Restoring A Gravity Feed Smoker

This smoker is called the 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'm from MN) I believe the Bomber model was a limited run as the cost in material and time didn't offset much of the purchase price. I want to say they only sold the MJH model towards the end.



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....

CameOutSmokin said:

How many hours work you imagine you have so far total in the restoration? Love to see how you handled the interior. It's gonna be nice. Good Luck

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Thanks! I'd say I'm somewhere between 15-20 hours on the low end. Majority of that time wrestling with the rust issue inside the smoker. It's all about needing the right tools and only having the wrong tools if that makes any sense. I'm sure it would have only took an hour or two to have the whole thing sandblasted somewhere. (The right tools) I'm too cheap and stubborn. So many, many hours with a corded drill and angle grinder. I'll get some pics of the inside when all said and done. I forgot about inside pics before taping it up for primer and paint.

onemanlan said:

Nice looking referb after the fact. Cook looking smoker to begin with. Hate to hear they're outta business.

Had my Humprhey's stored in a damp basement. Came back to a similar horror show. Did a bunch of surface work to clean it up. Hopefully that's the end of that. Afraid of the rust creeping given that I didn't do nearly as good a job as you did. Hope your repair work holds up as long as that smoker looks like it'll hold up

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Hey thanks. I'm hoping to stay on top of it. The first owner I think neglected it. The second owner appeared to keep it inside one of his garages. (He owns the local lumber company and had a garage most of us would dream of) The smoker will see a spot in my garage for the distant future. One of the reasons why I wanted to restore it. I have to walk by it everyday!

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. (A big thank you to everyone who gave me suggestions or what to measure on a replacement. It ended up being a 1/2" rope gasket.





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



Here's the finished product....











My first cook was on Saturday. A couple pans of homemade Mac and Cheese and 30 thighs. The thighs were one of the most juicy and tender pieces of chicken I've had.







If you've made it this far, thanks for looking!