I hire out my sandblasting so I’m all in at $190 plus 3.25 hours of actual wrench time. I broke down 2 more grills and painted a third one between coats on this one. It was a nice assembly line kind of day here with some decent weather to do it in for a change, too.
For comparison my finished grills are clean and fully working, but nothing like yours. I tend to re-use all parts that have life left in them. No grinding or sandblasting except to treat rusty areas. I put in anywhere from $0-80 and sell between 120- 250 depending on grill. Usually have at least the same amount of time in them. So I would guess we come in about the same profit margins and hours even though we are going for different end results and customers. I got lucky and picked up 2 golds last week and reused almost everything but drip pan and hanger on one and igniter and casters on the other. Sold the one with cabinet for 3 and w/o cabinet for 250.
Yes I agree. I was not trying to indicate otherwise. I appreciate Tom's wonderful restores, and they people that buy them instead of the more expensive lesser built newer grills. I was just contrasting and validating both our methods, for myself as well as others.I think both of your models are very valid and each bring their own reward - as well as meeting different buyers' needs.
Tom, hat red 2-burner came out stunning! I think was Weber's attempt to make a lower cost, "entry-level" grill. I like to compare it - and the 3-burner equivalent that had a similar side tray - to the old Studebaker Scotsman:
Studebaker Scotsman - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Why not split the difference and restore half your grills to perfection as you do now, and use that inventory to do half like I do. It is way faster, you have the parts, and you may attract more people that will not spend $$$ on a restored grill. You may even want to do 1 or 2 as a test just for the fun of it.
