Wolf $10K Built-In Grill Restore


 
Joe Anshien

Joe Anshien

TVWBB Platinum Member
I had posted this in the "I will just leave this here" thread but was asked to start a new thread if I was going to do a rebuild on it. @LMichaels semi-frequently mentions his Wolf gas grill. Months ago I saw this posted for $100 on FB about an hour and a half away. It was in pieces and discusting so I passed. I was headed that way and I offered $50 and he took it. So now I got me my first Wolf bbq-36bl lp, 6 burner built in. I am not sure what I just got myself into. Apparently it belonged to an anesthesiologist who replaced it with a new one. This was sold to me by the handyman who helped him install the new one. It is so freakin' heavy and no cart. It will need a good cleaning, new electronic igniters, and one of the igniter brackets inside will need to be drilled and re-tapped, 1/2 NPT to 3/8" flare to hook up and test. I think all the parts are there. The hardest thing is no cart or way to move it outside to clean. It seems like a new Wolf in this range goes for $9K. Larry told me the lady that owned his said it was $10K new and $3K for the cart! What I could get for it working and restored? I figure that worst case it may be worth the $50 in parts or scrap.
I have been working on it a few days now and here are some pictures of condition and disassembly. It is amazing how many pieces this gill box has. I took so many pics just so I can hopefully get it back together. I have to say that I am impressed (Not $10K impressed) as this grill is made of solid, thick, 304 Stainless throughout. I have only purchased grills with cast aluminum fire boxes because stainless on most grills rusts right through. This took a beating and is starting to clean up nicely.

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Cool, Joe! Looking good. You are going to be in the big town pretty soon :LOL: .

Keep the pictures and story coming as it progresses. I will be interested to see what you do with it. I know @LMichaels will be as well!
 
Me too. I want to see if this thing can be brought back to life for a reasonable price and effort.
There is a potential for a huge score here.
 
Yes, keep them coming. I got $50 burning a whole in my pocket right now :D All kidding aside. I really need to get mine full cleaned but cannot move it off the deck. I don't want to use any chemicals on the deck and I don't have anyone with enough strength around to help me get the grill head out to the front. How were the grates. If you decide to go with Dave Santana I'll lay odds he still has the info from my grates he built. My grates alone weigh almost as much as the grill head from my Genesis
 
Yeah those are definitely nasty. IIRC they were uncoated. So in my case I was able to get close to 10 years from them after LOTS of scraping, grinding, heating and seasoning and not leaving them in the grill over the winter. I finally had enough though and got hold of Dave
 
If they are uncoated cast iron, with enough work you can make them look good again. I know Larry is right about all the time and dirty effort, but it would be a treasure to me to cook on heavy cast iron on a first class grill like that.😎⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
 
Yeah they were nice while they lasted but I got totally fed up with the whole nostalgia/cast iron thing. Spent more time maintaining than using and cooking. So the IMO small investment to Dave for the custom grates (which BTW I had him duplicate the original spacing for) were a great investment. Now I can simply go out, heat it up and cook. As for how they hold heat and sear I notice no difference from the original cast iron. Let's face it. Those abilities are no material based. But, size and weight based. More mass holds more heat. It does not matter if that mass is cast iron, stainless steel, what have you
 
Can anyone tell me to to restore these knobs? They are supposed to be red I believe. They have this weird coating that I am trying to get off. The knob on the left took me over an hour and I have tried razor blades, steel wool, sand paper, x-acto blade, turpentine, and mineral spirits. Scraping and steel wool mostly work but tons of effort.

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Quite the project you've got there Joe. I will definitely follow along to see how it ends up.
 
Joe Anshien said:
Can anyone tell me to to restore these knobs? They are supposed to be red I believe. They have this weird coating that I am trying to get off. The knob on the left took me over an hour and I have tried razor blades, steel wool, sand paper, x-acto blade, turpentine, and mineral spirits. Scraping and steel wool mostly work but tons of effort.

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Might be a time where good - maybe stainless- aftermarket replacements are in order.🧐
 
Yeah I have the same issue with my knobs. Also I would LOVE to restore the Wolf emblem on the control panel. Mine is icky and corroded. And I cannot figure out how to get it off.
And, BTW if you wanted to get it onto a cart I wonder if a Summit cart would work. With the main grills rusting out on them perhaps someone would be willing to part with one on the cheap and you could adapt it to the Wolf
 
You know, I’d be very tempted to build a stone base for it, maybe even build a clot for a cooler on one side and bar on the other!
But, I’m just wired that way!
In the long run, the ten bucks a knob really isn’t that hard to swallow if you’re keeping it.
 
@LMichaels - Any idea what size all those screws are? I have now been back and forth to the hardware store 3 times with no luck. The seems to be sheet metal screws but 8 and 10 don't work and I tried regular threaded bolts with no luck. I want to replace all the igniter bracket ones as they are shot. It is nice that they are all the same size throughout the grill but there must be about 100. Thanks
 
Awesome job on that, Joe! 😎 That’s a great solution that should be helpful in future jobs. We are all enjoying this unfolding story.
 
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