Dear Manuel @justfunk
The main purpose of Private/Public is the Visibility, so its functioning how it should.
A work around if you want to get them in to the Grid:
When you have the projects in 'Public' they can be added to the Thumbnail Grid and the data is there, then you can make them 'Private' afterwards and they will be hidden from view, but they will still be there - Just Hidden, setting the project back to Public will make them visible again within the Thumbnail Grid.
Hope this helps & have a wonderful day :)
Richard