So I left the house with the reconditioned gray 'N' in the back of the car to deliver to a friend, and I returned home with a gray 'G' (Freecycle, FTW!). I guess I must be on some kind of roll or something. Or maybe I'm depressed.
So I hear people talking about 'truing' a grill/smoker, or bringing it back into round, but I've not needed to do that before. The lid is close to round, but the bowl is about 3/4" off (22 1/4" on the short diameter, and a strong 23" on the long diameter). I gave the thing a squeeze and shifted it about 1/4", but I don't know the preferred procedure. Do folks use bar clamps or something, or is it better to just gently muscle it? I imagine that the stress will crack the finish at some point...
Another question: the hanger hook for the lid is straightened out to the point that the lid barely hangs on it. Any tips for bending it back, such that I don't just break the thing off altogether?
This thing has been dropped an knocked over a few times, but it's in pretty good shape:
'G' stands for 'gray', and also for 1985:
Interesting mod on the ash catcher-- it appears that the former owner preferred the old twist-style ash tray and so made his own:
More signs of damage-- the handle is bent in two directions, and also shoved down into the bowl (and does anyone know where a guy can get some new wood handles? ;-):