I used two coats of rustoleum on mine with no primer and it is holding up great. Given it is less than 1 year old an stored inside, but it has done 3 or 4 cooks in the rain. I also think the adherence of the paint is pretty good because several parts on my build get rubbed hard due to my design, but the paint will not chip, it has to be rubbed through or scratched hard to be breached.
All Blasted, Sanded, Wiped, Cleaned, & Ready For Paint.
Having it sandblasted, really saved on prep time for the paint, along with two air powered sanders and a roll of 220 paper, and a friend that does autobody work.
Getting Its Paint On.
Finally getting the Rustoleum Specialty High Heat paint applied. Ended up having to buy this at Lowe's in the quart cans.
Almost All Painted Up.
Almost all painted up.
The Waiting Game.
All painted up. Surprisingly, we only used a little over 3 quarts of the Rustoleum Specialty High Heat paint to but get good coverage. It didn't need to be thinned and shot well out of my buddies paint gun, all in all the painting was the quickest part of the process (with someone that paints cars). But now we wait....going to give it a solid 24+ hours before i fire it.
Almost done.
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Check out my blog: The Ozark Chronicles
I'll admit that I have not personally used the Rustoleum high-heat stuff but if you could give it a couple more days to cure I think you'll be happier in the long run….. My experience is that the required formula to get higher temp rated paint requires longer cure times…. just a hunch more than anything….
And on the eighth day God created barbecue …. because he DOES love us and he wants us to be happy.
Current smokers: Egor (trailered RF) and Easybake (tabletop pellet drive)
Looks great but I am a little worried about the light material you used to build the trailer. NOT. ha ha
Good looking build. Rick is right, you need to let the paint cure to get the best results.
Well, I have now officially seasoned my new reverse flow smoker and did a cook on it. Below are some more pics.
Second Seasoning With A Little Pork
I couldn't resist putting some Jimmy Dean Sausage and a few pieces of thick sliced bacon throughout the smoker, just to get a little grease flowing. In the end, the outsides were charred to death, but the inside of the sausage was money.
Let The Making Of Rubs Commence
I spent last Sunday making rubs for a cook I did on Tuesday and one that is coming up this Saturday.
Good Help Is Worth Its Weight In Gold
My 11yo daughter loves everything BBQ and Pork and couldn't wait to help season up the meat for my first cook on the new smoker. She is rubbing down a pork loin in this photo.
An Early Start For A Work Lunch
I was up at 3am this morning, to serve the guys at my shop lunch. I had quite a bit of meat to get going, but the pork loin and the chicken were going to take the longest. By the time I got everything squared away at the office it was 5:30am before stuff when on (serving at 11:30am)
The End Result
In the end I smoked 24 large pork steaks, 11 chicken leg quarters, 2 whole chickens, 1 6lb boneless pork loin, 4 kielbasa sausages, and 1 large pan of beans. Plus some other assortments of cole slaw, potato salad, corn bread, and other goodies. In the end, I fed 24 people and everyone was quick to make "to go" plates. I was a happy camper.
At the suggestion of my grillin' mentor, I bought some cheap oven thermometers to measure the temps throughout the smoker and gauge the difference between the door thermometer. I was pleased that there wasn't a variation over 10 degrees anywhere except for the top shelf (although I think that is a different story when the door is open (so I am going to recheck with a wireless probe).
I can't say enough good things about this build. Today, I fired it up at 5am and shut it down at 1pm and burned through 10lbs of Lump (Royal Oak Red Bag) and about 14 sticks of hickory (with a few pecan chunks thrown in from time to time). I am already looking at making a smaller patio style of the same build (with the same heavy thickness of materials).
Again, thanks everyone for the help with this one.
--Matt Tucker
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Check out my blog: The Ozark Chronicles
And on the eighth day God created barbecue …. because he DOES love us and he wants us to be happy.
Current smokers: Egor (trailered RF) and Easybake (tabletop pellet drive)
Well, I am back. The smoker works great and has turned in to a helluva hog smoker. But it is just too darn big to use regularly at the house. So....it is time to build a pellet box.....I will start a new thread as this build develops.
--Matt Tucker
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Check out my blog: The Ozark Chronicles