

alaskanassasin

… give it the @WeberWho touch

Foghorn

Chartreuse.  Or magenta.  Either would be great.  

RRP

Cool that you are into such retro projects! 

Gotta ask since I haven’t read about your earlier projects…do you keep them or resell them?

WeberWho

RRP said:

Cool that you are into such retro projects! 

Gotta ask since I haven’t read about your earlier projects…do you keep them or resell them?

Thanks! @RRP I put a couple links below on the couple other smoker restorations I've done. Probably not worth reading through it all but the pictures might peek your interest. 

I sold my first smoker restoration project. I had no intention of selling it once completing the rehab on it but I came across another smoker that I had to jump on.

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1204817/refurbishing-an-offset-smoker-updates/p1


My second smoker restoration I completed earlier this year and I had no intention on selling it but it might find a new home next spring since I'm having no luck with running this small of smoker strictly on wood splits alone. 

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1223446/restoring-another-offset-smoker-and-pork-butts/p1

RRP

WeberWho said:

RRP said:

Cool that you are into such retro projects! 

Gotta ask since I haven’t read about your earlier projects…do you keep them or resell them?

Thanks! @RRP I put a couple links below on the couple other smoker restorations I've done. Probably not worth reading through it all but the pictures might peek your interest. 

I sold my first smoker restoration project. I had no intention of selling it once completing the rehab on it but I came across another smoker that I had to jump on.

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1204817/refurbishing-an-offset-smoker-updates/p1


My second smoker restoration I completed earlier this year and I had no intention on selling it but it might find a new home next spring since I'm having no luck with running this small of smoker strictly on wood splits alone. 

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1223446/restoring-another-offset-smoker-and-pork-butts/p1

You “da rehab man”!

nolaegghead

Awesome!

lkapigian

Awesome find, you will live the gravity feed

WeberWho

lkapigian said:

Awesome find, you will live the gravity feed

Thanks! It's no Stumps XL but I'm looking forward to trying out the gravity feed and see how they work. 

caliking

Very much above my pay grade, but I am jealous, nonetheless. We can tell you're already enjoying your new acquisition

WeberWho

caliking said:

Very much above my pay grade, but I am jealous, nonetheless. We can tell you're already enjoying your new acquisition

Hey thanks for the kind words but none of this is going to make my food look as good as yours! 

stv8r

Enjoying this thread very much!  Looking forward to finished pics and cooks

EGGjlmh

You should send some pics to the people you bought it from when finished. I'm sure they would like to see it!

BeerMike

Nice find and great job on the restoration! 

WeberWho

It's been a few weeks but I finally found some time to get it all wrapped up. A big shout out to @lkapigian for letting me pick his brain about his gravity feed smoker. In one of his messages lkapigian mentioned that there are certain areas on the smoker that I need to watch and might possibly need to be touched up with paint in the future. That message changed my whole original image of the smoker I had in my head. My original intent was to paint the smoker in a detailed camo using real leaves and branches. Each color would have a certain stencil, which I think would be really cool, but the more I talked with lkapigian the more it made sense to abandon the camo theme. Especially with having to touch up the paint in the future. It wouldn't be very fun trying to touch up colors and patterns that are layered. So I went with an army green since I already purchased camo colors.

Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture of just the smoker in green paint before stenciling in the name. 

Here's a picture of letter stencils being taped up. 



I was able to sandblast the grates in the blast cabinet. 



Here are a couple pictures of the inside. This was a complete pain the arse to clean up. Way, way too many hours into cleaning the inside of the smoker. Also replaced 18' feet of gaskets around the smoker.



Lighting of the smoker. (I sprayed down the inside and grates of the smoker with PAM.) 



Here's the finished product....



No food tonight. Firing it up tonight to just play around with it. The plan is to throw some food in it Saturday. Not sure what food yet but Saturday will be the true test. 



Thanks for looking if you've made it this far into the post.....

lkapigian

Fan Fvcking Tastic @WeberWho

alaskanassasin

Nailed it! Next level restoration 

Photo Egg

Way Coooool…….

Eggdicted_Dawgfan

Awesome job!