Is my Genesis 1000 resigned to the dustheap of history?

I posted more than I needed to on the "Introduce Yourself" page so to save some work because I'm lazy (the laziness will factor into this at some point) here's what I posted there because I'm pretty sure many of you never read that section:

Last fall my Genesis 1000 "redhead" started leaning like a drunk holding up a wall. As expected it got worse but winter was coming (GoT reference) and I propped it with a block of wood the last few times I used it.
Thought I'd tear it apart and fix it, maybe some screws needed to be tightened. Ha! Now it's sitting on my garage floor a pile of parts because I can't fix the left and right frames. The tabs are broken on the frame that fits into the legs. Sigh. Can this be fixed or should I buy another grill? I'd kinda hate to toss it, I've always stored it in the garage and it's in pretty good shape. Stainless steel flavorizer bars and cast iron grates, even has the original burners. Together we've gone through enough meat to fatten up a small village.
Yesterday, on Sunday, I spent a very frustrating 30 minutes with the most clueless customer support person I've ever dealt with. Perhaps the employees with the least seniority end up working weekends and are left to bedevil hapless callers with repeated requests for information that had already been related several times already.
I'd registered my grill when I bought it around 1991 and they did acknowledge that but didn't have the model no. or serial no. (She politely refrained from suggesting that some of the granite slabs that once held the desired info had broken over time). She said that she'd wait while I got that info from the heap of parts in my garage but her Gen X patience ran out during the 3 minutes I was gone and she hung up before I got back. I secretly reveled in my escape from the black hole of despair that I was being pulled into and retired, licking my wounds and resolving to fight this battle once again on Monday with a more informed opponent.
Sorry, this is getting too long and painful memories of yesterday require the mixing of an icy-cold Martini to dull my feeling of ennui.
I'll add more on Monday's experience along with "Weber's Broken Promise" a bit later.
In the meantime what pictures of of my porcelain coated debris would be helpful? Closeups of the places in the left and right frames where the tabs are broken off? Oh, I called a couple of welding shops today to see if they could/would weld the legs onto the frame and struck out like Stevie Wonder at Baseball Camp.

Sad story so far Jay. Pics would help, to be sure. Hopefully something can be done.

Gasser frames seem to be the only Weber parts that don't last forever. Good luck finding a solution.

If I follow you (but pics would help) I'm thinking you could probably find appropriate square tubing fittings that would get you back together. You might have to saw off some bits to make it work, but I don't think it would require any special metalworking skill, just a hacksaw and a drill plus some paint to make it look passable and prevent rust.

I'm thinking of this kind of stuff.

Or like this.

Alternately, someone here a while back described fixing a rusted crossmember by drilling holes through the verticals (e.g. drilling left to right through both of the rear legs) then running a threaded rod between them inside the cross tube and tightening a nut on each end. Is that descriptive enough? Even if the corsstube was rusted out, you could replace it with a new length of square tubing.

Just some thoughts I had when I was worried about the frame on my Genesis restore, which thankfully didn't end up needing it.

If you could post pics of the area's that are a problem that could help. Also the surrounding area's. Are these areas that are held together with plastic joints or bolted together or welded?

My Genesis 1000 continued...

Now to continue…
I was hoping that today being Monday that I’d get someone in customer assistance that had a bit of seniority and experience and that seemed to be true. She seemed knowledgeable and helpful but had a habit of talking very fast and slurring her words as if they provided free beer in the company cafeteria. This is my Karmic burden to bear, apparently I was a horse thief or cutpurse in a former life. If you see me in front of you in line at the supermarket, just walk away and find another cashier, the three customers in front of me will all have issues that will slow the line’s pace to that of an octogenarian marathon event.
I swear by all that’s holy that I gave her my phone number ten times at least during our conversation. I am not exaggerating. Either she couldn’t type or the computer was acting up or she had the attention span of a gerbil (you know which one I’d pick, right?).
We’re getting into tl;dr territory so I’ll cut this short.
It came to pass that I learned that they don’t make the parts I need anymore.
Hence the “Big Lie”
The following is from their Parts & Support page.

PARTS & SUPPORT
THE WEBER PROMISE
At Weber, we pride ourselves on two things: making grills that last and providing a lifetime of excellent customer service. How can we help you today?
Weber, I don’t think the word “lifetime” means what you think it means.
I understand the business reasons for this but don’t hold out false promises for old grill owners, eh?
I took a few pics and if someone could tell me what size I should make them so I can import them, I’d appreciate it.

The legs are bolted to the welded tabs that are on the frame. I'll be posting pics when I figure out how.

Thanks for that. I'll have to study that. I do have basic hacksaw and drilling skills so grill repair, maybe but brain surgery, no.

Frame rehab link.

Jay, check out the link above to see a repair on the frame of a Genesis. This is just one way to repair a frame. Another option would be to buy another used unit on Craigslist that has a good frame but everything else is junk. The parts that are not used for the repair could be offered to others on the site for their rehabs.

Get us those pics and we WANT to help you. Looking forward to those pics of what you have now and then pics of the rehabbed grill. That is why we do this.

Bob Ivey

Ok, let's see if I've got this photobucket thing figured out. Here's a pic, if it works.

So when I post this there'll be a photo, right? I hope it's not the nude of my girlfriend, my wife will be really angry.

And the rest.

As you can see, I am to photography what Michael Moore is to jogging.
If any more shots would help, let me know.

I just got a callback from a welding shop I called yesterday and left a message. The guy said he could weld the legs on for $40. Sounds reasonable. Anyone have ideas if this is a good idea or should I try something else?

Now I'm thinking that it would make more sense to see if he could weld tabs back on the frame and then I could assemble it the way it's supposed to work.
Oh, yeah, one final thing I screwed up. I couldn't get the burners out and thought the guide screws at the left rear and left front of the burner box were frozen and rust spray did no good so I drilled them out. I hope that's fixable. I'm sure that's all I messed up. I hope...

I don't think it will be fixable. Had you searched here you would have found those screws are NOT there to remove the burners. Burners slide out from the control side of the grill. You remove the manifold (2 wing nut type screws) and slide the burners out. The other 2 screws should never be touched. Sadly IMO I think you've relegated your grill to the scrap heap. Again my opinion only but judging by your apparent lack of skills (again not flaming you just observation) a new grill would be your best investment. Sorry.

JayG said:

Now I'm thinking that it would make more sense to see if he could weld tabs back on the frame and then I could assemble it the way it's supposed to work.
Oh, yeah, one final thing I screwed up. I couldn't get the burners out and thought the guide screws at the left rear and left front of the burner box were frozen and rust spray did no good so I drilled them out. I hope that's fixable. I'm sure that's all I messed up. I hope...

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Can you post pics of what you did to the two areas that you drilled out. There might be a fix for that but need to see what is there now. How large a hole did you drill? All may not be lost depending on what we see when pics are posted. Do not despair.

I dont see why you shouldnt be able to save it. After all, the burners do COME with new screws (mine did anyway), but it seems most just leave the old ones wisely in place. they are merly a saddle point for the notches in ends of the burners. if the drilling did not enlage the holes to much the fix with new fasteners should be easy. even if they are a bit large, a different size fastener, an enlarged notch here or there.....shouldnt be too tough.

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your remarks about my “apparent lack of skills”. It’s very helpful and only serves to make be happy I found this site. The ability of people to make strangers feel welcome over the Internet never ceases to amaze me. Btw, if you happen to see me someday while shopping, it’s not really necessary to shout, “Hey, you only have one leg.” You see, I already know that. And it just upsets the grandkids. Oh, and the “not flaming you just an observation” comment, that was a nice touch. It’s like you never said it. I hope you have a very nice day.
Oh, and if you want to email me to let me know what I did to get on your bad side, I’m sure I’d want to apologize.

LMichaels said:

I don't think it will be fixable. Had you searched here you would have found those screws are NOT there to remove the burners. Burners slide out from the control side of the grill. You remove the manifold (2 wing nut type screws) and slide the burners out. The other 2 screws should never be touched. Sadly IMO I think you've relegated your grill to the scrap heap. Again my opinion only but judging by your apparent lack of skills (again not flaming you just observation) a new grill would be your best investment. Sorry.

Click to expand...

Bob Ivey said:

Can you post pics of what you did to the two areas that you drilled out. There might be a fix for that but need to see what is there now. How large a hole did you drill? All may not be lost depending on what we see when pics are posted. Do not despair.

Click to expand...

Thanks Bob. It takes me a little while to get things set up but I'll try to get some pics this afternoon. I would like to fix this if possible but if not, at least I got over two decades of use out of it. It's not like I didn't get my money's worth.
Again, thanks to all the helpful people on this site.