Through my years of searching for old cars I have seen a lot of cars that had fire damage. For example I heard from a local about some early 30's ford cars and trucks that were sitting on a rocky area of a farmers field. As usual I followed up on the lead and found the cars. The farmer told me he was burning weeds 20 yrs ago in the field and the fire had spread to where the cars sat. My question is: these cars/trucks sheet metal doesn't look warped but defenitly no paint/interior/wood ect. I am no sheetmetal expert but just looking at the sheetmetal on them looks salvageable for parts?
Some will say yes, and some no. Try the search function. There was a guy on here some years ago, who did a 39 or 40 Ford Coupe that had fried. He said the metal was definitely harder for working, but he made it happen. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...e-resurection-pic-heavy.972802/#post-10957529
My body man won't touch sheetmetal that's been burned. That said, Tom Medley's burned 40 coupe came out nice.
It depends on the fire. An engine fire can be hard to fix with burned wires, burned carburetor, possible fire extinguisher material in the engine, and blistered paint on the hood. But can be fixed if you want it bad enough. Cars from inside a burning building are a writeoff, the heat is so intense the metal is all warped and ruined. A grass fire would probably do minimal damage, just scorched paint, unless the car itself caught fire. Then the metal might be warped and if left outside unprotected would soon be very rusty. There are so many possible variations depending how bad the fire damage was.
know of one that was inside that was burned in a fire caused by gasoline. hear that it is on the road today. my buddy lucky to have not been burned up with it.
lost my home/ workshop/ and about 8 cars trucks during 2009 black saturday fires in australia.... all i kept was a few things.... the panel steel goes brittle, hardened parts go soft.... i regret throwing a few parts in the scrap (fuely heads, lsd 9inch centre etc..... but i kept no panels, not worth it.... if aluminium parts melted, it got too hot .. my 2 c
Hello, Our 40 Willys interior fire caused by a blown clutch damaged everything. The motor was fine, but the resulting crash did a number on the rest of the car. If it were today, there were parts that could have been saved, rear fenders, trunk, rear bumper, etc. But, the feeling we got after we saw the wrecked car wedged into the fence was disheartening. The doors, toast, as were some of the body panels. There were bad vibes all over that dragstrip scene. When we got the wrecked car back to my friend's backyard, it looked promising. My friend was in the early stages of building his Willys race car and could have used many parts off of our Willys. But, he kept mentioning that everything gave off a bad feeling that he did not want on his car. From his hospital bed, my brother said to salvage the motor, trans and all running gear. Those were not damaged. Everything else could go to the wrecking yard near Lions. The more time my friend and I were taking everything apart, the more we did not want anything off of this wrecked Willys. But, my brother was insistent. So, we ended up taking the shell of the 40 Willys to the scrap yard. But, all of the remaining parts left were sitting at my friends yard, covered, for months. When my brother finally came home from the hospital and recovered enough to be able to go see the remaining salvaged parts, did he decide that everything had to go. We were not going to put those parts into another build, ever. Every remaining part of our first, full race car was sold 6 months later by June, 1960. Midwest racers, someone bought the 671 SBC motor and took it back East. There weren't too many SBC motors with 671 supercharger set ups back then, so that would have been a rare sighting. Jnaki
It all depends on how hot the fire got. My general rule, as well, is if zinc or aluminum parts were melted, it is a no go. I have worked on plenty of pieces of industrial equipment and farm equipment that had fuel fires. Once they were cleaned, including my 1946 John Deere Series H, which burned to the ground, from a split tank, which dumped about 5-gallons of gasoline on the exhaust, while mowing in my apple orchard. I restored it, gave it to my Uncle, and it still takes trophies at the local AG shows. Zero issues.
A friend had a VW Bug that caught fire in the engine room, quickly spread to the interior before it was put out. Melted the aluminum intake runners, they folded over and down and saved the rest of the engine. The pan[frame], other than having the paint burned off and brake lines burned, was still in good shape. Even the tires didn't burn. I sandblasted the frame, coated it with Eastwood's POR15 like product, and painted it. The body was too far gone though, the heat rising did a number on the roof and side panels. I was only able to salvage the front fenders and trunk lid. I dumped the burned out body in the edge of the woods here behind the house, in less than six months it was rusted out in several places. When I hauled it off for scrap later, it collapsed when I put a chain through the doors to lift it. As far as I know, that engine and pan are still running. I put another body on it, had it almost finished when she sold it. I had yard driven it several times, little motor ran great after I replaced the intakes, fan, carb, and wiring.
Intense heat will warp sheet metal to a point where it will never be straightened and in some cases will not properly hold paint. HRP
Also depends on how the fire was put out. If it was left alone and just burned itself off and let cool by nature, it is better than if it was extinguished with cold water from the fire department, those are almost non workable or at least very hard to.
I was going to rebuild this one (1926 Chevrolet coupe), but needed money so I sold it....I named it the Burn Victim....
This one comes to mind. Original owner damn near burned to death in it. Tingeezer bought it at auction and did an admirable job rebuilding it; http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/32-vicky-the-rise-from-the-ashes.546502/
How about burned wire wheels? I bought 4 cheap ones ($10)...(been looking for 17" for a long time)... the tires had "popped" on two of them... wheels looks straight... Any thoughts on structural integrity?
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