Picked up my first resto. 2004 summit silver b


 
R

Ryan C

New member
So I got the sweet gem yesterday. 2004 summit silver b. I will post pictures during the restore process. I saw this awesome forum and Hoping for some tips on deep cleaning the grill. The grill itself seems to be in decent shape. I myself like the look of a shiny firebox. Nothing other than the crossover tubes and a couple spots on the side cart where they probably went with cheap paint and sheet metal. Anyways, I hope $225 got me a good deal. One more thing, people say they got their fireboxes blasted or they used a cup brush. Anyone comment with experience?
 
Hi Ryan, nice gasser to have. Unlike the Genesis the Summit's firebox is not a cast Aluminum tub, rather it is bolted together sections of Al and steel(and the steel bits do suffer from rust decay and are not usually available from Weber). Best not to sand blast the steel sections.
 
What sections are Al and what sections are steel? I'm assuming the main tub where the grates, fb's and burners sit is aluminum. I am debating taking my knot brush to it. Would I just ruin the steel? I read Anthony j's post, but of course he had the aluminum box. I'm a go big or go home kind of guy.
 
Well don't do that to that summit or you'll quickly have a pile of scrap metal. The sides of the fire box are castings but the front and rear parts are enamel coated sheet steel.
 
Well is their anyway to get it back to "new" short of ordering a new box? Still warrantied and from what the csr said, they still carry all the parts for the grill.
 
Thoughts bouncing off my head I forget to ask questions. How does that box come off the frame? I see bolts but nothing on the outside that tells me which are the right ones. Also, I have flap wheels, would those serve me better than having a pile of scrap?
 
Ryan,

As LMichaels and Ryan said, you want to be very careful going in and getting crazy on this thing. Here's a pic of a replacement firebox for a Summit Gold D model.


20141208_161236.jpg




The left and right end caps are cast aluminum. You can hit those with a flap or wire wheel and not have any problems. The front and the back panels are where you will have issues as those are coated metal.


If you look closely at the left hand end cap, you can see a bolt hole close to the middle of it. It's on the middle vertical ridge about 1 1/2 inches below the horizontal lip. You can also see the bolt hole on the right hand end cap. It's in the center just above the silver metal track.


Removing the box will require a number of steps. Remove the two hinge pins and take the grill lid off. Remove all the burner knobs. Take out the screws on each end and remove the control panel cover plate and the vertical front panel cover. This will expose the manifold. Remove the screws on each end of the manifold and slide it out of the grill box. This pulls the orifices out of the burner tubes allowing them to be removed.

When all of that is done, remove the above mentioned bolts from each side. That should just about do it. Oh, there are two clevis pins, one on each side of the front of the firebox. You can see the one on the right side in the picture above. It slides down into the silver metal track. Can't remember what these lock in, but they probably need to be removed as well. Oh, you'll also need to pull the ends of the ignitors.
 
Dave thank you so much for the help. My eyes have always been bad. More carrots I guess. Are the caps that are aluminum attached to the back by those 4 bolts on either side? I noticed the bottom is also that smooth black surface. I attacked that with aluminum foil which seemed to help but their is buildup that is just on their. So I'm thinking the wire brush may have been a bit too much haha. But what can I say, my first weber. Any recommendations to try and clean the bottom below the burners?
 
Ryan C said:
Dave thank you so much for the help. My eyes have always been bad. More carrots I guess. Are the caps that are aluminum attached to the back by those 4 bolts on either side? I noticed the bottom is also that smooth black surface. I attacked that with aluminum foil which seemed to help but their is buildup that is just on their. So I'm thinking the wire brush may have been a bit too much haha. But what can I say, my first weber. Any recommendations to try and clean the bottom below the burners?
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You're welcome Ryan. Yes, the bottom, back and front are bolted to the aluminum end caps. Unfortunately, Weber doesn't sell any of the components individually, only the entire firebox.

WRT your vision, were you able to see the parts I tried to point out ? Or do you need/want me to caption the photo and put arrows to what I've described?



As for cleaning the bottom of the firebox, you could try using a windows scraper razor blade. Or, there are some chemical cleaners that you could try. I'd imagine that industrial Purple would eat through some stuff, just be careful with it.
 
Haha captions would help immensely I'm a visual person myself yet ironically am half blind...God likes to laugh sometimes. I have a plastic ice scraper I'll give that a go. Everything looks "good" a few rust spots on the top portion of the front panel where the grates sit but nothing major from the looks of it. I think some time and "patience" which I have none sometimes, i think I will turn our fantastic
 
Ryan C said:
Haha captions would help immensely I'm a visual person myself yet ironically am half blind...God likes to laugh sometimes. I have a plastic ice scraper I'll give that a go. Everything looks "good" a few rust spots on the top portion of the front panel where the grates sit but nothing major from the looks of it. I think some time and "patience" which I have none sometimes, i think I will turn our fantastic
Click to expand...


All good, here you go.

summit22.jpg



That top portion where the grates sit is notorious for rusting out / corroding. I think LMichaels fabricated a piece of sheet metal to patch his. Others have had the complete firebox replaced by Weber under warranty.
 
Mine is the earlier model and Weber "orphaned" it even though it was under warranty. I have not done any fabrication (or hired anyone to do so). Too many other issues on my plate (cars, house, etc.). I have the Weber Summit 450. A substantially different animal than the letter design(s) (and arguably I find to be better built) but again that is a personal thing. I know having done a resto on my brother's version and comparing to my older design the older one is IMO much better design and build quality. Probably why Weber "orphaned" it. Even the rep I spoke with about the fire box made that admission while apologizing for turning my very expensive grill into scrap metal (figuratively speaking). OP if there is a way you can get a whole new box under warranty I would do it now (lest the same happen to you) but don't use it. Save it for the inevitable.
 
Yeah I was thinking the same thing. It's under warranty why not kind of thing. Just wish my burners were under the warranty too. LMichaels, I'd be curious if I could "fit" the 450 box on the silver b frame. Have a frankensummit on my hands.
 
How different can they be? If it's just a fit the box in issue I think I can get steel tubing to make it fit
 
Here's what a rusted front panel of the fire box looks like. The pic above is my replacement fire box. Haven't done anything with it yet.



 
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I think a sheet metal patch is a clever trick. Mine isn't that bad hoping to keep it looking decent. Just a bit of corroding where the grates sit. I scubbed most of it out.
 
Ryan C said:
How different can they be? If it's just a fit the box in issue I think I can get steel tubing to make it fit
Click to expand...

More different than can be reasonably over come. The two are nothing like each other except in the name Summit
 
Dang, well that's too bad. I still need to finish cleaning the box anyways. I have a pressure washer. I've heard it shouldn't ever be used to clean a bbq with.
 
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