Bad day for the cuda - updated pics of carnage

[torredcuda]

Do yourself a favour and make a list of everything you see that's damaged, then, source a repairer to perform said repairs and make sure that they are competent on electrical, mechanical and body/paint or that they have good subcontractors. If it's like Canada, the company will not pay for the cause of the loss, so if it's the fuel line, they won't pay for it, but will cover all the resultant damage. See if the appraiser uses a computer appraisal system, as if he does, then the damages will show up on Carfax and that may be an issue for you. Make sure the appraisal reflects accurate labour costs in your arera and not just a common set amount as you'll end up paying the difference otherwise. Give the appraiser any info you may have on sourcing replacement parts as that'll speed things up since these cars are no longer in the system. Be sure he allows for clean-up, both inside and out and see if your policy has loss of use coverage since then they'll pay up to a specified amount for a replacement vehicle for you to drive during repairs. Might be an opportunity to get your butt in a new Challenger, who knows. I did this for a living for 35+ years so if you have a question, just PM me. Good luck and keep your cool. 

It`s thru Hagerty not regular insurance. I did collision and restoration work for ~ 10 years and did some estimating so know most of the ins and outs of it but thanks for the offer of advice. I`ll also do all the work myself which Hagerty allows but will need to get my own estimate to compare to thiers.

[wldgtx]

Wow... that sucks.  Having survived a garage fire years ago while working on a car... I can tell you that just reading about this gave me chills.

It is a great reminder to us all to ensure you have fire suppression of some sort in your garage/shop or where ever you are when working on your car.

[JS29]

  

[Jay Bee]

OMG, you just went through one of my biggest fears. Don't get down on yourself ("I must be a f...ing idiot") either, accidents do happen. So glad that YOU were't hurt and you managed to keep the damage down to a minimum. All the best in sorting this out.

[Rev-It-Up]

Looking at those pictures just took my breath away...and not in a good way.  I am so sorry Jeff! Glad you were Johnny on the spot with those extinguishers!  It could have been a lot worse if you weren't so quick on your feet. 

[Timbbuc2]

Sorry to hear this, that is exactly what scares me about firing mine up for the first time. But you did very good to keep a cool head and prevent more damage and no one got hurt, that's the main thing, cars we can repair.

[TheGanzman]

That's a tough lick - sorry to see!  Moving forward, and as a guy that's been messing with cars for 50 years now, I've seen a few car fires (including TWO Corvette fires; you haven't LIVED until you see a Plastic Pig catch fire!), and watched other guys try to fight them (in vain!) with conventional fire extinguishers.  Conventional fire extinguishers are usually WORTHLESS on car fires, and end up being MORE dangerous, since they give you a false sense of security.  Also, you land up putting yourself in eminent peril by trying to use one to put out what is usually a gasoline-fed fire...
My advice to one and all (now that Halon extinguishers are no longer available) is to use what they carry & use in most of Europe - a "Fire Suppression Stick".  I've had TWO of these in every classic/vintage vehicle that I've owned since 2010 - one in the glove box/console and one under the hood.  They're quite a bit cheaper now than they were when *I* bought mine - here's a link which has a video as well: https://elementfire.com/
Not only do these "run" for quite a while, you can also stand back at a safe(r) distance from the fire.  As the Frankenstein monster said: "Fire - NO Good; Grrrrr!"

[1 Wild R/T]

My advice to one and all (now that Halon extinguishers are no longer available) is to use what they carry & use in most of Europe - a "Fire Suppression Stick". 

FWIW I had a car fire on a daily driver back in 2010, had a big 10 lb Halon extinguisher.... It did very little because there was a moderate breeze & the Halon was blown away as soon as it left the extinguisher...  In a contained environment Halon is great, clean & effective, but outside it's not nearly as effective as you might think....

[cj]

So sorry to see this

[ledphoot]

Your post has me freaked out about starting up the Cuda after all of this work. It made me check the fire extinguishers in my house / shop / truck.. The house and shop ones were expired.. Got a couple new halotron based extinguishers on the way. If you don't have current extinguishers they may not be terribly effective when you need them.

[Brads70]

My advice to one and all (now that Halon extinguishers are no longer available) is to use what they carry & use in most of Europe - a "Fire Suppression Stick".  I've had TWO of these in every classic/vintage vehicle that I've owned since 2010 - one in the glove box/console and one under the hood.  They're quite a bit cheaper now than they were when *I* bought mine - here's a link which has a video as well: https://elementfire.com/
Not only do these "run" for quite a while, you can also stand back at a safe(r) distance from the fire.  As the Frankenstein monster said: "Fire - NO Good; Grrrrr!"

Great info Thanks! Looks look pretty cool! Sure would be good if they were sold at Carlisle!

[nsmall]

That element.com site has me convinced to buy one for my car and one for the house.  Seems like an effective and economically friendly way to terminate a fire.  thanks for sharing.

fingers crossed  hagerty works with torredcuda.

[1 Wild R/T]

FWIW here's a link to an independent test of the Element fire extinguisher    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDkwLbIqKVw

As I mentioned before I had less than satisfactory results with a $$$$ Halon unit so I'm somewhat skeptical & when all your seeing is marketing hype from the company selling the Element it looks great.... But maybe you should look further...

[ledphoot]

That Element Fire extinguisher looks pretty cool. I picked up a couple of those as well, maybe I will mount one in the car.

THANK YOU

[GoodysGotaCuda]

Sorry to see that. I had a pretty good "thermal event" while welding my trunk floor in about 3 years ago. I kept the trunk lid down and put it out through the tail light holes to keep from fueling it with fresh air.


Hagerty did a very. Good job of taking care of it. I have a 5lb fire extinguisher behind my drivers seat 100% of the time in light of that. The scar to my ego was worse than the damage, but it sure gives you some perspective.

Insurance will get you going in the right direction again.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk