I have had this wonderful old cooker on my “want list” for a few years although I wanted it in either Red Mist or Plum color but just couldn’t find one that was in good enough shape to restore in my area.
Finally an older gentleman in a little town about 15 miles from the house listed a black Gen 1 SS Performer on the Craigslist along with the original cover that looked pretty good.
After seeing it, it did indeed look pretty good but had the wrong lid on it and he didn’t know that as he had bought it used. It had some other problems but I thought it would be a good project to start with as the older Weber parts are pretty easy to get.
I had it in my mind that I didn’t want black as about 75% of these cookers came in black but I think this black one will make me a fine cooker. (I’ll keep looking for something suitable in red mist or plum).
Decided to keep the standard Weber lid that was on the cooker as I have never really liked the thermometer mounted in the handle of the lid on the Gen 1 Performers. I purchased a Weber short thermometer along with the Weber Bezel and installed it into the lid. I also purchased the small plastic piece for the vent adjustment tab and installed it and this took care of my lid problem.
Cleaned her up a little and washed all the crud off and found I had a pretty nice old Performer. Purchased new castors and a few other items and got the grill ready for use.
Gonna be fun using this Performer.
I have a SS rotisserie setup that I think would match up nice with this SS Performer and I might just make this my go to rotisserie charcoal cooker.
