Fixing up an cast aluminum grill . . . .

Just leave as bare alunimum.

I disassembled my gass grill and put the parts in my self cleanuing oven. It came out looking brand new:)

and so easy

Good idea, I'll have to remember that.

I seem to recall that Weber has indicated that this peeling black coating on the inside cover was burnt grease / smoke. And could be cleaned, but sanding down to bare metal was not necessary.

-Mike

There was a bit of rust too and I think the original owners (it hasn't been used in eight years) might have put something on there that was pealing. You're probably right though, I think I would have been better off just scraping it and using some oven cleaner and leaving it alone. Otherwise the grill looks and works great though. The covers are pretty high and away from the flames so I'm tempted to paint it but I'll probably just keep an eye on the aluminum and make sure it doesn't pit/rust or whatever in the future unless I get another good idea.

Ask this question over on alt.food.barbecue and you'll get the definitive answer. Those guys LIVE grills of all types!!!!

No, those guys live (if you can call it that) to get into endless online pissing contests that are, for the most part, wholly unrelated to barbecue.

alunimum rusts by converting itself to whuite dust. so thats what to look for. I was told this white dust is its natural state before being mined.

years ago at the henry ford museum I saw lots of edisons inventions turning to white powder and asked a curator. since then they added a sophiscted heating and AC system to slow this.

Its primarily a problem in warm moist summer conditions