I Caved And Picked Up A Redhead.... Weberitis Strikes Again


 
J

Jim Weber

TVWBB Super Fan
So it starts with and ad for a free 1000 Redhead..... ONE picture only to go on, but it looks good...... so you take a chance on it ((( really I just wanted to beat Josh to it!!! ))).......

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Thats when you realize you just picked up a 'solid' grill! Not a beauty queen, but an everyday workhorse that is ready to run just as it sits.
This is how it looks before I have done ANYTHING to it ----

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And the best part....... a PERFECT Drip Tray!!!!!!!!

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I'm pretty amazed to snag this for FREE in this condition ---- its basically ready to cook on, but I'll give the once over anyways just because.... It shouldn't take much clean it up the whole way.

Condition of things ---
- Grates -- damn near new PC channel grates!!!!! They should clean up to near new with a quick pressure washing. Can't complain about that.
- Flavor Bars - ehhhh - they are pretty rusted but still pretty solid - at least they are there and its still usable.
- Burners - solid and in good working order. I was a bit bummed that they are replacements and not the originals.... but oh well.
- Drip Tray - FANTASTIC!!!! - it will look like new after a decent scrubbing with some soap! This was my biggest worry....
- Lid - a little grimy and dirty but should clean up nicely - not 'perfect' - I did notice a few small specs of porcelain missing. Side caps are kinda ugly - the owner said that he had 'touched them up with some high heat paint' = obviously he didn't prep it all that well and its all flaking off.
- Fire Box - appears to be in great shape but has some paint touch up spots too.
- Frame - its in pretty good shape for being 30 years old - still solid, but some surface rust and a bit of bubbling here and there.
- Slats - obviously the owner had replaced them without much thought - hard square edged and obviously painted - but perfectly usable as is.
- Wheels - good wheels and casters - pretty surprising the casters still work well even tho they look original. The axel for the big wheels is kinda rusted, but thats easy...

I'm actually pretty happy with the condition --- I'll be firing it up this weekend after a quick cleaning and once over. Just happy that everything is in good condition and working order!

Here is the tag for it --- I'm sure someone can decipher it for me and tell me what year it is....
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I haven't really thought thru how far to take a rehab/restore yet - I think I'm gonna use it for a while and see if I fall in love with it enough to replace my Spirit B ---- its not really going to be a fair test since the B never really gets used, but for now I'm pretty stoked to have a 13 bar X000 in the herd!

Its kinda funny to see the gray paint on the slats -- it looks like he painted them on the Z bars since there is paint on them -- I was trying to figure out why he chose that color...... then it hit me - it matches the knobs and ignitor. They look weird, but I'm sure I can overlook that for now.

If I decide to keep it around long term I'll definitely need to get a new set of bars - I'm considering replacing the slats with cedar planks just because that would be easy and I wouldn't mind the wider boards myself.

I'll have to wait and see how much it grows on me.

Edit --- I didn't actually look at the tag until after I posted so it looks like its a '97.
 
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So I spent some time yesterday cleaning her up.....

I took the burner tubes out and gave them a good cleaning --- I had started with the wire wheel in the drill - made a 'tube holder' from a 2x4 by drilling holes so that I could strap the tube to it with cable ties and hold it in my B&D workhorse clamping table - very nice way to work on them - but damn..... wire wheeling the tubes sucks - I ended up just wheeling the flame slits clean and 'sanding' the rest of the tube with one of those 'sanding sponges' - I didn't want to spend all afternoon on them. They worked really well after that with nice even flames and should for quite some time.

I pressure washed down - 1600 psi electric so I didn't damage anything --- it was already scraped out really well but had a pretty heavy grease/oil coating that the pressure washer did a nice job of reducing/evening out - I felt bad about removing it completely since that is its 'protective coating', but I wanted to remove the previous owner's 'seasoning' so I can start my own. The grates cleaned up to near new too.

Gave the rest of the grill a scrub down with simple green. I was disappointed that the lid didn't clean up better.... still a film on it that didn't come off with SG and a blue scrubby sponge --- I'm thinking I need to hit with an SOS pad or some steel wool with some degreaser. The tables cleaned up nicely - the marks on them were just grease from the previous owner's cleaning.

Reassembling I noticed that the gas catcher for the ignitor - which was half missing already but still worked when I tried it - was in much worse shape than I thought - the center electrode was just laying/sitting in the remains of the box. I reassembled it and it still worked and was planning on ordering a new one --- but then I dug thru my box of weber parts and found a serviceable gas catcher with electrode - SCORE!!! I had to take it apart again to install it - should have looked before I put it all back together......

I gotta say --- I'm pretty happy with it now! (((After I got over missing out on that black lid unit the day before))) Its not a 'pristine' example, but I don't need that --- its still solid and completely functional and the color scheme is growing on me. My biggest gripe is that the paint is worn on the lid handle that kinda bothers me -- but I'm thinking that I can get past that.

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I'm going to christen it with some pork steaks tonight!
 
Timothy F. Lewis said:
Nice working grill! Do I see a “Hamms” in that koozie? Nice choice, I’m getting back to that basic style lately.
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Yeah -- Hammys have become my goto nowadays - just a good American lager/pilsner. Micros and crafts just don't 'quench'. I'd almost kill for a good old Strohs or an Old Milwaukee these days...
 
I grew up with “Detroit River Water”! Their Bock beer was always a treat. I had a dear friend that stocked his MAMMOTH class A RV with a big cooler of “Old Milwaukee” at every bluegrass festival we were at. Roger and Sandy made sure we had plenty to eat and all the old Mill we could drink. Those were truly fun times!
The other thing about Hamms is it’s not only cheap it’s “The beer, Refreshing!”
I might have one right now, if I can muster the energy to go to the beer cooler!
 
I seldom use the one on my 1st gen Summit, but I am glad it is stainless like that one. If you do use them, that looks like a good deal.
 
Yeah - there is absolutely no reason to go with 'original' when this is soooo much more useful.
And its at the same price as the original......
 
Well, you Guys don’t help my bank balance at all! I just ordered that rack, baked potatoes will not take up more space than necessary! I’ve got an older swing rack which I may try before dropping the extra for an original. This is the lower one so, that’s fine, it’s not trying to be an original for me.
 
First cook on the redhead! I've been dying to try this set up on the SpiritB but just haven't got around to it --- so the first try was on the redhead. Pork steak with oak/apple/cherry in the smoke tube.
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One burner on low until it temped to ~140ish - then turned all burners off and let it suck up smoke for...... about 2 1/2 beers.... I was just planning on doing a reverse sear to it, but somewhere in the middle of the second beer I decided to make up a glaze for it --- blueberry syrup (homemade)/SBR/Franks tinned with beer -- I had been meaning to do this at some point for pork too, so I did it. I pulled it off while I heated the grill up - middle burner on high and F/B on low got the raised grate to 450ish and then threw it back on and glazed multiple times. Honestly --- I was kinda panicking and flayling around at this point since the darkness (and beer) had sunk in really fast and I wanted to get done without overcooking it..... I'm happy to say that it turned out really damn good! Smoky-nice tacked glaze-fat rendered nicely and the meat wasn't over cooked --- I'll chalk that one up in the win column. Sorry -- no after pics since I was making sides while it rested.

Its interesting how the temp on the raised grate seemed to be insensitive to which burner was set on low - I was playing around running each for 10-15 minutes just to see -- super bonus that I could light the back burner from the front on low without a big WOOF - gotta love a clean crossover burner. What I did find surprising is that the smoke pattern changed significantly depending on which burner was going and where the tube was placed -- I've never seen that on the N/S 2 burner, but I've been pretty consistent on that and that has limited options. I feel there is going to be a learning curve to see what settings and tube placement is going to work the best..... I'm pretty happy that I didn't cook BOTH pork steaks last night --- I can try the other later on this week and see if I can start to dial it in.

First cook --- I'm impressed. Is it any better than the SpiritB? Don't know since I haven't used it much.... but I'm happy I have both! I'm gonna try cleaning the lid a bit better and then migrate it back onto the deck to live with the with the others where there is light to cook into the dark season.
 
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