Some pulled pork and a free Weber

[Winz]

I donated a dinner for 30 as part of a charity event last fall, and yesterday was the day the winner picked to have the party.  The menu included pulled pork sliders and grilled chicken.  I spent friday night/saturday morning smoking the pork.  Pork shoulder all rubbed down with dry rub, charcoal fuse with applewood chunks ready to fire up:



1 hour in.  The dome temp was right around 250 all through the fuse.  Burned for 11 hours (had to add to the fuse)



When I arrived at the client's house, I could not help but notice a nice little surprise standing neglected under some trees:



While it looked a little rough, upon further inspection, the kettle was in good shape.  Date code indicates 1979



After the event, I mentioned to the client that his Weber really should get cleaned up and used.  A nice old Weber is a terrible thing to waste.  He told me that he uses his gas gill exclusively and had not used the kettle for about 8 years.  He then said "load it up and take it home, its yours" - an offer I could not refuse.  The color is a bit of a mystery to me.  It is almost a gun metal color.  Pictured below with my black Jumbo Joe for comparison:



I plan of getting it cleaned up and restored over the next couple of weeks.  Other than the handle, it really just needs a good cleaning.

Another Weber Kettle saved....

[addicted-to-smoke]

Nice. Will be you donating it back, all shined up?

I imagine a raffle event for a "vintage, restored grill" co-sponsored by that client (which would kinda be true) Maybe toss in a bag of decent charcoal, grill brush etc. and make it a "kit." Have someone else donate Weber's black cover for it, one of Brian's handles and so on.

[Craig]

Nice score! The kettle would have been jet black originally. It's got a little "sun fade" to it giving it "grey hair". They look neat that way. Theres much debate over as to why some of the black kettles do this. Everything looks original. Looks like its got a many more of years of cooking to do and new memories to create. Congrats!

[G$]

Definitely black, and definitely nice.  Having an A stamp seems like something every serious collector should have.    .   I need one!

[G$]

Craig, i think the term "sun fade" is a misnomer.

For example, lets clean this a specimen up and look at the color on the inside. Is it also faded?  The late 68-70 avacado I just picked up has the "grey" interior, obviously not sun fade, but age fade nonetheless.

[Duke]

Craig, i think the term "sun fade" is a misnomer.

For example, lets clean this a specimen up and look at the color on the inside. Is it also faded?  The late 68-70 avacado I just picked up has the "grey" interior, obviously not sun fade, but age fade nonetheless.

My experience is that they came dark black, but the material they were sprayed with was a different formula than it is today. Try and fade a new black. I have had at least fifty faded old blacks and they were all once darker. I have also had a few avacados. The avacados from the early seventies were coated with a black speckled paint. My red SJ has the same speckled interior as the old panhandled speckled sj. The speckled sj was cheaper like the blacks because they weren't painted. I have also had a few old blacks that sat in a covered garage for most of their life and were still dark black. They also sunfade unevenly, so no two are ever alike.

[Hogsy]

When you say try and fade a 'new black' what decade are you talking Duke?

[teerhardy]

Can you say jackpot! Every good deed....