E310 firebox thinner than Silver B/1000?

I am in the middle of my E310 rehab and noticed that the firebox on the 310 seems thinner than the older Silver B's and 1000's. Is that just me or is it really thinner?
One of my two E310 has the lid stops broken out of the fire box. Seems really weak there and therefore a poor design. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of E3xx grills have the same problem. Along with the cabinet being a rust fest and the burners and flavorizer bars being toast, I can see why it was a free grill. At least it had a set of Stainless steel cooking grates. I am also using it as a donor grill for my current E310 project.

I think you are correct about the firebox being thinner. I think that started with the e 310's and has continued with the genesis II line. But seeing how it is cast aluminium I'm not sure if that's a concern? When you look at old genesis e 310's almost all seem to be intact at the firebox. Heat retention is probably a little less with The thinner newer fireboxes but in cooking on friend's grills that have newer webers I don't really notice much difference.

The bigger concern with that model is the cart (as you stated). Those seem to rot away with alarming frequency. It will be interesting to see over the next few years how well the genesis II frames hold up. They (the carts) aren't stainless but the metal seems to be substantially thicker like on the old genesis models. And many have the open cart design which seems less rust prone.

I have one where the lid stops are busted out and I remember reading a post on this forum or elsewhere that mentioned it was an issue with these fire boxes. They could have easily added a little more metal in that area to strengthen it. Since the grill I am working on is a 2008, I wondered if maybe they did do something in the later years. But, yes, by far, the biggest issue with these grills is the cabinet rust.

It's not the open (or closed) cart that causes the issue or corrects it. It's because on the closed cart they used a cheap piece of stamped steel with nothing but powder coat as the floor of the cart. If they had continued to use a wire basket type floor or slats the cart would be a non issue. If you look at many of the newer open cart design grills that also used a single sheet of mild powder coat steel they too turn into rust buckets down there even with the open cart

Bruce if the overall box is thinner even the material at the lid stops that could be the problem as you suggest.

Hopefully they rectified that with the new model. They seemed to put effort into the new genesis II to up the durability like the older genesis models.