First summer project...

Phil Graham

Honorary PhD
Mar 10, 2011
651
1
18
Atlanta, GA
...Restoration of an old Weber Genesis 1000 gas grill. I purchased the grill for $65.00 from a yard sale. This unit had the full stainless steel internals that were in decent shape, the lid porcelain coating looked pretty good, and most of the other bits seemed in reasonable condition:

First step was 100% full disassembly and media blasting ($100) of the castings and internals bits. Then came the painting ($30) of frame and grill before re-assembly. I ended up cannibalizing another Spirit grill ($25) and buying about $55 in new parts. I would have liked to add a shiny new Weber logo, but I couldn't figure out how to remove the original one without damaging the lid's porcelain coating.

I've attached some pictures of the restoration process below:


As-purchased grill condition 1:
RSPJ81J.jpg



As-purchased grill condition 2:
6bl3mfa.jpg


I cleaned a good fraction of the gook off the metal pieces before sending them to the blasting house by using simple green and water followed by phosphoric acid cleaner.


Media blasted main casting:

abendxX.jpg



Media blasted smaller pieces and stainless:
TVtOi6V.jpg



Grill surface with blasting dust removed:
cnu6wgu.jpg



Painting small castings:
68SW5jF.jpg


Blasting is a skilled trade, and you can see how a practiced blaster did a nice job on both the aluminum castings and stainless steel sheet. They did a great job of retaining all the fine casting detail. The blasting media in this case was duPont Starblast.


Painted casting detail:
c9zXsHO.jpg



Cart (mostly) assembled:
OQKfFdO.jpg



First paint coat on main grill casting:
38Pkfe0.jpg


Finished pictures in the following post, as you can only put ten images per post...
 
Re: First summer project...

Followup post with the finished grill images, as SFN restricts the number of images per post.


Finished grill 1:
DYpVQro.jpg



Finished grill 2:
JTGueKs.jpg


The last couple links are higher resolution for detail:


Finished grill 3:
izLOzoS.jpg



Finished grill 4:
Sh1n1BG.jpg



Cheers!
 
Re: First summer project...

Very nice!

I have an old Weber gas grill that was bought new in 1993 and it has always done a good job for me.

We are finally looking into replacing it because both the grill grates and the flavorizor bars are all rusted to pieces and look like they are about ready to fold into themselves.

Anyway, I'm having a tough time finding what I want without spending a small fortune.

Regardless, great job on your restoration! It looks great!
 
Re: First summer project...

Very nice!

I have an old Weber gas grill that was bought new in 1993 and it has always done a good job for me.

We are finally looking into replacing it because both the grill grates and the flavorizor bars are all rusted to pieces and look like they are about ready to fold into themselves.

The weber forum people recommend this guys' aftermarket stainless flavorizer bars:
Weber Stainless Steel Flavorizer Bars 7537 | eBay

Anyway, I'm having a tough time finding what I want without spending a small fortune.

After owning a series of ever fancier looking Chinese grills that were all crap, I decided it was time for a real tool. Like you, I found that many of them cost a hefty amount, and that pushed me towards finding something to refurbish. It helps that like these kinds of projects, too :D~:-D~:grin:

My father in law has a $$$ Fire Magic, and it leaves me underwhelmed in terms of the durability of the stainless in it for the (high) cost.

I also looked at Saber and Vermont Castings grills before diving in on this project. I think I would go with a Saber if I was buying a new grill, as they have the most fully realized indirect cooking system I have been able to find.
 
Re: First summer project...

Very nice!

I have an old Weber gas grill that was bought new in 1993 and it has always done a good job for me.

We are finally looking into replacing it because both the grill grates and the flavorizor bars are all rusted to pieces and look like they are about ready to fold into themselves.

Anyway, I'm having a tough time finding what I want without spending a small fortune.

Regardless, great job on your restoration! It looks great!

I rebuilt a Weber in 2008. The burners were toast as well as the flavorizer bars after 20+ years. I bought the replacement orates from Webber but found out later my favorite hardware store stocked the parts. I got another 5 years out of it before the valve assembly died.



Sent from my iPad HD
 
Re: First summer project...

A more complex surface chemistry problem than most would suspect.

Jay,

Lost the thread thinking here. Are you referring to the act of cleaning before blasting, the chemistry of blasting residuals, the cleaning and painting of the thing, or the act of cooking?

Thanks in advance for clarifying!
 
Last edited:
Re: First summer project...

Jay,

Lost the thread thinking here. Are you referring to the act of cleaning before blasting, the chemistry of blasting residuals, the cleaning and painting of the thing, or the act of cooking?

Thanks in advance for clarifying!

Mostly the cleaning and painting. I had a roommate years ago that went through a similar process only to have his substandard paint flake off during the first uses where the body got up to temperature.

The heat and potential for abrasion is tough on surface treatments.

Doing it right ( like you did) is a bit more than wipe off most of the grease and hit it with some primer.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD
 
Re: First summer project...

Mostly the cleaning and painting.

Ahh, Got it now. I originally started delicate, and then graduated to a phosphoric step, but after that there's not much else available for aluminum short of some pretty nasty HF/flouride based chemical etches. Those can drive up surface roughness and possibly promote intergranular issues.

Then I looked around for a blasting shop with low cleave angle, low silicate blasting media, as I didn't want a bunch of blasting agent to embed in the casting pores, potentially alloying in an adverse manner with casting material in the hottest zones.

The Rustoleum paint is still a black box, though. The MSDS doesn't give much indication to how the enamel chemistry goes. Hopefully care in coating and dry time between coats will aid in adhesion. Certainly all that surface roughness of a blasted casting isn't going to hurt the process.