Cue-Cart grill restore

[Wayne's World]

Hello, I'm new to the forum. I'm from East Texas and I have enjoyed reading a lot of the post here the last couple of weeks. There are a lot of talented people posting some great smoked meat, receipts, and offering up a lot of tips to help everyone get better at their smoking skills on this forum.



I wanted to share some pictures of a grill I just picked up at an estate sale that I restored last weekend. It is a Cue-Cart, it was made by the Atlanta Stove Works.

I was needing a new project to work on, so when I saw this old Cue-Cart Smoker I decided that this would make a great one. It was in rough shape and was missing several pieces, but I knew that I had to rescue it. I took it all apart down to the internal frame. I wire brushed the main frame, and then painted it with 2000 deg. high heat paint. The rest of the pieces were painted with high heat BBQ grill paint.

The worst part was the bottom it was all burned out. But a trip to the scrap yard and I was able to get a piece of 1/8" aluminum sheet to use to make a new one with the vent slots for the air intake. I also picked up a piece of stainless steel expanded metal and a stainless steel sheet metal which I formed to make a replacement ash pan that was missing.

After I got it all reassembled, I cut out a charcoal tray using the stainless steel expanded metal. I then added a rotisserie that I had on another grill. I would love to find some of original cast iron grates to cook the food on. For now, I have a Lodge cast iron grilling grate that fit perfectly on it, and a stainless steel grilling plate. This was a fun project and I completed it all in just one weekend.

If anyone has and uses one of these, I would love to know how you like yours.

I can't wait to try it out.

 

[JLeonard]

Welcome to the forums from Mississippi! Excellent job bringing it back to life! Look forward to seeing what you pull off of it!
Jim

 

[chopsaw]

Nice . I like the looks of that !

I can't wait to try it out.

Post it up when you do .

 

[Wayne's World]

It was 36 degrees outside this morning and drizzling rain, but I wanted to test out the Cue-cart after I restored it. I cooked a whole chicken on the rotisserie. I brined it for several hours and I injected it with some Tony's. I sprinkled it with SPG inside and out as many of you here suggested. I cooked it indirect method with lump charcoal. Once I got the smoker up to temp, she stayed at 290 to 310 deg. with just a little adjusting of the vents. After about 2/3 way into the cooking, I rotated the chicken on the rotisserie to move the other end closer to the coals. I used a little bit of mesquite wood chunks throughout the cooking for some flavor, yeah I'm from Texas soo... When the breast meat hit 160 degrees, and the dark was at 170. I took it off the spits , and put it directly over the coals to finish crisping the skin. 4 to 5 minutes per side, and it was ready to bring inside to rest, NO FOIL TENTING. I read here on the forum that the steam would make the skin rubbery, and after all that work, I didn't want to mess it up. For my 1st cook on this one, I was really pleased with the results.

Now that I know that the smoker is going to work geat. I'm ready to try something else.

 

[JLeonard]

Good looking bird!
Jim

 

[chopsaw]

That looks fantastic . Really like that Cooker.

 

[boykjo]

Nice Yard Bird and nice restoration on that Cue Cart Grill...............

 

[civilsmoker]

That’s a cool cooker! Nice job on the restore.....oh and don’t miss out on open flame cooking with it! That thing is more than a coal cooker

 

[Wayne's World]

So I've been using the Cue-Cart every weekend since I restored it, and I love it a lot.
I've smoked some chicken thighs, then some wings, and then last weekend I did a rack of ribs.
Once the smoker gets up to temp, it stays very constant with very little adjustments. Learning how much lump charcoal to put in at the start, to keep the smoker in the temp range I'm shooting for, and to keep it going for the time required, is a challenge, but I'm getting better with every cook..

When the chicken got to the correct IT temp, I moved them over above the coals to crisp the skin. I finished the ribs by putting in a pan and covering it for the last hour and a half. It was perfectly tender. Man I'm hooked on this smoker!!