Peter Park
New member
Hello everyone,
For the past 3 months I have been lurking this forum while looking for a new hobby. Thanks to all of your informative posts, I have jumped into the fun to restore a FB Marketplace Spirit 700, circa 1990s as far as I can tell.
I made the rookie mistake of not taking enough before photos, but I did take a few that can give you an idea of what I had at the start of this process. I live in British Columbia, Canada and being in a region with little to no rust issues, this grill was still in very good shape, especially the frame. Looks like it was originally LP as you can see by the sticker beneath the control panel and converted to NG by the previous owner.
I began the dismantling of the grill, starting with the end caps and lid. Lots of carbon buildup on the lid underside that was taken care of with some oven razor blades. The lid alongside the control panel was then sprayed with degreaser and cleaned with #0000 steel wool.
J
I then hit up the emblem - wire brushed and sanded to prep, hit it with a couple coats of high-heat gloss paint, then sanded away the edges.
Then it was time to paint the rest of the grill! That included the firebox and manifold. End caps of lid and firebox I managed to get it sandblasted by a professional - only ended up paying $25 Canadian all in!
Cleaned inside each valve, thanks to Chris’ helpful YouTube video. This preceded painting the manifold but I am too lazy to rearrange the order of the photos…
Onto the frame! Wire brushed all rust off to the best of my abilities, hit the surface with 400grit sandpaper, prepped with rubbing alcohol then time for paint. Used gloss 2x Rustoleum for most of the frame except the surface around the firebox, which I used high-heat Tremclad gloss (same one as the one used on emblem above). Put the frame back together thereafter.
I was initially confused as to what model this was, since the previous owner threw in a thermoset table that likely was rather from a Genesis Silver, not a Spirit. Nonetheless, I worked on the side table too - sanded, then further with #0000 steel wool and applied protectant spray.
Now the fun part - putting everything back together! Got new bolts for the end caps to attach to the lid. As for inside the grill, I replaced the warming rack (Weber genuine), igniter (Weber genuine) and flavorizer bars (knockoff stainless steels from Amazon). Under the firebox, both the grease catch tray and pan was replaced with Weber genuine and knockoff from Amazon respectively.
Here is the finished product!
Thanks again for all of the good discussions here that have inspired me to do all this.
List of all parts that I had replaced during the restoration:
Warming rack
Flavorizer bars
Igniter
Oil catch tray
Grease pan
Bolts to attach end caps to lid
A couple washers for bolts to put together frame
I will be keeping this grill as I will be moving to my first home in a couple weeks, where there will be a gas line already built in for me to test out the actual burners.
Cheers!
-Peter
For the past 3 months I have been lurking this forum while looking for a new hobby. Thanks to all of your informative posts, I have jumped into the fun to restore a FB Marketplace Spirit 700, circa 1990s as far as I can tell.
I made the rookie mistake of not taking enough before photos, but I did take a few that can give you an idea of what I had at the start of this process. I live in British Columbia, Canada and being in a region with little to no rust issues, this grill was still in very good shape, especially the frame. Looks like it was originally LP as you can see by the sticker beneath the control panel and converted to NG by the previous owner.
I began the dismantling of the grill, starting with the end caps and lid. Lots of carbon buildup on the lid underside that was taken care of with some oven razor blades. The lid alongside the control panel was then sprayed with degreaser and cleaned with #0000 steel wool.
J
I then hit up the emblem - wire brushed and sanded to prep, hit it with a couple coats of high-heat gloss paint, then sanded away the edges.
Then it was time to paint the rest of the grill! That included the firebox and manifold. End caps of lid and firebox I managed to get it sandblasted by a professional - only ended up paying $25 Canadian all in!
Cleaned inside each valve, thanks to Chris’ helpful YouTube video. This preceded painting the manifold but I am too lazy to rearrange the order of the photos…
Onto the frame! Wire brushed all rust off to the best of my abilities, hit the surface with 400grit sandpaper, prepped with rubbing alcohol then time for paint. Used gloss 2x Rustoleum for most of the frame except the surface around the firebox, which I used high-heat Tremclad gloss (same one as the one used on emblem above). Put the frame back together thereafter.
I was initially confused as to what model this was, since the previous owner threw in a thermoset table that likely was rather from a Genesis Silver, not a Spirit. Nonetheless, I worked on the side table too - sanded, then further with #0000 steel wool and applied protectant spray.
Now the fun part - putting everything back together! Got new bolts for the end caps to attach to the lid. As for inside the grill, I replaced the warming rack (Weber genuine), igniter (Weber genuine) and flavorizer bars (knockoff stainless steels from Amazon). Under the firebox, both the grease catch tray and pan was replaced with Weber genuine and knockoff from Amazon respectively.
Here is the finished product!
Thanks again for all of the good discussions here that have inspired me to do all this.
List of all parts that I had replaced during the restoration:
Warming rack
Flavorizer bars
Igniter
Oil catch tray
Grease pan
Bolts to attach end caps to lid
A couple washers for bolts to put together frame
I will be keeping this grill as I will be moving to my first home in a couple weeks, where there will be a gas line already built in for me to test out the actual burners.
Cheers!
-Peter
