Restoring Rusty New Braunfels Bandera

[BBQBarnes]

Hey everyone, I'm a brand new member and only started getting into BBQ a couple years ago when I bought my first pellet smoker. I've since graduated to a Weber Smokey Mountain and just picked up my first stick burner, an old Brinkmann Cimarron.

I also decided to pick up a rusty New Braunfels Bandera on Marketplace that I would like to restore for a friend.

It appears that a lot of it is surface rust and chipping paint so I'm planning on looking into getting it sand blasted to take it down to bare metal. The real issue is that when I went to lift it up to load it into my vehicle I saw that the bottom of the stand is rusted out badly. Seeing as I'm not a welder and I'm trying to keep costs relatively reasonable (keep in mind I only spent $50 on this thing), has anybody ever built a replacement base for a smoker out of steel pipe and fittings? I'm wondering if it would be up to the task of supporting the weight and heat of the fire box and smoking chamber. While pipe isn't cheap, I'm guessing it's going to be less expensive than contacting a metal fabricator to build a new base out of steel tube right?

 

[Mikhail]

How is the bottom of the firebox and cook chamber? You still have to attach the pipe stand to something.

That said, I don't see why it wouldn't work, but might not be any cheaper or easier than having new metal welded on.

If all you are concerned with is holding it together, you might could just bolt some angle iron on it.

 

[cholloway]

Mine was in worst shape than that when I got it.
Cooks just fine after some repairs and modifications.

 

[gtsum]

Wow, the OG Bandera! The cooler that started it all here many years ago! Great find!


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[BBQBarnes]

How is the bottom of the firebox and cook chamber? You still have to attach the pipe stand to something.

That said, I don't see why it wouldn't work, but might not be any cheaper or easier than having new metal welded on.

If all you are concerned with is holding it together, you might could just bolt some angle iron on it.

Well I'm not entirely sure. I power washed it a couple days ago and it revealed at least one small hole in the bottom of the fire box but I think it's at least in decent enough shape to have some life left in it.

I think my main concern is that bottom frame of the stand where the wheels attach to (I also probably should just get 4 new wheels because one of the casters comes out every time I move it). That bottom frame is rusted all the way through in that one area you can see in the picture and doesn't rust like that continue spreading? If I got like a 2 foot section of iron from Home Depot and bolted it to that section, I guess my concern would be that with the rust being in the corner, wouldn't that eventually just give out and collapse?

You can probably tell from my questions that I'm not experienced with this stuff. When I first saw this smoker I thought it was just surface rust and I figured I could definitely tackle sanding it down to bare metal and re-painting it. But I would like to make sure that it's structurally sound.

 

[BBQBarnes]

Mine was in worst shape than that when I got it.
Cooks just fine after some repairs and modifications.

Was the rust pretty bad? What kinds of things did you do to it to get it where you were satisfied enough? I'm fixing it up for a friend as a surprise and while I figure I'm not going to get it looking brand new, I don't want it to be so ugly that his wife hates me lol.

Did you happen to use any replacement parts from the Oklahoma Joe model? The two main things that are bothering me are the stand and the really bent fire box door and I'm wondering if it's worth ordering replacements from them just to keep it simple but if they don't fit I don't want to get stuck with parts I can't use.

Aside from those two things I feel like it'll make for a good cooker. I power washed it out and did a bit of a burn out and for as ugly as it was, I was impressed with how well the airflow was. Had nice clean smoke almost the whole time with the floppy damper plate wide open.

 

[BBQBarnes]

Here are some pictures of how after power washing it and burning it out a bit.

The cooking chamber cleaned up fairly nice all things considered (not sure the previous owners ever cleaned it because it was coated in creosote (well I hope it was creosote and that they didn't actually paint the inside of a cooker). I may look into the price of getting it all sand blasted because I'm considering having it done on my Brinkmann Cimarron but if it costs more than I'm interested in spending I may just see how well I can get it sanded down inside and take a wire wheel to the outside.

You can see that the fire box door is really bent, about 3 inches from the hinge for some reason. I can still get it forced closed but when you go to open it back up it just flies open like a spring. The air intake rod also doesn't stay put inside of the vent blades so I'll have to figure out some way to cap the rod I guess.

 

[Mikhail]

Well I'm not entirely sure. I power washed it a couple days ago and it revealed at least one small hole in the bottom of the fire box but I think it's at least in decent enough shape to have some life left in it.

I think my main concern is that bottom frame of the stand where the wheels attach to (I also probably should just get 4 new wheels because one of the casters comes out every time I move it). That bottom frame is rusted all the way through in that one area you can see in the picture and doesn't rust like that continue spreading? If I got like a 2 foot section of iron from Home Depot and bolted it to that section, I guess my concern would be that with the rust being in the corner, wouldn't that eventually just give out and collapse?

You can probably tell from my questions that I'm not experienced with this stuff. When I first saw this smoker I thought it was just surface rust and I figured I could definitely tackle sanding it down to bare metal and re-painting it. But I would like to make sure that it's structurally sound.

I'm not either, but I've jury-rigged enough stuff in my lifetime to at least have ideas. If you bolted a piece of steel on top of the shelf edge that is rusted out and had it extend over the side piece that holds the axle that should keep it from falling through.