Defiant rebuild advice needed

Finally moved my Defiant 30 miles to my new garage...in a pouring rain. Having a small loader made it a bit easier to move. Stove legs are removed.

This stove has seen little use, but has been sitting in an unoccupied house for 23 years. I'm thinking I should rebuild it. Having never rebuilt a stove I'm a little worried about it. For today however I am going to get the wet ashes out of it and get a better look around. I'm thinking to order a gasket kit and tubes of gasket cement and stove cement. I have no clue as to the best products. I have looked at Woodmans Parts Plus and Mountain View Hearth Products.

Recommendations and advice would be very appreciated. BTW I do have the Defiant rebuild manual.

Thank you.

JS

Dasky and Defiant3, thank you. Your response, info and advice are very appreciated.

As you can see in the previous pictures I had some cleaning out to do. Since the ashes had gotten wet during transport in a pouring rain and I still had the stove secured in my loader bucket, I washed them out. I also discovered and removed a huge rodent nest. I now have the stove on a dolly in my garage.

I assumed it needed to be rebuilt. I would appreciate you fellows looking at these new pictures and offering an opinion re the need for a rebuild. I still need to use a brush and vacuum to finish cleaning inside and out as well as a coat of stove paint. A good bit of surface rust, nothing heavy or difficult to clean off on outside. Don't think it will matter as much on inside once in use. The stove was used very little and then sat for 23 years. By "used very little" let's say it had 20-30 fires. BTW the smoke shelf is removed for pictures. Apologize for screwing up pic insert.

Thanks again,

STJP

Thanks Daksy,

I am the original owner so it definitely has not been abused. Regardless, sandblasting is a great idea. Do you think sandblasting would remove all of the old cement? I am a little concerned if a commercial sandblaster would be "gentle" with the blaster and not damage the iron. What do you think and advise?

Thanks again for your reply,

STJP

Excellent advice. I will talk with a sand blaster I have used for Jeep parts and wheels.

Now you've got me wanting to do my Vigilant as well.

Cheers,

STJP

I needed to have the flue installed before I was able to rebuild the Defiant. Here are some pics of the DuraVent flue through the roof of my insulated 6/12 metal roof.

Cheers
JS