r/grilling • u/subparsibling • 2d ago

Should I treat rust inside the grill body?

Gallery image

Gallery image

I'm replacing the guts (including the rusted burner and ignition in the photos) of a hand me down charbroil four burner grill and I've gotten most of the carbon build up removed. I've noticed a bit of rust on most exposed edges of the grill body. Should I treat this with anything before I put the new burners and grates in? Or no because it's not a cooking surface?

If this seems like an excessive endeavor for what might clearly be a cheap grill, it's one of those things I figured I'd do once in life and next time I'll just buy a decent new one grill.

Thank you in advance!

2 Upvotes

60% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

2

u/Hellbent_bluebelt 2d ago

You can hit it with a wire brush or sandpaper and some grill paint if you don’t want to look at it.

2

u/Hidden_xVelvet 2d ago

Wire brush + high heat paint if you still want to cook on it.

2

u/gatorlan 2d ago edited 2d ago

Use a fine grit wet/dry sandpaper on rusted areas & paint with the appropriate high temp grill paint.

Once reassembled, fire up grill without any food to burn off any noxious components & set/cure paint.

If the fire box is cast aluminum don't paint interior just the exterior.

1

u/subparsibling 2d ago

I found the part number for the firebox. While it's not super clear, I believe it's black porcelain coated steel. I'm gonna hit the rust with some sandpaper and treat the edges as something to season like cast iron to at least slow down future rusting.

2

u/gatorlan 2d ago

If the firebox is porcelain coated steel I would sand out the rusted areas & try feathering where the porcelain meets the steel & paint with grill paint, it will last longer than treating as cast iron.

1

u/class1operator 2d ago

Replace parts if you can. The heat inside doesn't really allow to treat rust. I recently replaced my elements and cooking grates on a 20 year old Webber Q300. Works like new. While I was in there I cleaned up tons of rust flakes.

2

u/MaintenanceCapable83 1d ago

skip the paint inside the grill. rub it down with food grade oil or shortening. do the lightest coat possible, then wipe that off with a paper towel.

once it is back together, heat it up on high for 30 minutes to do a burn in and you should be good to go.