Which grill to rehab?


 
Steven Martin

Steven Martin

TVWBB Member
Trying to decide which grill to rehab for a gift for my father in-law. He really likes stuff that looks “high end” so that makes me lean towards doing a summit series. He also liked a red head Gen 2000 I showed him last night.

he said he would like stainless prep areas around the grill so I’ll probably pick up a prep table to go beside it as well.

Most large family gatherings are held at his house with about 20 people or so.
If I did a summit series rehab, are there things I should look out for when looking at a potential candidate grill? What do you guys think would be the fair price range for such a grill in various conditions?
 
I will seriously not recommend a Summit. While it may "look" high end and when new actually perform well. They do not hold up at all. They become rust buckets, and huge money pits
 
Steven, the Summit grills are fraught with problems when rehabbing. The biggest is cost and availability of parts. Then you have the itinerant problem with the Summit cook boxes and cabinets rusting out, which like I said are costly and hard to find parts for. Summits are not considered good candidates for rehabbing unfortunately.

If he liked a Genesis 2000, then I would probably go that route. Parts are much easier to come by and reasonably priced. In general, you should be able to completely redo a Genesis 2000 for about $150 with new burners, new SS flavorizer bars and new SS solid rod grates along with new wood (if it is a wood grill vs durawood). But you would have to do some carpentry and refinishing work on the wood.

If you wanted to go with premium grates and flavorizer bars, you would be looking at something a bit over $200.

You could also consider a Genesis/Gold Silver B/C or Genesis E3xx grill. But, the older genesis 1000-5000 grills are generally considered the better grilling grills of the lot.

The E3xx grills have the cabinet problems with rust like the Summits however. Just stay away from any Weber Cabinet grill.
 
Steven,

I am with Bruce and Larry all the way. I guess it depends if your father-in-law would see a classic Genesis with wood slats as "high-end." If outfitted with the best grates and flavorizers, it would certainly be a high quality, durable cooker. For me, these early Webers are like a classic Jaguar with all that English leather and woodwork. Some people (not me) would rather have a silver Lexus. What goes with that is doing some hard work as Bruce describes or maybe finding someone to do one for you if you prefer. There are some very talented people here who could help with that if geography is workable.

Restored Classic Weber Grill 2.jpgRestored Classic Weber Grill 3.jpg

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I'm also with Bruce, Larry and Jon you can't beat the classic early Genesis grills.
Finding a right side table and lift arm may be difficult. They are no longer available to purchase retail so your best bet would be to see if someone on the forum might have one to sell or a donor grill.
Below is a couple of pictures of my genesis 1000 that I bought new in 1998 and I converted it to a 2000 by getting a 2000 donor grill for the frame and I was lucky enough to find a right side flip up to add to it.

S1031100_zps5ae7a107.JPGDSCN2765.JPG
 
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Steven Martin said:
Those are gorgeous!
How do you fit a flip up table on the right side if it did not come with one?
Click to expand...

If you can find a donor grill that you can pull the flip table off of, you can put it on the other side. Here's an example of one: https://tvwbb.com/threads/genesis-1100-right-side-flip-up-table.66120/post-794654

This is another example: https://tvwbb.com/threads/genesis-2...ilver-c-side-burner-perhaps.82131/post-909770, which is what I did.

I found it hard to find a flip up table for the other side, so just adapt what you have.
 
The flip up table itself for the other side is not the problem. The problem is finding the slide bar for the right side. I am pretty sure the tables are completely ambidextrous. It is the slides that are not. Since they only came on the higher end Genesis grills, they are pretty rare.
 
It will probably fit, but the rest of the grill will not line up correctly...control panel, side tables and such. Lids are pretty much interchangeable though.
 
How about this? Have both an early Genesis and a Silver or other later Gennie, and alternate, see which one you like the best and then sell the other.

Or, like me, can't make up your mind so you keep 'em both...
 
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