Baby Bear Restoration Project

[Todd67]

I'm finally getting around to restoring the old Baby Bear that was left in my house when I bought my house in 2008. It was sitting in our mud room but it wasn't installed. We moved the stove out to our garage to store because we weren't ready to install it yet. Finally, four years later, in 2012, my wife and son started to clean the stove up to install in our house. They used PB Blaster, scrub brushes and wire brushes to clean off many years of rust. Before they finished restoring the stove I realized that I needed a Mama Bear to heat my house, and that this Baby Bear would be to small to heat my 1,600 SF two-story house. So they stopped working on the Baby Bear around July of 2012 and drove out to western New York to buy a Mama Bear that I found on CL. During this whole year I was living out of state for work, so I wasn't able to offer any help, other than phone calls and emails. We restored the Mama Bear and installed it in September of 2012. Here's a link to that project...
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/mama-bear-restoration-and-installation-project.91558/

Fast forward to October 2018 and I am finally getting back to that Baby Bear that we never finished. It sat in our garage for another 6 years, since 2012, where my wife and son left off. Needless to say, it rusted again, but not as bad as it was in 2012. So, I knocked the old firebricks out of it and coated it with PB Blaster. Tonight I finished removing the rust from all six sides, using wire brushes on my electric drill. I coated it with a coat of clean PB Blaster to hold it over until I can paint it, which should be tomorrow or the next day. I'm running out of "warm" weather here in northern NY. We had two inches of snow yesterday, so winter is right around the corner. I removed the door yesterday and got it ready to paint. I painted the door today with two coats of Rutland stove spray paint.

Here is what the Baby Bear looked like back in 2012



This is where my wife and son left off in 2012, when we started shopping for our Mama Bear

 

[Todd67]

There are no welded numbers or letters anywhere on the stove. I noticed 5 stamped numbers on the back upper left side of the stove, 40527. Where was this stove made?

 

[Todd67]

October 2018 I finally bring the Baby Bear out of hibernation. It was rusty again but not as bad as it was before my wife started working on it in 2012.




This is the door, ready for paint, which I painted today.

 

[Todd67]

It's snowing again tonight, for the third time this month! I took some pics of the baby bear tonight with the flash on, to highlight any rust that might be coming out with the light coat of PB Blaster I put on it. Looks like I have some more work to do tomorrow before I can paint it. It's hard to tell because the PB is red colored, and I had to go to bare metal in some places where the rust was the worst. Those areas are the ones that look the most rusty with the flash on. Hopefully it's just the PB on bare metal.





These are the only markings on the stove. Whoever put the numbers on, they hit the #4 three times, the #0 twice, the #5 twice, and the #2 & #7 each got one tap.

 

[coaly]

Mine looks rust red with the flash with PB blaster on it too. It looked like gray steel when I wiped it off after buffing with wire wheels. Pictures made it look terrible.
I'd guess it to be '75 or '76 with a left over knob since springs started by '76.
NY and NJ stamped top left rear, but normally had a NY or NJ before the number. That is a high number for that early of a stove. Can't answer that.

 

[Todd67]

I was thinking the same thing about the high number on the stove, so I'm glad you feel the same way. I wonder if it might have something to do with a license number in conjunction with a stove number. Thanks for the reply!

I finished the baby bear tonight. There was very little rust on the stove, even though I added some more PB to it and scrubbed with a hard plastic bristle scrub brush. More bare metal than I thought at first, but it cleaned up real nice with the mineral spirits.

I painted the door yesterday, and the stove today. Feels good to finally finish the stove we started to restore over six years ago.

 

[Todd67]

Before and after pics side by side. The rust didn't pit the steel but it was bad enough that I had to take much of the stove to bare metal to get it ready for paint. It took 3-4 coats of paint to cover it. I'm real happy with how it turned out. No, it's not for sale, I don't sell Fisher stoves. This will be an end table in my living room until I install it (if I install it).

 

[Desmond]

Nice job Todd67! I just refinished a baby bear too. I highlighted the trees and name with silver, but I think yours looks better! Maybe it's the lighting in the picture or the difference in the brands of paint. I've installed mine in my little cabin at the lake and mentioned that maybe we should have matching night tables, but my wife just laughed. I was serious!

 

[Todd67]

Thanks for the kind words Desmond! I like the matching night tables idea, very funny.

Now, if only Fisher made their own brand of coasters so that I could have a Fisher coaster to set my drink on, on my Baby Bear end table

 

[Todd67]

I got the baby bear inside the house tonight. I put it in the mud room for now, next to my coal bear. My next priority is to finish my firewood chores (cutting, splitting & stacking). I'm almost done with that, then a few other winter prep chores and then I can relax a little bit.