So here it is, the day after Thanksgiving, and it's 64 degrees. What do I do? BREAK OUT THE GRILL, AND MAKE SOME BURGERS!! Anyway, while I'm grilling (and thinking my grill is getting pretty nasty) I started thinking about how much cooler my grill would be if it was made out of one of those steel water tanks I saw in the junk pile out at my wife's grandparent's farm yesterday. Hmmmmmm... That led me to the H.A.M.B. this afternoon, where people hot rod everything! So let's see some pictures of some hot-rodded grills/smokers - I'm figuring at least SOME of you have made one! ~Jason Extra cool points given for smokers shaped like a pig and painted pink...
Years ago I remember seeing a guy at the NSRA nats in Ohio,,,at least I think it was at the Nats..... Anyway he was cooking hot dogs an a 32 ford grill shell w/t the insert intact,,,,,he just dumped the charcoal on the ground ,,,lit it off and after the coals where white hot he laid the shell down,,, I was stunned,,,,he he did the same thing a couple of days in a row! Needless to say the insert was sagging and the paint was burnt off,,,,and as I recall the shell and insert were pretty nice to begin with,,,,, Maybe the were not worth a lotta cash in the mid seventys,,,,but today,,,,WOW! HRP
Lots of you guys have seen this. Quite a few have even tasted what we cook up. But for the newbies, here's another look at the Vipers AA/FC (alcohol alcohol/food coupe)
My nephew converted a 38 Dodge sedan into a mobile Bar B Que a couple of years ago. The cooker was fitted in place of the engine and a 318 V8 and auto was fitted into the front seat area. You drove it sitting on the original back seat! I have asked him to send me a couple of pics as the only ones I have are on my old (dead) computer.
Hey! That's my work! I will post a picture of the updated grill - I think it is better. No - it's just for show. That's why the ***le of the work is Trailer Queen. You can see my other work at www.brianmccutcheon.com Happy 4th.
The military vehicle club here in Wichita has a large bomb sliced in half lengthways made into a grille, mounted on a trailer. They often go to car shows, and will cook any meat you bring them for free. Most folks offer a donation for the service. Sorry, no pix.
Old backyard custom made smoker cooker. Hello, One year, my dad, at the insistency from my mom not wanting to cook a giant turkey all day, brought home a big smoked turkey from his grocery store owner/friend in Los Angeles. My mom was tired of cooking 17 straight turkeys and with two growing teenagers, decided she wanted a break. It had been a turbulent year for my mom and dad, with my brother in different stages of recovery from his 3rd degree burns. So, my dad brought home a smoked turkey for something different. The brothers devoured our share of the smoked turkey and packed the rest for the 4 day Thanksgiving surf adventure in Baja California’s secret spot. We had the smoked turkey dinner on Wednesday night and left at midnight for a 5 hour drive South. It was the hit of the 4 day vacation and we vowed to do it again the following year. So, what do two ex-hot rod/drag race teenagers do for inventions after the hot rod phase was in recovery? Why, make a turkey smoker for our backyard. My brother came up with a great idea for the next turkey smoking dinner. He bought a metal milk can at the local surplus yard. A. We painted the vintage milk can with high heat exhaust pipe paint. We cut off the bottom in a circular pattern. That created a hole to sit over a small Hibachi. B. Then we cut out a side panel and made it into a swinging door with a latch. We drilled holes into the top portion of the top curve area for smoke exhaust ports. It was close to the sealed area of the drop down lid, but away from the sides to create smoke exhaust outlets. C. Finally, we drilled a hole into the bottom of the removable lid and we added a thick wire for the hanging hook that dropped the turkey down towards the hot coals. We could not hang the meat too close to the small Hibachi or it would burn and not cook/smoke at the same time. The side door slot was good to adjust the lowered height of the meat (chicken/turkey/ham/steak) for the best smoking distance. We cooked the turkey/ham in the backyard concrete pad just outside of our custom garage. It smoked up the whole yard and backyard garage. It smelled like smoked turkey for weeks. The final touch was going to be some red/yellow/orange flames on the side of the black milk container. That would have looked cool. But, my brother said it would be too hot and mess up the paint, anyway. Jnaki Did our mom like the smoked turkey idea? It smelled wonderful on our test runs. My brother and I stuffed ourselves with our own smoked turkey and chicken. But, my mother saw the original metal milk can in its rusted state before we painted it black. She said she would not eat anything cooked inside of “that thing.” Aww, we wanted to surprise our dad for the Wednesday night dinner so we could take off again for the 2nd time in two years down to Baja’s secret surf spot. Our mom drove to the grocery store to get her a giant turkey so she could cook it for our Wednesday night dinner. By 1963, despite the secrecy from all of the friends in the minimal station wagons and vans headed South, somehow it got out and in 1963, it was no longer a secret spot. BOOOO! The smoked turkey episode will linger on forever. It had permeated our sinus senses and made us drool at the recollection of the incident in our midnight conversations, much later, when we were older. SMOKED TURKEY...YUM!!! Gl***y head high waves in Baja, Mexico, surfing all day, naps in the warm sun, sharing stories of different adventures around the dinner campfire until the we hours of the morning and being the first ones to paddle out when the sun was just breaking the Eastern sky... YRMV Note: The first cooking job started a fire that blasted the top off and we had to reconfigure the exit g***es and air circulation. When we figured out what was the problem, it was the possibility of more fire that was worrisome. Through trial and error, the smoker finally did well and we had some tasty smoked turkey for a week of surfing and "stuffing" our selves during a week long Thanksgiving Vacation...pun intended. (Wednesday night to Monday afternoon, gee... we missed Monday morning school... YIKES)
The Jalopy Journal
