My CL Q200 Project


 
Rich G

Rich G

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I posted yesterday that I found a Q200 (advertised as a Q1000) on CL, and wanted to get a post going so I can document my cleanup. So, starting with the "before"......

Back story on the grill. I was perusing CL early yesterday morning, specifically looking for Q grills, as I wanted to add a small gas grill to my charcoal arsenal for those times when a quick fire and cook were in order (or, to add a secondary cooking source for a meal when I don't want to manage charcoal in two kettles concurrently.) I quickly found an ad from 8 hours earlier for a FREE Weber Q1000, no pics, no comment on condition, etc. YAY! "Must pick up today between 12p-1p" NO!!!! (I have to be in Santa Cruz with my daughter all day for a water polo tournament!) I convinced a friend to go and pick it up for me, contacted the seller, and all was arranged.

He got the back story on the grill when he picked it up. The gal who answered the door said that she had purchased the grill for her husband last spring. He used it a few times over the summer, and since then, "....he just doesn't bbq anymore.....", so we are getting rid of it.

So, for the cost of a six-pack of beer for my friend (which I will probably end up drinking 1/2 of with him), I have this:

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Nice looking from the exterior, but the interior shows that nobody who came in contact with this grill had any clue that you should actually clean the thing every so often (and, maybe try just a little to protect it from the elements!!!! :(

Here's the interior.....makes me doubt the timeline story on the grill a little, but WOW, that's a bunch of crud:

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Here's how the grate looks (I think it may be toast, but George Curtis has me convinced to try and resurrect it....):

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And, the piece de resistance?? Here is the grease catch, complete with all of the grease this grill has ever seen, nicely aged and RANCID (almost lost my lunch)!!!!

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The good news is that this grill is just dirty (other than the possibly doomed grates), and will clean up just fine with some elbow grease. I did a light clean of the burner, and it fires decently, though it's obvious that I need to thoroughly clean it up and get all the holes cleared.

I'm very happy that I found this one, and will give it a good home for the remainder of its service life!!! I'll get some "after" photos up once I get it cleaned up.

Q on!

R
 
Wow, that is worse than any of the Q’s I have worked on, but other than the grates it just needs lots of elbow grease (degrease?). The 200 is a wonderful grill.

The grates look like they may be too far gone, but it is worth a try with the grinder/wire brush. If you can get down to the cast iron and season it, you might make it work. Many have reported, though, that, even with a lot of effort, pieces of porcelain will still keep chipping off. Since you got a good deal on the most flexible of the Q grills, maybe springing for new grates would be worth it. Don’t buy without scanning listings. I have seen new grate sets for sale that someone decided they didn’t need.
 
Yea, still go at the grates. Should clean up and if taken care of should last a long time. But seeing those pics makes me truly wonder about the mental condition of a person capable of doing that. Obviously he worked terribly hard at getting that done.
 
Rich, I picked up a Q320 in Redwood City about 2 weeks ago for $50 and my grates look just as bad as yours. I used a flat head screw driver to chip off the crud from Q grates. It works....somewhat. Your best bet would be a drill with a wire brush attachment to get them really cleaned up for use. Then like others have suggested, treat them like a rusty cast iron skillet, oil well and bring up to temperature then repeat. I put mine in my oven to "cure" them. They will last reasonably long if properly cared for, but eventually some things just wear out. Luckily for all of us, grates are widely available. I recommend 200 grit sandpaper to clean the grit off the burner tubes (when you get there). You got yourself a nice grill for a great price. Looking forward to the "after" pics.
 
Poaching the RWC stuff, huh, Mike? :) Funny, there's a clean looking Q320 listed in Concord today on CL. If it was closer, I'd consider incurring the wrath of my wife and picking it up (do I need it, no......) :)

I did some work on my existing grates, and I've got them serviceable at this point. I wire brushed, and chipped away the stubborn stuff with a screwdriver, too. I even put it through a self-cleaning oven cycle the other night. Seasoned them up like my CI skillets, and have cooked on them a few times. I'm being pretty generous with pre and post cook oiling of the grates to build up a protective coat. I'll need to replace the grates at some point, but they've got a lot of life left in them yet.

I'm deep into cleaning up the top/bottom of the grill as well as all the plastic today. Planning to paint the lid, but not certain when I'll get a good day to paint (it's been windy here, and I don't want to do it inside the garage.)

R
 
Ok, I made some progress on my Q200 this weekend. I'm not really trying to get it back to factory new condition, just want to clean it up and have it ready to go as a working grill.....

Disassembled:

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Bottom reassembled after cleaning everything, and hitting all the plastic parts with some 303 protectant:

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Inside of the bottom of the grill (this is after MUCH scraping, and 4 hours with some oven cleaner!):

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I cleaned up the lid, too, but even after 2 sessions with Easy Off x 6 hours, it still have a decent baked on coating. I'm just going to leave it for now, and will work on it more when I'm ready to paint it.

Progress!! :)

R
 
An angle grinder and wire cup brush is your friend if you want the cook box and inside of lid cleaned down to the bare aluminum.

These grills are so simple to clean up and refurbish. The only bad part about dissasembling them is the ceramic bushings in the legs that are heat bariers where the nylon legs/frame connect with the aluminum cook box. Most of the time they are cracked and fall apart when you take the grill apart. And weber does not sell them individually.
 
Bruce said:
The only bad part about dissasembling them is the ceramic bushings in the legs that are heat bariers where the nylon legs/frame connect with the aluminum cook box. Most of the time they are cracked and fall apart when you take the grill apart. And weber does not sell them individually.
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Yep, had that problem.....nothing a little Krazy Glue couldn't fix (at least long enough for me to bolt it back up, where the pressure will hold it together until the next time I disassemble.) :)
 
Rich G said:
Yep, had that problem.....nothing a little Krazy Glue couldn't fix (at least long enough for me to bolt it back up, where the pressure will hold it together until the next time I disassemble.) :)
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Great idea! I will borrow it as well:D. Those little pieces have no ready replacement that I know of:mad:!
 
Fair warning, I couldn't get it perfectly glued back together, so it needed a tap (very light) with a hammer (with a rag on top of the spacer) to fit into the hole it fell out of. It all worked fine, but figured I'd give you that extra info in case you try it out. I figured the only downside was that I would STILL have a broken spacer, so nothing to lose, really.

R
 
I've never bothered to take the legs off any of the Q's I have owned, I guess I just never saw the need. It's like cleaning the underside of your car before you sell it, you just hope no one will take a clean white handkerchief to it. Rich, I happened to be on an adventure the day I picked up the Q320 - my travels first brought me through San Jose where I picked up a Genesis 5000 (more on that on the other board). But I hear you with the wife ;)
 
Mike: I only take them down that far if I intend to flip the grill and the firebox needs repainting.
 
Bruce said:
Mike: I only take them down that far if I intend to flip the grill and the firebox needs repainting.
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I hear you, Bruce. Now that I've done it, I probably never will again. Since it was my first Q, I figured I'd break it all the way down out of both curiosity, and to be sure I wasn't missing any issues that were hidden and needed to be fixed. Now that I know quite a bit more about Q grill anatomy (pretty simple, really), I doubt it will be done again
 
Bruce said:
Mike: I only take them down that far if I intend to flip the grill and the firebox needs repainting.
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Mike_D said:
I've never bothered to take the legs off any of the Q's I have owned, I guess I just never saw the need. It's like cleaning the underside of your car before you sell it, you just hope no one will take a clean white handkerchief to it.
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I have only done a few of these Q restorations. All but one just needed a little quick spray touch-up of the bottom that didn't require disassembly. The last one I did was really bad, and I couldn't see any way around it to be able to fully clean and repaint. I had the same challenges with the ceramic pieces. I can't believe that Weber doesn't stock them:mad:.
 
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