Grandfathers 1988 Redhead Restored

[J.R. Olivier]

I just wanted to say thanks to this website and all the great information. I just finished restoring my Grandfathers 1988 Weber Genesis II. My grandfather purchased this Weber from Costco in 1988 for $350 and still had the original paperwork. He gave the grill to me a few years back when he moved into a smaller place. This winter I wasn't getting much heat so I broke down the grill and noticed the burners had holes in them. Long story short, I decided to fix the grill. This website was a huge resource and I am so thankful for all the information shared. This grill has so many memories and I am so thankful to save them and hopefully pass it down to my son some day. I had a great time with this project and wanted to share the before and after pictures. So rewarding!!

Please note that all the wood used is an old basketball floor. I am a coach and had access to an old gym floor so I put a little extra meaning into the project.

 

[FredJones]

WOW ! Excellent job coach. Love that basketball flooring. How bout under the hood ??? Any pics of that? Very well done and I think it is awesome that your grill will end up being an heirloom. Get a good cover (look for a vintage 9859 on eBay) and keep an eye on that frame. We would all love to hear some of the specifics that you did to her. Make sure to register it on Weber's site also. Get that lifetime warranty for the hood.

 

[Dave in KC]

Would love to see some pics.

 

[Bruce]

The pics in the original post are not showing up for me.

 

[Greg M]

I can't see the pics either. And I would love to see the wood slats from a basketball floor on a vintage weber grill. That neatly combines 2 of my passions: grilling and basketball!

 

[JKim in MA]

That neatly combines 2 of my passions: grilling and basketball!

A brother from another mother!

 

[J.R. Olivier]

I put two pictures in and can include more but I must being doing something wrong if some are not seeing them. I used that attach button and a url name from my google photos. Any ideas?

 

[Bruce]

Most on here use IMGUR for hosting photos. It works well. My suggestion is to switch to Imgur. But, I don't know much about google photos.

 

[Chris Allingham]

I put two pictures in and can include more but I must being doing something wrong if some are not seeing them. I used that attach button and a url name from my google photos. Any ideas?

It seems you can't reliably embed photos from Google Photo into forum posts without using a plug-in like this one for the Chrome browser:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/easy-image-embed/ofceejfjemidnkagmiopgbjcjeomoonc

 

[Stefan H]

I could not see the photos on my laptop but I see them using my iPhone. I am kind of drooling over the photos right now. This grill looks awesome. Where can one find that type of floor??

 

[J.R. Olivier]

Update

Thank you for the help on uploading pictures.
I have updated the original post with more pictures that I hope work.

Some people asked for details. Here are a few things that I had issues with or that I learned along the way.

1) decided not to totally clean out box as some others explained that it is really not necessary if you are going to keep it and use for personal use. I did clean it well with some baking soda, vinegar, dish soap mix to break down the grease. I didnt feel the need to use chemicals as I knew I would be using very soon and it didnt need to be perfect.

2) I put the manifold back together slightly wrong first time after cleaning it and tightened it too much. I was very close to breaking the copper nipple part on the turning mechanism. Don't do that!!

3) I picked and chose what to replace to save money. I replaced a lot of hardware but not all. My drip pan had a few small holes but felt it still was not noticeable and had some good life so I used some metal putty to fill in the holes and then spray painted.

4) I wanted the basketball floor to stand out so I kept the bottom as one piece to allow it to be more noticeably that it was in fact a basketball court. I kept the original handle and just sanded down. All wood finished with 3 coats of spar urethane. I had the urethane from when I finished my front door a few years back.

5) I splurged and went with RCPlaner stainless steel flavorizers as recommended by others. All said I think it was around $200 counting all new items and paint.

Most everything else I can think of I used advice found on this page listed by others.
I truly enjoyed the project and especially loved showing my grandfather the final project.

I hope that is more detail.

 

[J.R. Olivier]

Thanks for the information. I had no idea you can register on Weber for lifetime warranty. I will look into that now.
Cheers

 

[THyde]

Thanks for updating the pictures, wow, what a great grill! I'm also really happy to hear that your grandfather is able to see the grill, he must be happy. Really, really great job, and great work tying in the basketball theme. Enjoy it! One last thing you may and may not want to do is invest in some RCPlanebuyer stainless rod grates, it will make a huge difference when you are actually cooking. Again, that is your choice, but I personally highly recommend them. And a rotisserie.

Slainte!

Tim

 

[Bruce]

I am still not seeing any photos. I have tried Chrome, Firefox and MS Edge on my PC.

 

[LMichaels]

Yeah me neither. Imgur is the only thing I have found that works but ONLY if you use the right link(s), otherwise all the reader gets is a "link" to click on which takes them away from the original web page. I have given up even trying on those unless it's only one photo as I get tired of trying to click back and forth

 

[Bob Correll]

No pics for me either, and I'm a Chrome user.
I have problems with Google Photos too, and presently testing the plug-in suggested by Chris.

edit, the extension failed.

 

[J.R. Olivier]

Bummer about the photos. I tried the extension as suggested but some are still not seeing photos. Not sure. Here

[/IMG] is a test

 

[Bob Correll]

Bummer about the photos. I tried the extension as suggested but some are still not seeing photos. Not sure. Here

is a test

I can see that, it's a thing of beauty, great job on the restore!

Same here, my test let the pic show for awhile, but has gone away after adding the extension, back to Flickr for my pic posts.

 

[Rich Dahl]

Very nice, that is one heck of a restore, love the basketball wood .

 

[Bruce]

Not seeing it on my end.