Adam_Smith
New member
First post here, been reading threads for a bit, mostly SSP and Genesis x000 restorations.
A few weeks ago I went to snag this $50 Marketplace find from a woman, her husband came outside with her — turns out I know the guy through some friends, and they insisted that I'd be doing them a favor by taking it off their hands at no charge. The previous owner of their house left it behind and they'd like the space for their gas grill.
Initial evaluation: It’s a Crate & Barrel Grass Green Gen 2 Performer. Lime Green? Spring Green? The kettle lid is a bit dirty but looks good, the bowl is pretty nasty with mold inside, baked-on grime outside, quite a bit of crazing with rust stains coming through the porcelain, overall it’s still a solid kettle with many years of service remaining. Like a lot of plastic-table Performers the table is stained, cracked by one of the screws, and has the chalky feeling of plastic that has sat out in the elements for too long. The ash sweepers are rusty, gummed up, and stuck rock-solid (thankfully in an open position so I can scrape all the crap through the vents). The ash bucket was pretty difficult to take off, I think I bent the ring doing so — I have another ash catcher around that I can use while I figure out if the original is worth straightening out. The gas assist parts and char-bin are present and dusty. It also came with a dirty cover which I haven’t inspected yet.
Before cleanup, looks pretty good from 10 feet away (I might have actually scrubbed the table by this point, that was the first thing I did).
Table before scrubbing
Rust was pretty deep and flaking on both grates. The charcoal grate is still usable after some cleanup and reshaping, the cooking grate is in similar condition but... I'm not so excited about putting food on a rusty grate.
Fuzzy
Lid wasn't too bad on the outside
Maybe sat outside for a while?
Lots of crazing, baked on cruft
After the cleanup: It’s still a Crate & Barrel Grass Green Gen 2 Performer, but it’s a lot nicer to look at and it’s a joy to use. The kettle cleaned up pretty nicely. A few chips on the bowl and it still has that crazing, the rust took a little work to polish out. The lid turned out to be in really good condition, only some very light chipping around the outer edges. I disassembled the cart and cleaned everything up, polished the stainless and aluminum parts, then used Meguiars “Ultimate Black” on the plastic frame parts and the outside of the char-bin. Replaced all non-stainless hardware with stainless on reassembly.
During the time I was working on the cart, a free Master Touch kettle came up just a few blocks away, so I walked over and dragged it home on my lunch. When I got there I was surprised to see that it came with a Slow N Sear Original insert and SnS Easy Spin stainless cooking grate. The stainless grate found an immediate home in the Performer, but I already had a Slow N Sear insert so I plan to give it to a friend along with the cleaned up Master Touch.
Polished up pretty nice
Shiny lid, newer ash catcher
So nice to have a place for charcoal
Stainless is so much easier to clean than the coated steel, and the "easy spin" design is a good functional upgrade. Also really cool that the opening fits with the Slow N Sear.
It’s still a work in progress with a lot of little stuff to do (table, gas assist, wire shelf rust cleanup, wheels and casters), but so far it's turning out pretty great for a free Performer! I was planning to just use this Gen 2 cart while restoring a Gen 1 SSP cart to put this green kettle on, but so far I'm enjoying this Gen 2 cart enough to put a little extra work into it and may consider keeping it long term.
I'll continue the thread as I make more progress, thanks for checking it out!
A few weeks ago I went to snag this $50 Marketplace find from a woman, her husband came outside with her — turns out I know the guy through some friends, and they insisted that I'd be doing them a favor by taking it off their hands at no charge. The previous owner of their house left it behind and they'd like the space for their gas grill.
Initial evaluation: It’s a Crate & Barrel Grass Green Gen 2 Performer. Lime Green? Spring Green? The kettle lid is a bit dirty but looks good, the bowl is pretty nasty with mold inside, baked-on grime outside, quite a bit of crazing with rust stains coming through the porcelain, overall it’s still a solid kettle with many years of service remaining. Like a lot of plastic-table Performers the table is stained, cracked by one of the screws, and has the chalky feeling of plastic that has sat out in the elements for too long. The ash sweepers are rusty, gummed up, and stuck rock-solid (thankfully in an open position so I can scrape all the crap through the vents). The ash bucket was pretty difficult to take off, I think I bent the ring doing so — I have another ash catcher around that I can use while I figure out if the original is worth straightening out. The gas assist parts and char-bin are present and dusty. It also came with a dirty cover which I haven’t inspected yet.
Before cleanup, looks pretty good from 10 feet away (I might have actually scrubbed the table by this point, that was the first thing I did).
Table before scrubbing
Rust was pretty deep and flaking on both grates. The charcoal grate is still usable after some cleanup and reshaping, the cooking grate is in similar condition but... I'm not so excited about putting food on a rusty grate.
Fuzzy
Lid wasn't too bad on the outside
Maybe sat outside for a while?
Lots of crazing, baked on cruft
After the cleanup: It’s still a Crate & Barrel Grass Green Gen 2 Performer, but it’s a lot nicer to look at and it’s a joy to use. The kettle cleaned up pretty nicely. A few chips on the bowl and it still has that crazing, the rust took a little work to polish out. The lid turned out to be in really good condition, only some very light chipping around the outer edges. I disassembled the cart and cleaned everything up, polished the stainless and aluminum parts, then used Meguiars “Ultimate Black” on the plastic frame parts and the outside of the char-bin. Replaced all non-stainless hardware with stainless on reassembly.
During the time I was working on the cart, a free Master Touch kettle came up just a few blocks away, so I walked over and dragged it home on my lunch. When I got there I was surprised to see that it came with a Slow N Sear Original insert and SnS Easy Spin stainless cooking grate. The stainless grate found an immediate home in the Performer, but I already had a Slow N Sear insert so I plan to give it to a friend along with the cleaned up Master Touch.
Polished up pretty nice
Shiny lid, newer ash catcher
So nice to have a place for charcoal
Stainless is so much easier to clean than the coated steel, and the "easy spin" design is a good functional upgrade. Also really cool that the opening fits with the Slow N Sear.
It’s still a work in progress with a lot of little stuff to do (table, gas assist, wire shelf rust cleanup, wheels and casters), but so far it's turning out pretty great for a free Performer! I was planning to just use this Gen 2 cart while restoring a Gen 1 SSP cart to put this green kettle on, but so far I'm enjoying this Gen 2 cart enough to put a little extra work into it and may consider keeping it long term.
I'll continue the thread as I make more progress, thanks for checking it out!
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