So yesterday my big shipment from Weber Grills came in and I pretty much immediately got to work tearing the grill apart and putting some elbow grease into making it look like new again. The previous owners didn’t take much care of it, but luckily after scrubbing away all of the filth it’s about 99% rust-free. I’m totally happy with that for $20.

The parts that have been replaced or upgraded:

• Silver Ash Catcher upgraded to Gold Ash Catcher — This keeps that ash in the bucket instead of blowing away, or on your legs, with a gust of wind. This part wasn’t available on eBay so I called Weber Parts directly to get the kit along with the rest of my order. Just make sure you tell them you’re restoring a Weber Gold, as they won’t sell it to you if you tell them you’re upgrading a Silver. All you have to do is remove the old catcher, remove the legs and attach the new Gold Ash Catcher ring to the posts for the legs via three tabs. Really straight forward.
• Newer-style One-Touch Cleaning System — The old system was missing the control handle and without it, the fins fall apart.
• Hinged Cooking Grate — The old grate was rusty and nasty and I didn’t want to put any of my food on it. This new one allows you to open part of the grate and add more charcoal mid-smoke instead of having to lift the grate and your food to add more charcoal. Hopefully this will still function with a KettlePizza on top of it.
• New charcoal grate — Not that the old one wouldn’t do it’s job but I figured I’d replace it while making the rest of the $20 Weber look like new.
• Tool holder — I don’t have a table on the back deck yet and until I figure out what to do about a table (I have something like the side table on the Weber Performer in mind) I needed someplace to hang tools while they were in use. This’ll do.
• Charcoal Chimney — The absolute best way to heat your coals. Charcoal lighter fluid will never exist in my house!

Before:

UPDATE: I’ve had a few people ask if the ash catcher upgrade will work with your particular model Weber kettle. I took a few pictures of the leg posts this weekend to add a little clarity to this post. I’m by no means an expert on these conversions, but hopefully this will tell you if the current ash catcher available from Weber will work.

If you look on the inside of your leg posts, there would be a slot at each leg where the tab for the ash catcher frame will sit. If you do not have these slots, then you will have to cut these slots yourself, or if you are not that handy, will most likely be out of luck. (Click on picture to zoom.)

Weber Ash Catcher

Weber Ash Catcher

Weber Ash Catcher

Here’s everything all buttoned up:

At this point it’s time to get rid of the 1000 square-inch 5 burner Charmglow on Craigslist. I’ll still have the propane powered BabyQ for quick weeknight grilling and for camping, but the weekends around Chez Fuj will definitely be filled with the smells of charcoal and applewood smoke. Who’s ready to BBQ?