My first restore - an Ol' Redhead Genesis 3 from the 80's


 

JoeyB

New member
The Weber forums have been an excellent way for me to learn about grills. I was just looking to replace my crappy CharBroil because I really didn't know or think there was much to a grill. Heck, I was still saying that I BBQ'd.. even though it was all NG or LP, see I'm already learning. Once I got past that and was looking for grill education, I was seeing a trend that everything and everyone kept pointing back to Weber. A little more digging and I decided why not spend a little extra for a Weber, besides living in SoCal affords me the opportunity to grill just as much if not more than using a stove and oven. I was amzed and please to see how much fanfare and support Webers got, so decided I would go the Weber route. Only problem is, I still could not find one in my price range even used, let alone just find a listing. Seems whenever one got listed it was gone immediately.

Then I learned that new Weber's are now manufactured in China. That's all good and fine but I really wanted to know I could still get parts and materials easily and afforably, more-over I also learned that really the internals of a Weber are quire similar and at times inter-changeable. Then, last week I saw a posted CL ad for a "Gas Grill - working $60". After having clicked on a thousand similar ads I was stoked to see a Weber emblem on the grill, though this was not a model I had seen or knew about but I didn't even care at that point. I immedately went down and offered the asking $60 no haggle and hauled it off. Grill was in working condition with an original Weber cover and a new full propane tank. Looking at the internals I saw the burners are in great shape and likely repalced at one point. The flavorizers and smoker box on this were done for, thanks to you all on these forums I checked out rcplaneguy on eBay and got bars and grates on order.. Woohoo! Now after more research I was learning about refurbs on these grills and that the "redheads" look amazing when they are properly rehauled. I'll admit that I do love the classic look since this one still has the wood slats (alebit missing a side table). Now I'm learning about making this thing useable again, realizing this is my first I'm not gonna do everything but I'm already pleased with the look and progress. Had a bunch of screws rotted out so that's going to be a pain to replace but I'll get there.

So far total cost: Grill $60 + Bars $73 + Grate $85 + High Heat Paint $8 = $226. Still cheaper than a new model but with the cool looks you can't buy anymore :)

Here's a couple of quick pics and a link to my blog where I have a couple more pics: http://racezilla.blogspot.com/2014/09/refurbishing-ol-redhead-weber-genesis.html

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You guys all have done incredible rebuilds and this one is not even close to par with that, but given my inexperience here I'm very confident this will still look great while adding some years to it's life. Can't wait to rock some Smoked Salmon and a couple of strip steaks on this baby!!

Thanks for the inspiration and information to motivate me in getting this started.
 
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Looking forward to your progress, done a few myself and it's been dirty but the results are well worth it.
 
Thanks fellas, always nice to be encouraged I'm heading in the right direction. Surprisingly DaveW, the wood is in pretty good shape, I think this grill was covered most of its life. I've pressure washed it and most of the stains came out. Going to stain with gunstock color and give it some coats of water sealant.

Also wanted to say that I called Weber to register this grill to me and they were super helpful. Weber support told me this grill was sold between 1985-1988 (oh what great years those were). Found a manual for a Genesis 3000 Platinum C series and it looks exactly like mine so I'm not certain what model I have by name. All's good though since I found parts and plan on keeping this thing for a while. Putting some more touches of paint on this week and trying to scrape more of the build up on interior. Stand bye for more pics soon.
 
Thanks Alejandro. Can't believe it myself how old this thing is! but it's going to look and cook just as nicely if it was new.

Having some problems with a few bolts that broke off from rust, and since the new grate and flavorizers won't be here until next week I'll be spending efforts to drill those out while I wait. Another week or so on the restore... 30 years of caked on and dried grease and fat is hard to get off.
 
Thanks Alejandro. Can't believe it myself how old this thing is! but it's going to look and cook just as nicely if it was new.

Having some problems with a few bolts that broke off from rust, and since the new grate and flavorizers won't be here until next week I'll be spending efforts to drill those out while I wait. Another week or so on the restore... 30 years of caked on and dried grease and fat is hard to get off.
I was lucky with mine, I payed only 50 bucks and it was in pretty good shape. I just bought a Genesis Gold C and I'm going to list my red head for sale on CL, from the beguining I was looking after a model with a side burner. Sad to let my red top go but I'm sure it will bring joy to a lucky family for years to come.
 
Well fellas.. Here she is finally finished and ready for some cookin' Flavorizers arrived and grate should be here this week. Until then enjoy the beauty of my "new" redhead. Originally I was just going to do the minimal to to start cooking until I could afford a nicer Weber. Though, after a full restore including the emblem I'm falling for her and think she's going to be around another 20 years!

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You did great, looks very nice! Now time will tell if the Weber refurb bug is in your blood. You'll now if you are cruising CL and another Weber ends up as a project, if it does just go with it as there is no cure:p
 
Well fellas.. Here she is finally finished and ready for some cookin' Flavorizers arrived and grate should be here this week. Until then enjoy the beauty of my "new" redhead. Originally I was just going to do the minimal to to start cooking until I could afford a nicer Weber. Though, after a full restore including the emblem I'm falling for her and think she's going to be around another 20 years!


Just an FYI, but "newer" doesn't necessarily mean "nicer". It's one of the reasons that some of us rehab older Webers. :cool:
 
DaveW, I definitely saw the differences between "newer" and "niceer" as I shopped for current Webers and and lok at the addictive prospects of restoring. Really happy with the results and that I restored. I chose the Gunstock stain as well but wanted a darker hue so ran a few layers of it and then water sealed it (even though she's covered while not in use).

Like Rich said I'm worried about just by chance coming across another one that I can't pass up.. oh boy!

Thank You all for the great feedbackl and comments, it was a tremendous help while taking this project on.
 
DaveW, I definitely saw the differences between "newer" and "niceer" as I shopped for current Webers and and lok at the addictive prospects of restoring. Really happy with the results and that I restored. I chose the Gunstock stain as well but wanted a darker hue so ran a few layers of it and then water sealed it (even though she's covered while not in use).

Like Rich said I'm worried about just by chance coming across another one that I can't pass up.. oh boy!

Thank You all for the great feedbackl and comments, it was a tremendous help while taking this project on.



Joey, you did an amazing job on that restore. It looks fantastic. I'm sure you'll probably end up with another one or three or more as time goes on. I started out doing restores for friends/family that were looking for grills. Then started building my own collection (both gassers and now charcoal). Bad thing is that I've already identified a hole to fill as I want some color in the family. My current grills are either standard black or stainless. A redhead or blue boy would look really nice.
 

 

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