Hi Jerry!
I bought a 2000 SS Performer of Craigslist a couple months ago. It was my first time attempting to restore a kettle, and trust me, my last! Even though this performer was only my third restore ever, I was confident enough I could tackle it..
WRONG! This thing kicked my *** every which way to Sunday! The kettle and inside lid was so funky with at least 10-12 layers of carbon, the outer layer was an inch high in what was like a black fuzzy matter, and it stuck up through the lids vent holes a good 1/2 inch. I've never seen anything so nasty! At one point early on in the restore, I was so freaked out what may have been cooked in this thing, (tons of small hairs) I was ready to chuck the whole project and go buy me a brand new performer, even though I loved the looks of the vintage SS.
I decided to keep going with the restore when I added up all the replacement parts I had ordered for it, and just flip it to recover my expenses, and help with the cost of a new one.
I put in over 35 hours of time, 5 cans of Easy Off Heavy Duty oven cleaner, 2 bottles of Dawn Platinum dish soap ( made to soak pots and pans over night, Killer stuff, I might add!) 4 brass brushes, 2- 16oz bottles of Purple Power degreaser, 1 box of SOS pads, and my trusty little metal putty knife before I saw the porcelain enamel on both the kettle and lid!
It took another 2 cans of oven cleaner to get the outside of the lid's layers of carbon off, that was present on just one side of the lid.
Once my parts started arriving, I was incapacitated to do any more work on it, as I was recovering from my back hurting so bad from over 30 hours of bending over that thing, both hands developed Carpel Tunnel syndrome, which I had surgery for over 15 years ago, so I knew the pain, and put splints on both hands to help reduce the swelling.
It litterly took 2 weeks for my body to recover from that ordeal, and I never got past the kettle!!
The day I decided I was well enough to start tearing down the frame to replace a rusted cross bar that sits where the ignition button is, ( which you have to replace the whole top frame rail) I got the call my Dad had past away, and so everything got covered, and put away, and by the next week, the rains had come in, and seem like are here to stay. So, I have kinda lost my Mojo to finish it up for the time being..
But, I highly recommend you order a new kettle from Weber, and save yourself ALOT of pain and expensive.
Granted, I'm closer to age 60 than 50, and admitting that a kettle grill kicked my ***, is well, kinda embarrassing, but from now on, I'll leave this kind of work to the young whipper snappers! (But I did get that kettle and lid 100% carbon free, and brand new looking!!)