DaveF in IL
TVWBB Member
Backstory on this is that I found this forum while researching a new Weber grill to replace my rusting-out Vermont Castings. I was concerned about the quality of the new Webers I was seeing in stores so I was looking for some reviews. I stumbled on some of the restoration threads and liked both the looks of the older grills as well as the apparent quality. Seeing those reminded me that when we moved into our house, the previous owner had left an old grill behind. I had stashed it around the corner on the deck and forgotten about it mostly. I knew it was a Weber, but it looked old so until this point I hadn't considered using it - I had only thought about how I might dispose of it someday.
Anyway, seeing those nice restorations, I went out and yanked the cover off and discovered a Silver B from 2002 with the left and right fold-out side table. And, it looked to be in decent shape! Armed with the tons of useful information here, I set out to fix it up to get to a state where I'd enjoy using it. I pulled it completely apart, removing everything except the burner tube alignment bolts and the bolts through the cookbox for the manifold (again, lots of great advice here to leave those alone). Painted the frame, lid sides, and cookbox, cleaned up the thermoset pieces, bought a bunch of new bolts and various other parts and put it all back together. It's not 100% perfect, but I'm pretty happy with it. If I had more free time it might have been nice to try to do a "factory new condition" type restore, but there's too many other projects on the list plus I really just wanted to start using it. Also, I'm sure even with a perfect restore it'll not look as nice after a bit of use anyway. I'm still jealous of some of those here though who have done it! I think the only major thing I would have done differently at this point is to use the semi-gloss on the cookbox. I used flat on the cookbox and semi on the sides. Someday I'll probably pull it apart again and apply the semi-gloss to the cookbox as the flat just looks a bit gray/chalky to me.
Here's some pics after I uncovered it:
And here it is all cleaned up and back together:
As you can see I'm missing the bottom shelf. Some tools had been left on it and it rusted. I'm contemplating making a shelf out of wood to replace it, otherwise I may look for a parts grill. I'm also thinking about converting to natural gas, so maybe I'll find a NG one and take the best parts from both.
Thanks to everyone here for posting such great information, both calling attention to the value of these older grills as well as all the details and steps to get them fixed up. It's been a fun project!
Anyway, seeing those nice restorations, I went out and yanked the cover off and discovered a Silver B from 2002 with the left and right fold-out side table. And, it looked to be in decent shape! Armed with the tons of useful information here, I set out to fix it up to get to a state where I'd enjoy using it. I pulled it completely apart, removing everything except the burner tube alignment bolts and the bolts through the cookbox for the manifold (again, lots of great advice here to leave those alone). Painted the frame, lid sides, and cookbox, cleaned up the thermoset pieces, bought a bunch of new bolts and various other parts and put it all back together. It's not 100% perfect, but I'm pretty happy with it. If I had more free time it might have been nice to try to do a "factory new condition" type restore, but there's too many other projects on the list plus I really just wanted to start using it. Also, I'm sure even with a perfect restore it'll not look as nice after a bit of use anyway. I'm still jealous of some of those here though who have done it! I think the only major thing I would have done differently at this point is to use the semi-gloss on the cookbox. I used flat on the cookbox and semi on the sides. Someday I'll probably pull it apart again and apply the semi-gloss to the cookbox as the flat just looks a bit gray/chalky to me.
Here's some pics after I uncovered it:
And here it is all cleaned up and back together:
As you can see I'm missing the bottom shelf. Some tools had been left on it and it rusted. I'm contemplating making a shelf out of wood to replace it, otherwise I may look for a parts grill. I'm also thinking about converting to natural gas, so maybe I'll find a NG one and take the best parts from both.
Thanks to everyone here for posting such great information, both calling attention to the value of these older grills as well as all the details and steps to get them fixed up. It's been a fun project!