Jon Tofte
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
I am in denial about tax season (although I have already started on it). It was a pretty day today and I decided I wanted to at least get SOMETHING done on my pet dream: a Weber Genesis Skyline with some of my own modifications to make it my "Chicago" grill. I went to grad school and worked for a year in Chicago and met my wife there as well. So, although I am pretty much a Floridian at heart, I do have a special tie to the Windy City.
In case some of you may be wondering, Weber sold a limited line of Genesis grills through Sears that featured a black hood with a white graphic of the Chicago skyline. They called them the Skyline Series. The white graphic is actually part of the porcelain, so it holds up pretty well. The black hoods are prone to fading. I obtained my hood from a guy in NJ who was nice enough to disassemble his Skyline that he was selling on Craigslist and ship it and some of the other important parts to me here in FL. I was VERY happy to get this hood, which though having some fade is still in nice condition. I think these are unique and very cool:
I have made a custom painted Weber logo for it and have been saving a vintage Weber "Grill Out" handle/light that I think will look perfect on this grill:
Today, I started on re-building the frame. I am using an extended frame I picked up a while back which had a nice redhead hood and side burner. I plan to use the redhead hood on a separate redo and make this Chicago grill an extended frame version with a side burner. I think the side burner will add a little to the "urban" look of this grill. Since I plan to use this to replace my Genesis SE 330 (slated for sale), it will be nice to have a non-electric source for regular cooking in the event of another hurricane power outage.
The frame parts were hardly perfect but also not a lost cause:
I started by sanding and then cleaning off the dirt and grease with a degreaser. Then I uses a metal prep to get the parts ready for POR-15, a great substance I learned about on this forum. It converts the rust to a neutral chemical and dries into a very hard epoxy like finish. It is great stuff, but not too much fun to work with. I use two pairs of gloves but still got some on me!
After prepping, you have to get the metal totally dry. I borrowed a palm tree and the Florida sun to accomplish that!
Here's after painting on the POR-15: (The wire basket piece in the lower corner of the picture is a "condiment holder" that was one unique feature of the Skyline Series grills.)
I especially worked on the open ends of the frame tubes and the place where the bolt goes through the frame to hold the firebox to it:
Everything will need to dry for a while, and then I can spray paint black using Rustoleum Ultra High Heat on the upper portion and Rustoleum 2X on the lower legs where heat is not an issue. These come highly recommended by other forum members.
Stay tuned. I hope to chip away a little at a time until taxes just become too overwhelming!
In case some of you may be wondering, Weber sold a limited line of Genesis grills through Sears that featured a black hood with a white graphic of the Chicago skyline. They called them the Skyline Series. The white graphic is actually part of the porcelain, so it holds up pretty well. The black hoods are prone to fading. I obtained my hood from a guy in NJ who was nice enough to disassemble his Skyline that he was selling on Craigslist and ship it and some of the other important parts to me here in FL. I was VERY happy to get this hood, which though having some fade is still in nice condition. I think these are unique and very cool:
I have made a custom painted Weber logo for it and have been saving a vintage Weber "Grill Out" handle/light that I think will look perfect on this grill:
Today, I started on re-building the frame. I am using an extended frame I picked up a while back which had a nice redhead hood and side burner. I plan to use the redhead hood on a separate redo and make this Chicago grill an extended frame version with a side burner. I think the side burner will add a little to the "urban" look of this grill. Since I plan to use this to replace my Genesis SE 330 (slated for sale), it will be nice to have a non-electric source for regular cooking in the event of another hurricane power outage.
The frame parts were hardly perfect but also not a lost cause:
I started by sanding and then cleaning off the dirt and grease with a degreaser. Then I uses a metal prep to get the parts ready for POR-15, a great substance I learned about on this forum. It converts the rust to a neutral chemical and dries into a very hard epoxy like finish. It is great stuff, but not too much fun to work with. I use two pairs of gloves but still got some on me!
After prepping, you have to get the metal totally dry. I borrowed a palm tree and the Florida sun to accomplish that!
Here's after painting on the POR-15: (The wire basket piece in the lower corner of the picture is a "condiment holder" that was one unique feature of the Skyline Series grills.)
I especially worked on the open ends of the frame tubes and the place where the bolt goes through the frame to hold the firebox to it:
Everything will need to dry for a while, and then I can spray paint black using Rustoleum Ultra High Heat on the upper portion and Rustoleum 2X on the lower legs where heat is not an issue. These come highly recommended by other forum members.
Stay tuned. I hope to chip away a little at a time until taxes just become too overwhelming!