Orange Spot: Rebuilding weber

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Rebuilding weber

This isn't about the weber carburetor, so click that back button if that's what you were expecting. This is about BBQ. This is a small side project that I've been wanting to do, ever since I've returned from Texas. When it comes to BBQ, Texas and the midwest has the west coast beat. I have yet to find a "BBQ" joint here in Socal that even compares. Unless I make flights out to the midwest to get some BBQ, i've taken it upon myself to build my own smoker.

I'll be using an old Weber grill for this project. An old family heirloom that we've had since the the early 80's. But has been replaced by a gas grill, lucky for me, we don't throw things away. So pulled the old grill out from the back and did some cleaning.

One thing that's great about these Weber kettle grills, is it's design. Similar to a Porsche 911, it's been updated over the years, but it's design hasn't changed much since it's introduction. Parts are still available and can be updated to the latest model. For this build, I'll be adding some custom parts for it's use as a BBQ smoker.

Put together a barrier, from some scrap steel, to keep the charcoal in one area. When building a smoker, the food will be cooked with indirect heat. So this will keep the charcoals and heat to one side.

The original weber one touch vanes are rusted out and have seen it's last BBQ, and replaced with an updated piece. There's just minor differences in design, but the latest one is definitely much better than it's 80's variant.

Cleaned up and ready for some cooking.

Added a temp gauge to the grill cover. The cover had a big dent and the paint was already chipping, so used this gauge to cover it up.

Also bought a new grill since the old grill was also rusting out. Just like the one touch vanes, this grill is also an updated item that has hinged grills to aid in adding coals. A nice feature for those long cook outs.