Hello all. I rarely flip Summits because they are big heavy beasts that are more difficult to haul....take up more space in the shop....have more intricate ignitors ......infra red burners to deal with.....internal rusting of flavor bar shelf area......etc etc. I find that for the extra time that it takes me to get a Summit complete that I could have finished and sold two Genesis 300's which I can do in my sleep. Anywho....it is slim pickins right now so I scooped a free Summit and hope to be on a one way train to profit town USA. Heck I dont even know what model this is. I will call it a 4 series. I have spent all of 60 seconds looking at it only to determine it is probably 12 plus years old.....it has 9mm grates....bottom cabinet shelf is good......inside cookbox bar frame is rusted.....burners are very good. So before I jump in please send tips and tricks on quick flipping one of these beasts. I intend on just fabricating some metal to replace the inside cook box frame. I will include a pic down below.
Summit in the house.....gunna get my hands dirty on a Summit....chime in
- Thread starter JimV
- Start date
Well I completed round one and learned a lot. I have a Summit 420. The grill is in great shape and after 4 hours of cleaning it looks great. As I thought it has the typical Summit issue's of internal cook box flavor bar rails being rusted. I was going to fabricate a piece but first I will check around to see if I can just buy a replacement. If any of you know a good place to find this piece please let me know. I dont use Weber warranties because I dont want to take advantage of them. If I was the original owner I certainly would though. See pics
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Steve Hoch
TVWBB Hall of Fame
The front of the cook box looks like it has already transformed into swiss cheese underneath that rail you speak of. It just always seems to come back to the cook box rot on those Summit grills. I would like to see the extent of the damage, but it already looks bad enough from that one picture.
Yep those two front cook box pieces are rusted out. I can make an easy metal veneer for the flat piece but will see about the actual flavor bar rail. As it stands I think I can fabricate something that will be stronger than OEM ever was....but thats just a bunch of talk right now......tomorrow out comes the grinder!
LMichaels
TVWBB 2-Star Olympian
Or maybe count the grates as a victory, and call it a day? That model of the Summit doesn't really have any exceptional qualities anyway (no rotisserie burner or kit, no smoker, no sear station, etc.
If it's something you want to flip I'd be even more cautious (re liability) if you try a a "patch" repair on the firebox and something should go wrong. If it's just gonna be a keeper "knock around" grill then maybe go ahead and experiment. Otherwise I would maybe just find another way to repurpose what you can.
If it's something you want to flip I'd be even more cautious (re liability) if you try a a "patch" repair on the firebox and something should go wrong. If it's just gonna be a keeper "knock around" grill then maybe go ahead and experiment. Otherwise I would maybe just find another way to repurpose what you can.
Ya the grates are awesome. I took the cast irons out of my keeper Gen II 330 and installed 9mm stainless and I am happy as a clam. As for the good ole 420. Personally I am not a fan because like you eluded to what can this grill do that my Gen II 330 cant? Yet this has more intricate parts that fail. That said this is not a rusted cook box just some rusted tin frames bolted to the inside of the box. I can get new ones for under $100 and this grill will be 100% so I just have to see if my skills can replicate the tin flavor bar frame or if I need to pony up for new ones. No worries though.....I wont put something out in the field that is an unsafe patch job. Any replacement that I do will be with higher quality metal and bolted in place.
Jon Tofte
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
Not to be argumentative, but isn't the black area above the flavor bar frame part of the porcelain covered front of the firebox? From your picture, it looks like it is already getting eaten away. My 1st generation Summit had similar issues (as do virtually ALL of them
).
My fix was to have a nice sheet metal shop make me thick stainless plates to affix over this part of the firebox using food grade red RTV:
Those big 3rd generation Summits are pretty hard to deal with. Too many parts subject to rust. Big and bloated in my book, although the 4-burner with a black hood does look nice. I give Weber credit for making some real improvements on the new 4th generation Summits with an aluminum cookbox and less bloated design.
).My fix was to have a nice sheet metal shop make me thick stainless plates to affix over this part of the firebox using food grade red RTV:
Those big 3rd generation Summits are pretty hard to deal with. Too many parts subject to rust. Big and bloated in my book, although the 4-burner with a black hood does look nice. I give Weber credit for making some real improvements on the new 4th generation Summits with an aluminum cookbox and less bloated design.
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First of all I would never consider your valuable input as argumentative 
. Yes I thought I mentioned that I was just gunna veneer that portion of the tin as I have done before on the 2 6 series Summits that I restored a while back. I have a bunch of metal scrap and I just grab a scrap piece that already has a 90 degree lip on it with 1/4 " over hang and cut to length and width desired. Then I use short metal screws to zip it into position. At that point it becomes double walled and should last many more years. That veneer is the easy part.....the flavor bar rail is a bit trickier to fabricate. I removed it today and I am working through the fab part in my little brain. Thats the fun of the hobby.
. Yes I thought I mentioned that I was just gunna veneer that portion of the tin as I have done before on the 2 6 series Summits that I restored a while back. I have a bunch of metal scrap and I just grab a scrap piece that already has a 90 degree lip on it with 1/4 " over hang and cut to length and width desired. Then I use short metal screws to zip it into position. At that point it becomes double walled and should last many more years. That veneer is the easy part.....the flavor bar rail is a bit trickier to fabricate. I removed it today and I am working through the fab part in my little brain. Thats the fun of the hobby.Attachments
