A few months ago I bought a used Humphrey's Tank II Wide that had seen better days. The paint was in really rough shape and it had a lot of scratches and some rust. The inside was a mess, had chunks of whatever the previous owner cooked on it, the walls were caked with grime and the water pan was full of sand that had who knows how many cooks worth of grease mixed into it. The smell was horrendous as well, super rancid and overwhelming.
Once I got the cooker home I took the pressure washer to it and scraped the walls and grates clean. I chipped out all the caked up sand that was stuck in the water pan as well. It was pretty disgusting but once it cleaned up I really started to see the potential. I took a grinder with a wire wheel to all the chipped and rusted areas and brought it down to bare steel. it was especially bad around the fire box. I then put a coat of high heat primer everywhere that had bare steel and lightly sanded the areas of the paint that were still somewhat glossy. I also realized that I wanted the decals to match so I drilled out the rivets and cleaned out the decals to be painted.
After all the prep work, it was time for some paint. I wanted a two tone look but my options were limited. I contemplated using the high heat caliper paint but noticed that it was required to get the paint up to a certain temperature to cure. I was worried that on an insulated cooker such as this I wouldn't be able to get the whole thing up to the required paint to make that happen. After that I felt like I was relegated to the Rustoleum high heat products. I used the flat black high heat paint on the main body and applied it with a foam roller. It went on really smooth and looks great. For the doors I decided to use the "Aged Copper" high heat paint from Rustoleum to match my copper vein hood on my Blaz'n Grillworks pellet cooker. This type of paint only came in a spray can so I was a little nervous but, I bought a nozzle that gave the spray a wider application and was just very careful about applying light even coats across the area. The last step was painting the decals and installing them back on. I borrowed a rivet gun from my father in law and put the decals back on as the finishing touch.
Overall I felt like it turned out really well. There are definitely some imperfections that I notice but, I don't think most people will. I learned a lot through the process as well as I haven't really worked with metal all that much in the past. Hope you all enjoy the pics, I tried to take as many as I could throughout the process. Enjoy!
Once I got the cooker home I took the pressure washer to it and scraped the walls and grates clean. I chipped out all the caked up sand that was stuck in the water pan as well. It was pretty disgusting but once it cleaned up I really started to see the potential. I took a grinder with a wire wheel to all the chipped and rusted areas and brought it down to bare steel. it was especially bad around the fire box. I then put a coat of high heat primer everywhere that had bare steel and lightly sanded the areas of the paint that were still somewhat glossy. I also realized that I wanted the decals to match so I drilled out the rivets and cleaned out the decals to be painted.
After all the prep work, it was time for some paint. I wanted a two tone look but my options were limited. I contemplated using the high heat caliper paint but noticed that it was required to get the paint up to a certain temperature to cure. I was worried that on an insulated cooker such as this I wouldn't be able to get the whole thing up to the required paint to make that happen. After that I felt like I was relegated to the Rustoleum high heat products. I used the flat black high heat paint on the main body and applied it with a foam roller. It went on really smooth and looks great. For the doors I decided to use the "Aged Copper" high heat paint from Rustoleum to match my copper vein hood on my Blaz'n Grillworks pellet cooker. This type of paint only came in a spray can so I was a little nervous but, I bought a nozzle that gave the spray a wider application and was just very careful about applying light even coats across the area. The last step was painting the decals and installing them back on. I borrowed a rivet gun from my father in law and put the decals back on as the finishing touch.
Overall I felt like it turned out really well. There are definitely some imperfections that I notice but, I don't think most people will. I learned a lot through the process as well as I haven't really worked with metal all that much in the past. Hope you all enjoy the pics, I tried to take as many as I could throughout the process. Enjoy!
