Baby Bear Door Frame Bowed Out

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Hand cleaned door with wire brushes, transferring the rust from the iron door to my hands and pants. Tomorrow I'll wash in hot soapy water and dry with propane burner before painting.

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Paint.
Stove polish is for rough cast iron, not smooth surface. It is also penetrated by water and water vapor easily, so cast iron rusts under it, then requires frequent recoating.
 
Got the old bolt out of the air inlet. Cut off the badly distorted first half inch of threads rather than force them through the cap threads. Was not sure if all aluminum caps had a threaded steel insert but mine does. Threads look fine. What I considered "floppy" is just because the threads in cap are very short for the diameter. Nothing wrong with this cap that some buffing and painting wont solve.

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Cleaned the cap and polished the edges in preparation for paint. Im going to dress the edges with some wax polish prior to paint rather than mask.

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An easy way is after painting the cap, wipe edges with mineral sprits before heating for final cure.

There were polished edges on the later nickel plated doors or buffed edges with scotch bright on black doors. Some brass plated doors had solid brass caps with polished edges. There were brass plated aluminum caps as well.
 
Don't know but I will say this you have done a beautiful job on that bear stove--I love it..Coaly and you together were just a wonderful team to work together on these stoves...He knows so much about these stoves and its always a pleasure to see a person like you "gear him up"--lol --really enjoyed reading the threads. Someone I am sure will suggest a polish of some kind...old mrs clancey
 
Old behemoth stove is off the hearth, Baby Bear transported from garage to shop and placed on hearth. Strategic use of floor jack and tilt bed garden tractor trailer made it a one man job, then I nearly rupture myself putting the paws under it (AFTER I’d put away the jack).

Lubed the draft knob and hinge pins as Coaly instructs and now she’s ready to use as soon as my double wall tee arrives (one week out). I have new bricks but the old ones aren’t opened up at the cracks too bad and I’m just burned out on messing with the thing.
 
It’s a propane option available only when double wall stove pipe is loitering somewhere in a cargo container.
 
Oh Ya I see the tank. Maybe stick it in the stove to make it a radiant heater. The propane stove is probably UL approved , thus carrying over to make the Fisher UL approved . LOL