Need advice with a brick bbq pit

[S-L-A-C-K-E-R]

Hi, a quick little intro since this is my first post. I have been getting into grilling a lot more lately. I’m definitely a newbie though and I don’t really know much yet. The most experience I have is with my little char-broil propane grill but I’m looking to expand my capabilities with charcoal and smoking. I’ve been playing with some recipes from Bobby Flay’s “Grill it” cookbook and I’m starting to get a little hooked.

So, now that you know where I’m coming from, here’s my question. I bought this new house and it has a brick bbq pit in the backyard. I attached a picture… it’s a crappy picture, but it’s all I have right now so it’ll have to do.

I really want to get this thing up and running and used for some grilling. I’m a little nervous about it though because it’s so dirty.

The grilling grate looks like it’s actually one of those rectangular grated sewer drain covers you see on the road. Lol. It’s really rusty too. So, that’s obviously going to need replaced. Anyone know where I can find large grill grates? I’d like to avoid using another drain grate. It doesn’t look like the ideal cooking surface (even if it were flawlessly clean). I’m wondering if the previous owners used the drain grate though because it was the only thing they could find that was big enough.

The rest of the pit looks like it could use a good cleaning too. I really don’t know the history of the pit. I don’t know how old it is or what it was used for or how it was maintained. I just want to be sure it’s safe to use it for cooking. Any tips on any precautions or cleaning I should do before throwing some steaks on there for my family? Is it a lost cause? Should I just use this thing to burn leaves and forget about trying to cook on it?

It looks like there is a gas line hooked up to it, but I think I’d like to use it primarily with charcoal and continue using my char-grill for any propane cooking.

Any ideas of what the potential is for this pit too? Anyone think it can it be used for smoking? It doesn’t have a lid or anything, so I’d have to figure out some way to enclose the cooking area I guess. Like I said, I’m new to smoking and I know squat.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Bar-B-Coa]

Concerning the grid. Just find a metalworkshop and have one tailormade. Can't be that expensive.

There is a huge potential in this pit. So just clean it very well with a pressure washer and maybe paint it with a fireprove coating. Make it two colors because that looks great.

It can't be used for smoking because there is no lid on it. So if you find a way to have a lid made over it you can smoke on it to.