Ca. Fire photo

[Wello]

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. My truck was insured by Hagerty. They have been wonderful! They quickly processed my claim and I had a check within days.

As a side note, I am keeping my truck. She’ll be restored if possible, salvage parts or become yard art. Does anyone have any experience with recovered vintage cars from a fire? I know I’ll have to inspect her once removed from the rubble but I’d like to have some idea what I’m in for.

Thanks again,

Dan

[KenCoupe]

My first thought is whether the heat of the fire damaged the metal of essential parts such as the frame. Beyond that, I don't have any experience with a fire damaged vehicle. Good luck with restoring your truck - I am pulling for your success on this project to bring your truck back to life.

[Synchro909]

Originally Posted by Wello

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. My truck was insured by Hagerty. They have been wonderful! They quickly processed my claim and I had a check within days.

As a side note, I am keeping my truck. She’ll be restored if possible, salvage parts or become yard art. Does anyone have any experience with recovered vintage cars from a fire? I know I’ll have to inspect her once removed from the rubble but I’d like to have some idea what I’m in for.

Thanks again,

Dan

Wello, from my experience, it will not be worthwhile restoring a car that as gone through a fire like that. A few years ago, I had a gearbox amongst other stuff stored in a friend's workshop which burned in a bushfire. The gears were annealed to the hardness of butter. Shafts and bearings the same. ONLY because the gearbox had zero miles on it, I had the internals rehardened. In your case, everything will have been affected by the heat and rehardening and retempering of everything from bumpers to gaers to crankshaft to springs is a huge cost and the goes on forever. Even afer all of that, the body will never be the same. Rust will start in the wierdest places. You might not like to hear this but by the time you do all of that and replace things like instruments, lights, wheels etc etc and do thousands of hours work on it, you will have been waaay beter to go and buy another and I haven't even mentioned how many of the major components will likely be disorted. If needs be, spend a few dollars getting the new one the way you want it.
In addition to the gearbox I mentioned, I lost 2 cars in a garage fire about 25 years ago. They were both prize winners and I considered redoing the restorations but when I thought about it, I couldn't bring myself to redo what I had already spent years doing the first time. You are right to stop and think about what you want to do before jumping in. My counsel to you would be as above.