1963 Imperial Kamodo

TGamel · Jul 13, 2021

Back when my father-in-law was flying as a navigator in the USAF, while on TDY in Japan he purchased a Clay Kamodo grill. Now, I have to admit I did not know this at the time, but two weeks ago it showed back up at my mother-in-laws garage. It seems it had been making the family rounds, and no one wanted it so I had a nose around it.

The dome was in perfect shape, the base had a large crack form the firebox door, to the to of the lip, and there were a few pieces of outer cay that had been knocked off, but for the most part in good shape. Looking inside, the fire ring, grate, and firebox were all broken into pieces, but amazingly they were all there. It seems the only thing missing was the cap, and the grill did not have a stand.

So I immediately started looking at how to restore a Green Egg, because, I didn't know it wasn't a Green Egg. But thanks to this website and the many people who restored old grills before mine. I learned quite a bit, and have decided to tackle the job of bringing this thing back to life. I will by 59 years old this September, the grill will be 58 years old.

I just wanted to say thanks to all the guys and gals on here that inspired me to revitalize this old grill.

Todd

Redleg71 · Jul 14, 2021

Cant wait to follow this thread. I believe someone on here has also done a refurb of one of these old kamados.

Guessing that thing made it back to the states on a USAF aircraft as well!

thirdeye · Jul 14, 2021

Check out some of the posts by Brian swamprb here on the forum. Here are two for starters.

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41145

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=110358

SMOKE FREAK · Jul 14, 2021

Imagine the stories that thing could tell. The amazing feasts prepared on it.

Yes it deserves to be saved.

mcyork28 · Jul 14, 2021

Good luck, that will turn out nice.

TGamel · Jul 14, 2021

thirdeye said:
Check out some of the posts by Brian swamprb here on the forum. Here are two for starters.

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41145

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=110358

Yea, Thanks read those posts while I was waiting for my membership to be approved, actually several times. Have got some work done on the smoker, will post some more pics soon.

TGamel · Jul 14, 2021

Redleg71 said:
Cant wait to follow this thread. I believe someone on here has also done a refurb of one of these old kamados.

Guessing that thing made it back to the states on a USAF aircraft as well!

Yes, there are several refurbs of this type of grill on here. Some really good information. There may not be anything new here in my project, but I wanted to share it anyway. These things are getting harder to find, and this one has some special memories for my wife and brother-in-law, especially since my father-in-law passed away a few years back.

TGamel · Jul 14, 2021

New Work Completed

Ok, so I have been working on the internal components (Grate, Firebox, Fire Ring) for the last couple days. They have all been repaired with Imperial High Temperature furnace Cement. Then fired up in my oven very slow to 550 degrees to set the cement.

Good thing my wife loves my cooking, cause they were a little smelly, but not to bad. I started at 250 degrees and worked the pieces up in 50 degree increments every 30 mins. Which means each piece cooked for about 3 hours each. May have been a little overkill, but I wanted to do this as right as I could. All the pieces look solid and strong. They are not pretty to look at, but the bonds are strong.

I replaced the wire around the firebox in the two grooves on the side. This particular model has wire when it was new and the rusted remains were still on the fire ring when I took it apart. I also placed two small wires around the fire box for a little added support. I did not add the wires until after the pieces had baked. I might should have done it earlier, but who knows.

Since the dome was in perfect shape, just cleaned it and did a bot of lite sanding, and gave it two coats of high temperature black paint as a base.

KB BBQ · Jul 14, 2021

Nice job and congrats! I have a small #3 Imperial Kamodo from the same era. Keep the temps down and it will stay together for you. Hardly uses any fuel and holds heat like crazy.

Happy Hapgood · Jul 14, 2021

What a great project and looks like you are making great progress.

11earl · Jul 14, 2021

Great job so far!

Big George's BBQ · Jul 14, 2021

Nice will follow this. Great start

Garyclaw · Jul 15, 2021

Labor of love. Good luck!

PnkPanther · Jul 15, 2021

very cool

KClandcruiser · Jul 15, 2021

First repairs look great! Can't wait to see this once it's finished up.

thirdeye · Jul 15, 2021

So far so good :clap2: I do have one friend that still cooks on a 60's era kamodo... he uses briquettes and keeps the heat no higher than 275°

Learning to BBQ · Jul 15, 2021

Enjoying following along. Thanks for sharing. That's a cool project!

TGamel · Jul 15, 2021

Paint for the Outside

As I mentioned earlier, the dome was in perfect shape, not a ding on it. I have hit it with two coats of high heat paint, because....Well I had it around and wanted to be on the safe side. I am going to repaint the kamodo in its original orange color, actually it was more of a red/orange, but that is a hard color to get. So I am thinking just plain ole orange. So the question is do I need to buy a high heat primary coat? I know I could buy an automotive high-heat Chevrolet Orange and go with the 'Great Pumpkin' theme. The original color was orange with a hint of red.

You guys think I need to go with the high heat paint? I am kind of leaning that way, as I would hate to paint it to have it flake off at a later date. If anyone has any experience with which type of paint you think would work best I would appreciate your advice. BTW, this pic was after the first coat only, I have since added the second coat.

TGamel · Jul 15, 2021

thirdeye said:
So far so good :clap2: I do have one friend that still cooks on a 60's era kamodo... he uses briquettes and keeps the heat no higher than 275°

Yea, I will probably shot to never cook any hotter than 400 degrees, these oven can do that with no sweat, many of the original recipes use temps at this range, but most cooking is done around 350 - 375. Although this oven is 58 years old, I have already fired the internals to 550 degrees to set the cement. But you cannot go wrong with low and slow. :becky:

TGamel · Jul 17, 2021

Dome Painted Red/Orange

So after scrapping off a paint chip of the original color, I decided on using a high heat Chevy Red/Orange Duplicolor brand paint, it matched the original color almost exactly. Finished my third coat yesterday, and painted the script. My Japanese is rusty, but it looks to read "Big (something) Kamodo". It has a 16" grate should that would make it the same size as the #4 Imperial Kamodo. Not really sure if it is an Imperial or not, but I am happy with it so far.

The new damper door and top are in and I have finished repairing all the cracks on the base piece. Will start with black high heat tomorrow. The just has to break out the sand blaster and blat the hinges and paint them. Hope to have it finished by next week. Thanks for the encouraging words guys. :wink:

1963 Imperial Kamodo

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Knows what a fatty is.

somebody shut me the fark up.

Babbling Farker

Babbling Farker

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is Blowin Smoke!

somebody shut me the fark up.

Knows what a fatty is.

somebody shut me the fark up.

Babbling Farker

is Blowin Smoke!

is one Smokin' Farker

somebody shut me the fark up.

is Blowin Smoke!

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