About 2 months ago, I managed to pick up a slightly ragged out Performer
http://weberkettleclub.com/forums/weber-kettles-accessories/two-performers-before-noon/msg100285/#msg100285.
I didn't realize how bad it was until I got it home and disassembled. Long story short, I have been working on it on and off when I had time and finally have a functional grill again.
I think the pics in that thread show the extent of the rust pretty well. Basically the two bent sheet metal cross pieces were completely shot. Now, I could have done the easy thing and called Weber, spent $70, and bought a new upper frame piece, but what fun would that be?
. Instead, I headed to our machine shop at work and talked my buddy into bending me new pieces out of 16AWG steel. It took a couple of tries, but we finally got the angles right.
Once I had the bent sheet metal pieces, I went about cutting the old ones completely out. The I began trimming and welding the new ones in.
Next, I sanded everything down and gave the frame a good shot of primer
Followed by a few coats of paint. I used Satin Black. If I do another, I will use Gloss Black. The satin looks ok, but it isn't right.
The final welds are far from perfect, but they are more than sufficient.
Then I sanded down the rest of the frame. Followed by more primer, paint, new star nuts in the lower cross members and then Reassembly
I spent a few other random evenings stripping down the bowl and cleaning all the parts with oven cleaner, razor blades, and then finally soapy water and steel wool. I also replaced all of the standard hardware with stainless steel. I reassembled everything yesterday afternoon. The only thing I was missing was propane. I needed a 20lb tank filled anyway, so I headed to a small local hardware store. They filled my regular tank, but said they didn't have the connector needed for the small 5# tank. On a whim, I dragged it along around the building with my big tank. While the guy was filling it, I showed him the connector and he started digging through a box of connectors.....EUREKA! There it was, the mythical quick disconnect filling adapter. The guy gave it a whirl and managed to put almost a gallon of propane into the tank. To top it off, he didn't know how to ring it up, so he just said it was on the house. Sweet! So I got home from having the tank filled and put everything together.
It's not the nicest or cleanest SS, but it's mine and I put a lot of time and effort into making it usable again. So I'm very happy with it. I'm still having some issues with the gas assist. It will light on the first try every time, but it is a weak flame that sounds like it is in the tube and not blowing out of the burner tube. One time it will burn hot and seem to be ok, the next time I can put my bare hand directly on the charcoal grate while the flame is burning. Everything is clear and clean, so I'm guessing I need to look into replacing the regulator. Not a big deal. I'll look into it next time I stop at the hardware store.
Topic: Finally rehabbed my SS Performer (Read 4317 times)