1950’s Big Boy Barbecue Restoration

Mel and I picked up this Big Boy BBQ back in March of 2014. I knew it was time to drag it out of mothballs and get it ready for the grilling season.

I wanted a smaller BBQ than our GE Partio Cart for when I feel like just grilling something quickly.

The first step was to disassemble the BBQ.

This BBQ appeared to have been painted with a paint brush. Unfortunately, who ever painted did not do a very good job.

As you can see this grill had lots of surface rust and peeling paint.

No time like the moment! I jumped right in and started sanding. I noticed a lot of surface rust under the old paint.

On areas where the paint was difficult to get to I used a scraper.

After hours and hours of sanding and scraping it was ready to be painted.

I am proud to present our newly restored 1950’s Big Boy Barbeque!

I tried to add accents of red to offset all the silver paint.

The rims were originally silver but I think the red makes them pop!

This is where the coals go. This tray was incredibly rusted but after lots of sanding it looks like new.

To adjust the heat of this grill you raise and lower the coals by moving this red handle up the graduated adjuster.

With the help of my step-father Dave, we were able to cut out new side tables and apply new Formica to them so they are like new.

I had to order a new rotisserie motor for the grill. The one that came with it is toast. I was fortunate that I found an original NOS Big Boy BBQ rotisserie motor on eBay!

Now that it is all done, I can rest my arthritic hands. I can see the benefits of a sand blaster!

I am very pleased with it’s restoration.

Now I have a reason to break out all of our vintage BBQ utensils!