My free redhead SS performer that I need to finish up

[MikeLucky]

So, a little over 2 years ago a friend of mine was posting pictures of some work being done in his back yard. He posted this picture:

He had a tree removed and they damaged his power pole. Of course my immediate comment was that he needed to take care of his poor performer. He immediately direct messaged me and told me that he hadn't used it in several years and I could come get it if I wanted it. Of course I jumped on it.

Well, since then I've had it in my side yard and been putting off cleaning it up and fixing it. Finally pulled it from the side yard and I am planning on working on it this weekend.

Lid bale has no hardware on one side. I already ordered some new rollers and hardware to fix that. Has what appears to be a clean 5 pound bottle, but no idea if it still has any propane in it or if it even works. Haven't tried it yet, but will see about firing it up.

Starter wires are hanging down and are either melted or cut, so I'll need a new starter. Any chance I can put one of the new battery versions from the newer models? Also when I first got it the ash pan bracket seemed very loose but the collection pan was full of ash and water so it was heavy. After emptying it, the bracket doesn't seem as loose. But, I will still have to see if I can get it fitting to the bottom of the bowl a bit more tightly.

Needs some cleanup. The grate doesn't look like a factory piece. But, it does have the grate style charcoal baskets so I'm looking forward to cleaning those up.

Sweeper still works.

Needs more cleanup

Inherited what appears to be a pretty old bag of charcoal.

These are the only two spots of damage on the lid.

Once it's cleaned up and fixed I hope to find it a place with the rest of the family but my wife might have some opinions on another grill getting added. lol

Any and all tips or suggestions are very welcome.

 

[Dave in KC]

I have restored about a dozen SSP's in the last 3 years. That one looks to be in pretty nice shape. I would start by doing a complete teardown, and repaint the frame. Depending on your state laws, the tank may be a chore. It is likely out of date, and will need to be recertified before you can refill it. Start making phone calls and find out where you can do that. I found a few wanting to charge as much as $40, but finally found one that does them for $11 including the refill.

 

[Kyle in Woodstock]

With the old SS Performer, doing a complete tear down is a good idea. Might as well get it as nice as possible to start and not have to fool with it later.

One trouble area I had was removing the ash catcher and cleaner sweepers. Mine were so old to remove them they had to be cut out and I had to replace both those pieces, but after doing so made it feel like a new grill.
Make sure you clean the bowl really well and season it to prevent any rusting.

- - - Updated - - -

Oh, and it looks great! Love a red SS

 

[MikeLucky]

So I finally got to work on my SS Performer today. A few months ago I sold my Crimson Performer to a friend of mine that needed a grill so I could buy a 2 table platypus performer from CL. As much as I like the platypus, my heart still ached about selling my Crimson Performer. Total remorse on that decision.

So today I finally got this SS Performer ready to go. Had to replace the lid bale hardware and then it was just general cleanup. High pressure sprayer and a little plastic putty knife scraping. I decided against the Mad Max style tear down since structurally the grill was still very solid. Boy did it clean up nice.

That 5lb propane tank probably hasn't been used in about 10 years so I had no idea if it would work, blow up, was all leaked out empty, or what to expect. The striker didn't work of course, but in true Okie fashion I got my propane torch and put the flame at the end of the burner tube and just turned that propane regulator on. Lol. It fired up like the Olympic flame! I was so happy.

Re-seasoned it with a run of buffalo sauce marinated wings. I used that 10 year old lump charcoal that was in the bin, and wow, I forgot how hot lump burns. This kettle roared up to 475 without hesitation. I kicked down the vents and got it to about 350 for the rest of the cook. Oh and I forgot how cool it is that these old school redheads get that dark bottom when they heat up. My Crimson Performer didn't even do that.

I couldn't be happier with this grill and I feel like my patio is complete again. I'm going to see about retrofitting a newer battery starter on this thing to make it perfect.

 

[Kyle in Woodstock]

Those old red button starters are solid. The original one on my SS Performer from 1992 is still going strong. You might want to try cleaning up the contacts on it and seeing if it still works.
Love my SS, but it’s not red. Recently converted mine from black to copper.
Yours looks very nice!

oh and don’t be shy about doing a complete tear down one day. You can literally take it all apart and Sand and paint it all in one day. Not much to those frames

 

[MikeLucky]

Those old red button starters are solid. The original one on my SS Performer from 1992 is still going strong. You might want to try cleaning up the contacts on it and seeing if it still works.
Love my SS, but it’s not red. Recently converted mine from black to copper.
Yours looks very nice!

oh and don’t be shy about doing a complete tear down one day. You can literally take it all apart and Sand and paint it all in one day. Not much to those frames

I will take a better look at it tomorrow. If you notice the pic in my first post on this thread, the wires were just hanging there when I got the grill. I thought they were cut or melted but looked closer and noticed they still had the fittings so I just hooked them up. I will double check them to see if maybe they aren't connected at the lead correctly.

And I can see doing the full teardown at some point, but man this cleaned up so good today that it's just not time yet.

 

[Steve in CO]

Looks good! I really like my Performer, but I may have to get an SS one as well.

 

[Dave in KC]

Shes a beauty. If I was even going to thin the heard, I would make sure
to keep one like that for sure.

 

[MikeLucky]

Shes a beauty. If I was even going to thin the heard, I would make sure
to keep one like that for sure.

Yeah, she's not going anywhere. I had 10 Webers, and my plan is to keep 6: This SS Performer, the Q1200, I'm selling my 22 WSM to buy a 14 WSM since we will be full empty nest in a few months, the charcoal Go Anywhere, the Jumbo Joe, and my original Kettle that started it all and we now use as a fire pit. I don't know if that will be enough culling for the wife, but sacrificing 4 is a big deal to me.

The Go Anywhere is going in my trunk filled with small bag of charcoal, tongs, small chimney, starter cubes, and a lighter. That way it's a deployable charcoal cooking grill for any "emergency." Since she won't see it then that will help. Lol. And, the Jumbo Joe will stay in the garage with the camper since that's when we use it, so that also helps.

 

[BobH-SCW]

Thats a keeper for sure! Love the color, clean up came out nice-they don't make em like that anymore, frame is a tank. Agree with the red buttons, my 1998 is still original! Converted to the 20# tank though rather than dealing with recert.

 

[Jon Tofte]

What a barn find! That is so cool that you rescued that one and have it looking - and cooking - great! Congrats !

 

[MikeLucky]

Well, as I was cleaning it up I found this in the bottom of the charcoal bin.

I set it aside not thinking too much about it. Then I looked at the owner's guide for the grill and noticed it was an actual part that came with the grill. Listed as Filler Adapter.




What's the deal with this part and how do I use it? Clearly one end is for the quick connect on the 5 lb bottle. Anybody can fill me in on the details for this? I'm not finding much about it.

 

[Kyle in Woodstock]

Well, as I was cleaning it up I found this in the bottom of the charcoal bin.
View attachment 4250
I set it aside not thinking too much about it. Then I looked at the owner's guide for the grill and noticed it was an actual part that came with the grill. Listed as Filler Adapter.
View attachment 4252

View attachment 4251

What's the deal with this part and how do I use it? Clearly one end is for the quick connect on the 5 lb bottle. Anybody can fill me in on the details for this? I'm not finding much about it.

When I worked at Ace Hardware, we used that adapter whenever someone would bring in a quick connect tank to refill.
A standard 20 lbs propane tank has threads on the outside AND inside. Most the refilling stations use the inside threads and when they need to refill a quick connect they screw on the adapter you have pictured...

I don't think you'll need it, maybe just take it with you when you go to get it refilled, but the filling station should have one.

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

Well, color me green with envy! That looks just dandy, yeah the deepening of the color when hot is just so fun!

 

[MikeLucky]

When I worked at Ace Hardware, we used that adapter whenever someone would bring in a quick connect tank to refill.
A standard 20 lbs propane tank has threads on the outside AND inside. Most the refilling stations use the inside threads and when they need to refill a quick connect they screw on the adapter you have pictured...

I don't think you'll need it, maybe just take it with you when you go to get it refilled, but the filling station should have one.

Ah, gotcha. That makes sense. Thanks for the info. I found it and didn't think too much about it until I saw it listed specifically in the documentation so I wanted to make sure I didn't lose track of it.

 

[MikeLucky]

Well, color me green with envy! That looks just dandy, yeah the deepening of the color when hot is just so fun!

I'm a little obsessed about it. lol. I fired it up last night to do a couple of teres major steaks and some salmon for the wife.

I fired up that decade old lump charcoal that I found in the charcoal bin. It burned really hot at first then really petered out on temp. lol. It could be because it's been sitting in that bin for 10 years. Ha. So, I ended up cooking the steaks a bit longer than I wanted to get the sear that I was looking for.



There is that pretty, dark color....

 

[Kyle in Woodstock]

Try taking the charcoal inside for a few days. It might have some moisture in it, which can cause it to not burn correctly. I use my Performer charcoal container to store my BBQ tools and wood chunks....keep the charcoal inside.

Food looks tastey!

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

The bin is something I never quite “Liked” about the performer, for the moisture possibility. I use a Kingsford blue bin, heck I left it out (though under a shelf) all winter since I grill all year round. No problems at all. I know some folks have had problems with them but, mines over ten years old and still seals with a confident snap.
Using it for tools and smoke wood makes more sense to me or, line it with a bag for trash?

 

[MikeLucky]

The bin is something I never quite “Liked” about the performer, for the moisture possibility. I use a Kingsford blue bin, heck I left it out (though under a shelf) all winter since I grill all year round. No problems at all. I know some folks have had problems with them but, mines over ten years old and still seals with a confident snap.
Using it for tools and smoke wood makes more sense to me or, line it with a bag for trash?

Yeah, with my first Performer I bounced between using the bin for charcoal and sometimes as a trash can with a bag in it. When I kept my charcoal in there I would put the bag in there and not dump it from the bag into the bin. It felt like that helped keep the moisture out. The bin on this SS Performer is quite a bit smaller so I might use it for tools storage as well.

 

[MikeLucky]

Man this beautiful redhead gets hot! Tonight we did another surf and turf, salmon, shrimp, and what might have been the thickest NY strips I've ever cooked. Straight from Sprouts on sale for $8.99 a pound.





This thing was an afterburner... This was the sear I had and the middle was still only at 100 degrees.



Ended up cooking them just a tad longer than I prefer, but they were very good.

Had leftover potato salad and I also threw some peppers and onions on my Q1200 griddle.




Tomorrow I get to pick up my GBS grate and griddle insert from Ace. I've been waiting to pull the trigger on the GBS system and finally made the move today.

This old gal is old enough to drink this year but she's treating me very well so far