Weber Genesis 1,2, and 3


 
DanHoo said:
Like a 73 Ford pinto in mint condition?
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Great analogy. A car that explodes on impact is right up there with the worst of 'em. (Surprisingly, though, they had their following. Knew a guy who owned three. One for himself, one for his wife, one for his kid. Thought it was the best and most unfairly disparaged car ever.
 
DanHoo said:
Like a 73 Ford pinto in mint condition?
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Right, but manual transmission and no a/
Roy-Parallax said:
Great analogy. A car that explodes on impact is right up there with the worst of 'em. (Surprisingly, though, they had their following. Knew a guy who owned three. One for himself, one for his wife, one for his kid. Thought it was the best and most unfairly disparaged car ever.
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Not surprising really. People still continue to buy many things that I wouldn't spend good money on today.
 
My bestie had one of those! I drove it up the Grapevine while moving him to Bakersfield back in the 70s. My wife hated that car! She says Pintos are dogs!
 
DanHoo said:
Same with grills.
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I have to confess to looking down on Frankengrills for the most part, yet I find myself in the midst of my first ever at the moment with a Platinum C rehab. There's just no other way to get around a failing lid liner and I still feel a little dirty for doing it. Oh well, I fought the good fight for 5+ years before breaking.
 
TomRc said:
I have to confess to looking down on Frankengrills for the most part, yet I find myself in the midst of my first ever at the moment with a Platinum C rehab. There's just no other way to get around a failing lid liner and I still feel a little dirty for doing it. Oh well, I fought the good fight for 5+ years before breaking.
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I wasn't thinking about restorations or mods, but instead thinking about how product brand names change from awesome to meh over time.
 
TomRc said:
I have to confess to looking down on Frankengrills for the most part, yet I find myself in the midst of my first ever at the moment with a Platinum C rehab. There's just no other way to get around a failing lid liner and I still feel a little dirty for doing it. Oh well, I fought the good fight for 5+ years before breaking.
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Find myself not even thinking in those terms. "Frankengrill" seems disparaging. Not unlike the way people used to be called bastards. To me, they're hybrid grills. That's what I call them because they often carry the best aspects of more than one grill. As an example, the 1000 box my friend and I are combining with a Summit stainless frame. He didn't care about the side burner so we omitted it. The result is he'll have a custom grill that suits his need for something that won't rust and cooks great. This region is rainy and, like me, he doesn't want to bother with covering it after each use. I have places on my deck that are covered so it's less of an issue, but long term a stainless frame is a nice feature for any grill in this region, even if it stands on a covered deck.

I think back to high school biology, where we were taught about heterozygous alleles. When genes are more diverse, the resulting offspring are less likely to have genetic defects and are more likely to lead longer and healthier lives. We see this in dog breeding. People pay more for full breds because one knows what to expect in terms of temperament. But it comes at a price, which is why breeders try to include as much diversity in the gene pool as possible while maintaining the particulars of the breed. Still, mutts live longer and healthier lives on average.

Grills are of course not living organisms so the comparison isn't exactly on point. But I bring it up because when we hybridize a grill, we can choose the aspects of each that are most important to us. We can be creative and put together something rare and unique. I see each of those aspects as a positive. As an example, I'm really happy to have done my own thing (with lots of help from guys in this forum) in creating my open cart Genesis Platinum. The result is far more appealing than a restored original Platinum (in my opinion -- YMMV of course).
 
Roy-Parallax said:
Find myself not even thinking in those terms. "Frankengrill" seems disparaging. Not unlike the way people used to be called bastards. To me, they're hybrid grills. That's what I call them because they often carry the best aspects of more than one grill. As an example, the 1000 box my friend and I are combining with a Summit stainless frame. He didn't care about the side burner so we omitted it. The result is he'll have a custom grill that suits his need for something that won't rust and cooks great. This region is rainy and, like me, he doesn't want to bother with covering it after each use. I have places on my deck that are covered so it's less of an issue, but long term a stainless frame is a nice feature for any grill in this region, even if it stands on a covered deck.

I think back to high school biology, where we were taught about heterozygous alleles. When genes are more diverse, the resulting offspring are less likely to have genetic defects and are more likely to lead longer and healthier lives. We see this in dog breeding. People pay more for full breds because one knows what to expect in terms of temperament. But it comes at a price, which is why breeders try to include as much diversity in the gene pool as possible while maintaining the particulars of the breed. Still, mutts live longer and healthier lives on average.

Grills are of course not living organisms so the comparison isn't exactly on point. But I bring it up because when we hybridize a grill, we can choose the aspects of each that are most important to us. We can be creative and put together something rare and unique. I see each of those aspects as a positive. As an example, I'm really happy to have done my own thing (with lots of help from guys in this forum) in creating my open cart Genesis Platinum. The result is far more appealing than a restored original Platinum (in my opinion -- YMMV of course).
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In general, the idea of hacking up grills that we or others have determined as beyond useful service and assembling these salvage parts into something usable seems commendable. Admittedly, and much like the story of Frankenstein, I find them to be oftentimes hideous and reject them based solely on appearance. Is my opinion right? Of course not. Nor am I wrong to be of this opinion, either. Mechanicals aside, I think Weber has done a bang up job over the years in giving us a visually appealing product across many product lines and trim levels. Very rarely have I seen where we have improved on that appearance with our own hands by combining parts of one grill with another. I’m sure many of these Frankengrills, or hybrids, or whatever named grills really cook like a beast. I’ll be the bad guy and say that I think a lot of them look like beasts, too. I’ll even go a step further to say that it bothers me in some capacity when I see a vintage grill carved up unnecessarily when it could have been restored. There’s only so many 13 bar deep cook boxes, etc left out there if you follow my train of thought. As an example, IMO your own red head should be fully restored and nothing less...either now or later on when you decide that your skill level is commensurate with the needs of the project. If you don’t see that day ever happening, I would much rather see a grill like that moved on as-is to someone who will tackle the project than to see it become a parts donor or hybrid. Again, I’m not right or wrong and neither are you if you choose to do differently. When it comes to Weber grills, I’ll take a purebred over a mongrel any day. In the meantime, I’ll apologize to @DanHoo for misinterpreting his bastardization reference and leading us down this rabbit hole.
 
I tend to prefer the "stock" look overall, but I am not at all above combining features now and then. On my first Skyline project, I still hadn't learned that you couldn't simply drop a 13-bar firebox onto a Silver B frame. I wanted to have the benefits of the last version thermoset tables but with a 13-bar box and, of course, a Skyline hood. I had to settle with a x000 extended frame on which I set the 13-bar box and Skyline hood. But that didn't stop me from adapting a late Silver C side burner and adding a right-side swing table. That entailed some more modification to allow the special Skyline condiment basket (upgraded with a White Sox badge also showing a Chicago Skyline) to co-exist with a table on the right. I used black Silver knobs and igniter switch, and I also used a later version Weber logo badge in place of the original earlier version. Finally, I substituted Silver end handle/tool holders in place of the frame plugs, freeing up the need for the original metal tool holders. The condiment basket had those, but I didn't use them.

I asked my wife to post a couple pictures of my grill on her FaceBook page. Used to my renovations, she asked for "before" pictures. I had to explain to her there were none because the parts on my Skyline came from several different grills.

IMG_0377.jpg

IMG_0379.jpg

I sadly sold that grill (but kept the Sox badge for a future Skyline). Since moving here I did another "Frankengrill" I guess, by grafting a 2-burner Skyline hood on to a last year Silver A body. Not as much customization, and not as cool a grill, but it is very practical to use as a daily driver for our small household. I finally got my Skyline/Thermoset table combination! The 2-burner Skyline did not feature the wire condiment rack, but I added a White Sox touch to the plastic one that came with the Silver A!

Silver A and Skyline 2-burner BEFORE.jpeg

Skyline 2 burner JON.jpeg

Finally, I did a Silver A for a friend here in Indiana. I used the leftover parts from the merger of the two grills above but changed the table to mahogany slats, adding special E-W ones on the bottom. I also used @Bruce's help in getting some gray early Silver knobs and end caps dyed black. Definitely not stock, but I don't think if looks like a Frankenstein monster of cobbled together parts - even though, I suppose that's what it is!

Silver A for Billwood slats.jpeg

Silver A for FINISHED Hood Closed.jpeg

For you long-timers who have endured these pictures previously, I apologize. We have some new active members so I thought I would share these because of the "Frankengrill" discussion. After tax season I will be doing my very best to FINALLY make some new restorations and hopefully have some new stuff to share...right now I better get back to preparing yet another tax return.
 
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