My New (to me) Large Egg

I'm pretty experienced with BBQ'ing and grilling (have a fairly large side firebox smoker and a Weber Performer) so I told him I'd take it and see what I could do with it.

When I got the egg it was in need of some TLC. My buddy said he wasn't sure exactly how old it was, but that his grandfather had it for as long as he could remember. The vent shield didn't really slide at all, the wheels on the nest wouldn't roll so you had to drag it around, and the thermometer on the dome was stuck at 600. Also, the high-temp felt liner had been practically burned to a crisp.

Here it is the day I got it:

First thing I did was replace the nest because I didn't want it tipping over on me before I even got to try it out. Went by my local dealer and asked about one, guy told me a new one was $160. He earned my repeat business when he told me that a customer had just recently bought a table after having his egg for only two weeks and may be looking to sell his nest. He called the customer and asked him for me, which resulted in me getting a like new nest for $100. Not bad. I also bought a new liner that day.

They didn't have any vent shields in stock so I had to order one and wait a few weeks. I wanted to wait to cook on it until I knew it would seal properly. Since he hadn't liked cooking on it, I wanted to make sure I did everything I could to get it working like new so I could make a fair assessment.

Replacing the vent shield:

Unfortunately I could only find red high heat silicone. I did my best to keep it from showing but was pretty unsuccessful. In the end it doesn't really matter because I'm more of a function over form guy. So long as there is a good seal I'm good with it.

Last piece I replaced was the thermometer. 

The thermometer is calibrated, that was just taken while I was cooking tonight. Speaking of, here's my inaugural cook.

Decided to do a couple spatchcock chickens since I've never cooked like that before and they seem to be pretty popular on here.

One I seasoned with some salt, pepper, and dried lemon zest. The other I went with the old standby, Tony's.

Getting the coal ready

Put the birds on the egg, adjusted the vents, and sat back and relaxed.

I was really impressed by how steady the temperature stayed once I had the vents adjusted. It stayed right at 350 until the chicken was ready to come off.

The chicken was extremely juicy and had a ton of flavor.

Anyways, I've been lurking in the forum for a while and wanted to finally post and share. I'm really excited to cook some more on the Egg. Got a pizza stone for my birthday so that may be the next thing I try.

I still want to get a plate setter and maybe a ceramic damper and I'll be set.