NOW......for the real question here: THE GRATE......how did you do that?
I've been mostly using a 3" wire wheel on my cordless drill, and a small wood handled wire brush purchased at Home Depot. I first spray the grate down good with WD40 and then intermittently as it begins to dry up. When it looks like most of the rust is off I finish off with 0000 wool. If the grill is really badly pitted then its not going to look like this one, of course. But if its just mostly rust and charred gunk then it'll clean up pretty nice. I've been amazed at how well the triangles will clean up this way - probably because they've not been subjected to extreme heat. I've had a couple that I was certain were toast but for the fun of it I tackled them anyway and they turned out fine.