New (to me) Weber Spirit Rehab


 
MattSchiefelbein

MattSchiefelbein

New member
Hey all,

I found myself an 09-12 range Weber Spirit E310 on craigslist for free this past week. I love free things and have wanted a Weber gas to go with my kettle.

My wife has called this my "trash" as it didn't work when I got it. The burner tubes were terrible, the crossover was missing, the ignitor was missing the spark part, the grates are chipping ceramic and rusting, the flavorizer bars looked like garbage, the thermometer doesn't work, the floor where the propane goes had a decent amount of rust.

But, I was determined because honestly it LOOKED pretty decent.

I wish I has better photos as I've gone. So far I have degreased the inside and outside with vinegar and dawn dish soap. Used a nylon drill brush and a metal scraper on it. Got the inside of the firebox pretty clean too.

Yesterday I hit the firebox outside shell with Rustoleum BBQ flat paint. I put in new burner tubes. I can't secure the middle one because there is no bracket. But the grill won't really move so I'm okay with that. The outer tubes I slid under the old bolts I could not get out. They light and burn great now. New flavorizer bars went in last night too and I let it sit at high heat for quite a while.

I also used POR-15 rust inhibitor paint on the bottom shelf (in and out) and spots outside and inside the walls of the cart to kill off that rust. Perfectly strong enough to hold my propane bottle.

New cast iron grates arrive today that I will season as soon as I can to put in. I'm planning to move the thermometer from my old gas grill to this one if it will fit as well.

The biggest thorn in my side right now is the grease drip tray. Weber part 91534. It's stupid expensive and mine is rusting out and has a giant hole in it. The drip pan that it runs into was also rusted as were the bracket for it. So I'm planning right now to just wrap mine in foil and make my own catch can. Any other thoughts on a budget friendly approach to this? I'm already sitting around 100 bucks for parts.

Something I noticed yesterday - it gets pretty hot underneath in the cabinet where the bottle goes. Is that normal? I never really felt it to check with my last grill.

Also any thoughts on restoring the handle? It appears to be faded.

I'll attach more photos later, but here is the first day I got it with the POR-15 applied, as well as the grates I'm tossing.
 

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Ha, yeah you aren't wrong. I've noticed that too. I'm enjoying the process though. Something cathartic about restoring someone else's trash.
 
I don't know for sure, but I think that grill still used the cross over tubes for the burners which should support the middle burner.

As far as the handle goes, clean it up with some bleach and a green scrubby. Then give it a good coating of vinyl protectant such as Aerospace 303 or Armor all. It should like good as new.

I would look for a donor grill for the grease tray. People junk those grills often due to rust and you can just grab the tray. The catch tray underneath can be had on amazon for about $15. Better yet, grab one of those off a donor grill as well.
 
Thanks, @Bruce! I appreciate the help!

Here's some more photos. Along with my temporarily aluminum foil wrapped grease tray and temporary grease catch from an old grill. Also got the thermometer swapped out.
 

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Welcome Matt! That grill is in pretty nice shape and I think worth the time and money to get it up and running again. I was expecting to see the bottom all rusted out and it's not, a big thing in favor of spending a little money on it. Remember that a new one is still 5-$600 and whatever parts you replace now will give you years of trouble free grilling. Nice work so far, keep it up.
 
The excess heat is your foil wrapped grease tray. Stop using the grill until you can get a different one.
 
Steve Hoch said:
Welcome Matt! That grill is in pretty nice shape and I think worth the time and money to get it up and running again. I was expecting to see the bottom all rusted out and it's not, a big thing in favor of spending a little money on it. Remember that a new one is still 5-$600 and whatever parts you replace now will give you years of trouble free grilling. Nice work so far, keep it up.
Click to expand...
Thank you!
 
I've only worked on one E310 and it had a (somewhat flimsy) heat shield that sort of protected the tank. This seems to be missing in your grill - maybe they didn't all have one?. Also, the grease tray (the big slide out one) was double walled - an additional effort to protect the tank. Even so, after a good cook the tank was a bit toasty in there. Probably not anywhere warm enough to be a problem but a bit toasty. Now, in winter a toasty tank might help in using up all the propane - well, in theory anyway...

If you look at your left hand panel you will see two holes above the vent slots. The little drip pan (cup) bracket attaches there, also a bit flimsy but it works.

The grill is now at a friend's house (yup, I've infected him with Weberitis) but I'll try to get a picture of the inside.

Bruce is right, the middle burner plugs into a tab welded onto the crossover burner, just like the older grills. If you have no tab you can tie it there with wire.

Genesis Silver flavorizors and grates seemed to fit fine so I used those. Burner tubes were ever so slightly different so a new Amazon set went into it.

And, a final note... I think your grill is in pretty good shape. Around here those models rot out pretty quickly. Nice job with the POR-15.
 
John G (Boston) said:
I've only worked on one E310 and it had a (somewhat flimsy) heat shield that sort of protected the tank. This seems to be missing in your grill - maybe they didn't all have one?. Also, the grease tray (the big slide out one) was double walled - an additional effort to protect the tank. Even so, after a good cook the tank was a bit toasty in there. Probably not anywhere warm enough to be a problem but a bit toasty. Now, in winter a toasty tank might help in using up all the propane - well, in theory anyway...

If you look at your left hand panel you will see two holes above the vent slots. The little drip pan (cup) bracket attaches there, also a bit flimsy but it works.

The grill is now at a friend's house (yup, I've infected him with Weberitis) but I'll try to get a picture of the inside.

Bruce is right, the middle burner plugs into a tab welded onto the crossover burner, just like the older grills. If you have no tab you can tie it there with wire.

Genesis Silver flavorizors and grates seemed to fit fine so I used those. Burner tubes were ever so slightly different so a new Amazon set went into it.

And, a final note... I think your grill is in pretty good shape. Around here those models rot out pretty quickly. Nice job with the POR-15.
Click to expand...
The drip pan on mine has a second piece that is underneath but two rivers had rusted out so it kind of hangs there. That may be the second wall you're referring too? I can't see another mount for a heat shield though.

The original drip cup was there when I got it but the mounting bracket was straight rusted through and falling apart, so I threw all of that away and am planning to make my own bracket out of some stainless steel l-brackets.

Thank you for your thoughts! I appreciate everyone's help so far!

My grates were delayed til Sunday. So no mid-week seasoning yesterday.
 
Before I hit the handle with the uv protectant, I decided to hit it with black trim restore that I use on our 17 year old cars. Did the trick nicely! Before and after photos.
 

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Bruce said:
I don't know for sure, but I think that grill still used the cross over tubes for the burners which should support the middle burner.

As far as the handle goes, clean it up with some bleach and a green scrubby. Then give it a good coating of vinyl protectant such as Aerospace 303 or Armor all. It should like good as new.

I would look for a donor grill for the grease tray. People junk those grills often due to rust and you can just grab the tray. The catch tray underneath can be had on amazon for about $15. Better yet, grab one of those off a donor grill as well.
Click to expand...
yeah there is no middle bracket listed in the parts list for the burner tubes .. i thought the same thing on mine when i started the restore
 
MattSchiefelbein said:
Hey all,

I found myself an 09-12 range Weber Spirit E310 on craigslist for free this past week. I love free things and have wanted a Weber gas to go with my kettle.

My wife has called this my "trash" as it didn't work when I got it. The burner tubes were terrible, the crossover was missing, the ignitor was missing the spark part, the grates are chipping ceramic and rusting, the flavorizer bars looked like garbage, the thermometer doesn't work, the floor where the propane goes had a decent amount of rust.

But, I was determined because honestly it LOOKED pretty decent.

I wish I has better photos as I've gone. So far I have degreased the inside and outside with vinegar and dawn dish soap. Used a nylon drill brush and a metal scraper on it. Got the inside of the firebox pretty clean too.

Yesterday I hit the firebox outside shell with Rustoleum BBQ flat paint. I put in new burner tubes. I can't secure the middle one because there is no bracket. But the grill won't really move so I'm okay with that. The outer tubes I slid under the old bolts I could not get out. They light and burn great now. New flavorizer bars went in last night too and I let it sit at high heat for quite a while.

I also used POR-15 rust inhibitor paint on the bottom shelf (in and out) and spots outside and inside the walls of the cart to kill off that rust. Perfectly strong enough to hold my propane bottle.

New cast iron grates arrive today that I will season as soon as I can to put in. I'm planning to move the thermometer from my old gas grill to this one if it will fit as well.

The biggest thorn in my side right now is the grease drip tray. Weber part 91534. It's stupid expensive and mine is rusting out and has a giant hole in it. The drip pan that it runs into was also rusted as were the bracket for it. So I'm planning right now to just wrap mine in foil and make my own catch can. Any other thoughts on a budget friendly approach to this? I'm already sitting around 100 bucks for parts.

Something I noticed yesterday - it gets pretty hot underneath in the cabinet where the bottle goes. Is that normal? I never really felt it to check with my last grill.

Also any thoughts on restoring the handle? It appears to be faded.

I'll attach more photos later, but here is the first day I got it with the POR-15 applied, as well as the grates I'm tossing.
Click to expand...
1689876757444.png

holy crap that is more than double .. the center ones are.. i just got an sp 310 which is the same except some stainless steel parts where the regular ones have not stainless steel like the doors .. i will keep an eye out for you here in indy and see if a free one comes up with that tray in it

and the number is 91354 .. you swapped the 5 and 3 in your post
 
Well... It wasn't THAT long ago that I worked on the E310 and my memory is already faded. I had my friend send me a picture and I was wrong - on his grill there was no extra heat shield. Now... what grill did I work on with the extra shield? This is the problem with too many grills. But at least I can provide a nice picture of the double wall grease tray and the grease cup mount.
 

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