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My son was working on his 69 Camaro on the inner rocker up near the passenger side floorboard using a plasma cutter and when he came into the house he said later all was clear out there and within minutes, I saw smoke. It was too late. A fuel fire of the car caught fire everywhere in the garage. Burned all over. Im considering keeping it and rebuilding it again although itll be difficult to find original parts and all to make it what it was. Since its so scorched and all the chrome is burned, I dont know if its worthwhile to do. Has anyone had an experience of dealing with this?
People have restored burned bikes before and that was talked about a while back. The heat can and does change the structure of the metal for the worse. It can make the metal softer. I myself would walk away from it just on that fact. My friend bought a drive shaft from a fire car and it twisted like a pretzel when power was put to it. Looked great cleaned up and painted before that.
It really stinks that it happened.
From experience with several determined to save it fire bikes and the owners and my own house fire loses in the early 80's here's what I see in the pictures. She got hot but the fire was short lived enough the destructive high temp layer didn't get low enough to cook the engine aluminum and down. Tanks up don't bother, trees are probably saveable, frame I'll bet is safe.
Clean the sides off so you can get eyes on the head fins an all the outer alum like the nose cone & primary parts. Look very hard for any signs what will look like bubbling or deflection from sagging, toss the outer primary cover. Cast alum melts between 1100 to 1250F, around 800f the metal grain changes and its junk.
Trans may have lost the kicker cover but the box should be good if you get to it before rust owns it. From there it's a judgement call on everything pulled off steel wise, thin stuff will be softer, temper is gone, don't trust any thing supporting weigh like fender struts. Engines coming completely apart crank included for cleaning, every gasket and seal gets replaced motor and trans, heads and rocker boxes are your main concern. If in doubt find a metal professional outfit and have them inspected or just hunt up another set to rebuild, rocker boxes are a dice shoot in any fire.
I'm so sorry, I know your pain very intimately, don't let the want override common sense with this it can suck your soul out. Bud's 73 I redid for him and the after, He lived in the town of Paradise Ca. when the Camp Fire wiped it off the map.
Last edited by TwiZted Biker; Jun 29, 2025 at 01:13 AM.
There is a lot there that won't be usable. But there are a lot of larger items that are, frame, rear fork and trees. And you have a title. The engine and trans cases will need to be checked, but hopefully are ok.
You will be surprised what you can find at swap meets etc. But you will need to be patient because some items are difficult to find and you will have to sift through some junk along the way.
Did a fine job on that and that looked worse than what this one suffered. I had put an Ultima motor in this about a year ago so I have the original motor. The engines are a definite tear down because of the heat for seals and gaskets?
Did a fine job on that and that looked worse than what this one suffered. I had put an Ultima motor in this about a year ago so I have the original motor. The engines are a definite tear down because of the heat for seals and gaskets?
The blue bike above was the before, the fire was the after.
When you say is it worth it? Financially no but if you want to save it then its a labour of love that you'll never recover your investment in. A knuckle would be worth fixing.
Yes almost original P11 at that. I didnt have insurance on it and homeowners wont cover it and I didnt realize that otherwise would have added it to homeowners insurance for a few dollars more if I knew. Make sure you wanna take every stinking policy that you sign for to have understood questions etc.
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Burned up 72FLH
