Shirley Fab rehab inaugural cook - in progress

sudsandswine

sudsandswine

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It’s been several months since I picked up my Shirley trailer from a fellow brethren in AL, and although the rehab has basically been done for a while now, life has been hectic and I am just now getting to fire it up for the first time. We are having some friends over later for the spoils of the inaugural cook, and I a few people I owe some barbecue to, so I decided to put a few things in it.

I’ve had a Black Canyon brisket in my fridge for several weeks waiting for this day, which I trimmed up last night and seasoned this morning with SPOG. Prairie Fresh pork butts hit with Oakridge BBQ Secret Weapon. White oak for heat.

Lit a little after 4:30 AM, meat on an hour later, and now I’m having some some coffee in the driveway enjoying some unseasonably cool weather. Hopefully I haven’t gotten rusty with my stick burner tending.

:thumb:

Taking her home from my temporary storage spot











 
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If you’d like to see where the trailer started and how it ended up, I detailed some of the rehab here:

https://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=297536

A few weeks back I re-wired the trailer and put all new LED lights in it. The final thing I still need to do is get some black metal screws to reattach the storage baskets. For now, zip ties are sufficient for what I need.
 
Having trouble maintaining a decent coal bed. The expanded metal that makes up the fire basket is pretty big. I should’ve anticipated this and dropped in a smaller grid on top of it but spaced it off. Just ordered an LSG fire basket I’ll set in there instead.



Still able to keep it dialed in, it’s just requiring more attention that it probably would otherwise.

 
I used to rehab quite a few pits, and it’s super rewarding to get a well made, yet neglected pit back in shape. A big klose I did had a similar grate where the small coals would fall through. The previous owner had put a piece of flexible steel matting on the big expanded metal that allowed air to flow and ash to fall through but held the coal bed really well. If you google “steel plate mat” you’ll see some examples. I’ve taken a piece of flat expanded metal and run it the opposite direction but the matting seemed more durable and easier to remove to clean.
 
sudsandswine said:
Having trouble maintaining a decent coal bed. The expanded metal that makes up the fire basket is pretty big. I should’ve anticipated this and dropped in a smaller grid on top of it but spaced it off. Just ordered an LSG fire basket I’ll set in there instead.
Click to expand...

Those holes do look too big. I find the 3/4 holes strike the perfect balance between letting ash fall through while retaining the embers.
 
You did a great job with that! When it was listed my wife and I had a serious conversation about buying it. Was happy to see it come to another brethren in kc. I’m confident I wouldn’t have been able to restore it as well as you have!
 
All the food turned out pretty tasty….2 slabs of baby back ribs, 2 Boston butts, and the brisket. Oddly, the underside on part of the brisket got slightly burnt but I was able to just not include it in the slice.

The large diameter of the expanded metal in the fire basket ended up being a challenge. It was really hard to build a decent coal bed so most of my heat came from flaming logs, which is not ideal. The coal bed is the torque from the engine that cooks your food. I think it resulted in me having to maintain a higher and slightly more variable temperature than I otherwise would’ve, and it required a lot more tending to keep things from smoldering.

Hopefully the LSG basket solves my problem, but I think I can get some smaller gauge expanded metal and probably have a nice effect.

Regardless, it felt good to punch it out with the Shirley today, and I was reminded that there is no substitute for wood fired ‘que in my book.

 
I had to get used to the fire basket in my Shirley also. They're just not going to build up a coal bed the way a traditional firebox does. Ash and small coals fall through the expanded metal so you're only mainly left with active flaming logs. It was just a mental block for me, so once I got passed it I learned to like it just fine.
 
My other Shirley had a much smaller diameter expanded metal grate, I had no problems keeping a coal bed on it.
 
I just went back and looked at your pics. Wow, yeah yours is definitely a different style. Mine has 2 layers of much smaller diameter grating sandwiched together, with the overlap making the diameter even less.
 
Yeah, that’s how mine was on the other Shirley. It sounds like my new one is an early model so I’m sure there were some design changes between then and now. I probably could’ve just cut a square out of some smaller diameter expanded metal grate and set it on top of the existing one, but I think they V shaped fire basket may offer some other benefits as well.
 
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