Making New Memories With An Old Memory


 
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MikeStephenson

New member
Hi guys! I am brand new here and I was lead by googling how to restore old Weber gas grills. Now I am a charcoal man by trade but here is the back story. My wife and I are fixing to move into her aunt’s old house. As we were getting the tour I noticed in the backyard was this old Weber gas grill. It looked dirty but otherwise in good shape. I asked if it worked and why she hasn’t taken it. She said it did work and she left it because lo and behold it had belonged to my wife’s late father whom I had never gotten to meet. But when she told stories about their time they shared it commonly revolved around this gas grill and the steaks and burgers he cooked on it while they played in their backyard. Naturally she was shocked and didn’t know if it was worth keeping. I wouldn’t let her do anything to it though because A.) It was something that connected her to her dad & B.) It is a Weber. As to the model I’m not sure but I know it’s an older Genesis. The pictures below should be of some help to identify it. I can’t find a serial number either. However I want to restore it for my wife so we can use it to make memories with our kids. So where do I need to start? This is my first time doing this.

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First welcome to the forum. You will find all the help you will need here to get that grill cooking like new, so don't hesitate to ask.

It appears to be a Genies 1000 from around the mid 1990s to 1999. They are great grills and a lot of folks on here have done some beautiful restorations. It is a 13 flavorizer bar deep box which is really sought after.

Here's a link to one Paul Ds guide to restoring weber gassers which you will find very helpful.

https://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?69...together-a-quot-How-To-quot-Restoration-Guide

The Id should be under the control knob tray, if not on one of the legs. Mostly likely gone if it was one of the legs.

Post pictures, have fun and ask any questions you may have.
 
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The grates and the flavorizer bars look to be serviceable.

How do the burners and the crossover tube look underneath?
 
Have fun restoring that beauty! You can get it as good as you want to, as good as (or even a little better than) new!

Slainte!
 
I restored a very similar Weber genesis 1000 about a year and a half ago. Mine had similar sentimental value as it had been my father's grill and he had been gone about 5 years at that time.

Yours looks very restore worthy. I spent roughly $400 restoring mine but I replaced many parts that were still usable because I wanted it to look as good as possible.

I don't regret any of the time or money I spent on the grill. It looks great and is the best grill I've ever owned. Almost every time I cook on it I think of my father and smile inside.

Good luck. Let us know how it goes.
 
Welcome Mike, awesome back story. First thing to decide really is what level do you want to take this to ? Clean her up a bit, replace a few parts and give her a fresh coat of paint ? Full blown show room style restoration ? Somewhere in between ?
 
Those are excellent grills FAR better than just about any new one you can get. Parts are easy to come by and you can get really premium parts from RCPlanebuyer on Ebay (grates and flavorizer bars). Some elbow grease plus it looks like there may be a rotisserie floating around. Something new Webers cannot do with any decent results like this one can
 
wow. i just restored a red one. my .02 is to make sure the knobs all turn easily and order a new set of burner tubes and an igniter set on .Amzn. give it a good shop vac inside the box and scrape the soot off of the inside of the hood. it's not paint don't worry. the rest really is up to you. as a first timer i'm not sure if you are comfy ripping the firebox off the frame but you need to really inspect the frame for rust. i just did one and normally i have some parts fabricated to replace any rusted square frame tubing. take your time and take pics. and do not try to remove any screws that hold the burners inside the box. the manifold is another story. i'm new here too but i can answer plenty about those old genesis grills.
good luck
 
MikeStephenson, you will enjoy the experience of restoring this grill and get great satisfaction from doing it.

MikeBass mentioned "make sure the knobs all turn easily". I recently cleaned/lubricated the gas valves in my 1993 Genesis 2 grill. It's not hard to do and very satisfying. You can see a couple of photos here and a complete write-up with video here when I did the same to my 2002 Summit 450...process was essentially the same on both grills.

Finally, I have written some articles here (with photos) that may be of use:

http://virtualwebergasgrill.com/category/restore/
http://virtualwebergasgrill.com/category/clean-maintain-repair/

Good luck!
 
Chris:
I just watched the valve lube video. THanks for that. Great help. I think videos are so much better than written and photo write ups and you did a wonderful job.
I have one question however. You said that you use the brake lube due to it's resistance to high heat. But, I would think that if your valves are experiencing high heat conditions, that you might have a problem. I wouldn't think the valves get all that much higher than ambient air temps. Maybe just a little radiated heat from the cook box. Couldn't a guy use some regular grease, such as a bearing grease or similar? In fact, bearing grease has heat resistant properties as well.
 
Bruce, those valves get plenty hot. Wheel bearing/chassis grease won't work because there are small fibers in it to give it shear strength. It will also liquefy at the temps the valves can see and run out plus will not protect with that little of a film. Hence the synthetic brake lube which has a very high film strength due to the molybdenum content
 
OK, I will take your word on that. I have never really checked that area with the grill fully heated, but I assumed it just didn't get that hot around the manifold.
Thanks for the heads up.
 
So I really appreciate all the replies! The wife and I are expecting our first child in August and I finally have some time to work on this grill. I never got notifications about the replies though as apparently they were all hitting my spam folder. I will use the guide listed and get picture up ASAP!

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Question: Will it be difficult to paint the lid a different color? Say Red?
 
Do not paint the lid. Just do not do it. The lid is porcelain. If you really want a red lid then look for a donor Grill to grab one from
 
Bruce is correct. You can paint the end caps. But the top of the hood us porcelain. Paint won't stick to it. Some on here have tried and it's usually a disaster.
 
I’ll keep that advice. Leave the lid alone it is. Plus I always forget it has the decals on the lid as well. Don’t want to cover those up.

So here is the situation. I’ve started to take the grill apart to assess what needs to be done. I will need new flavorizer bars, new wood for the trays and an entirely new tray for the bottom. I’ll also need to restore the inside of the fire box and get new burners too. My wife’s aunt says they continued to use it but I haven’t the foggiest on how to clean burners.

Where should I start?
 
As far as cleaning the burners just brush them off with a wire brush. Then take a bent paper clip and clear all the holes along the burners.
 
Mike,
Welcome to the forum; sorry I am late to the party, but it looks like you are already getting lots of great advice. For some reason I can’t see your pictures on my iPad. From the comments it sounds like you have a worthy candidate, especially with the personal connection.

My main advice would be to take it slow and carefully assess what you really need before buying anything. It is really, really easy to get excited and start buying a lot of new parts when in some cases it isn’t necessary. Also, take your time looking at parts options. There are a number of choices and price and quality do vary. Use the most money where it is really important
Such as for flavorizer bars and a good set of grates. I totally endorse the recommendation of Dave Santana - “rcplanebuyer” on eBay. His stuff is top drawer and if you spring for his flavorizer bars and stainless rod grates you will have many years of service with the best there is. Contact him through the San Francisco Bay Area Craigslist. You will find his listings if you search for Weber grates or bars.

Your burners may need replacement, but look them over first. If they are solid with no rust holes you may be able to just wire brush and then clear out the holes.

For the other parts try Weber, but also get prices from some online sources even eBay. Be patient and enjoy the process.

By the way, you got good advice about not painting the hood. If you disassemble and then use Simple Green with 0000 steel wool you will probably be very surprised at how nice it will clean up.

Good luck! Keep the pictures coming:o.
 
Mike those links everyone posted will get you through your project.

For the wood they sell cedar 1x2's in Lowes and Home Depot. They are in the specialty wood section I dug thru about 30 or them because I was trying to avoid any knots in the wood. All you need to do is cut them to length, for the tables on the left that have the z bars I believe I used an 11/32 drill bit to space the slats gets damn near perfect in the spacing. I set the left and right end pieces first then used the bit for the others.
 
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