Local Graffiti Clone Burns Up

Just got word that a local car enthusist Steve Anderson's 32 five window was involved in a pretty bad garage fire. Steve had the car at a buddys place having some work done to it. His buddy went to start the car and one of the carbs on the Man-A-Fre backfired and caught fire. The guy panicked and ran to get a fire extinguisher but left the key on with the electric fuel pump running. The fire burnt the red plastic fuel lines allowing the fuel to feed the fire even more. His buddy exhausted the first extinguisher and went for a second one. When he got back to the garage the fire was out of control. The fire was bad enough that the roof on the garage caved in. Steve also has a glass 33 Willys setting beside the 32 that burnt as well.

Some hard earned lessons here.
#1 If you are going to run an electric pump, make sure it is on a kill switch.
#2 educate anyone that might work on your car the ins and outs of how to start it and where the kill switch is. (I only trust two other people to start any of my old cars)
#3 Run red plastic fuel lines at your own risk.

Steve had been wanting a 32 Graffitti clone for more than 15 years. After exhausting all leads he built one last fall. Probably the best clone I have ever seen. It was at the Road Rockets 1962 Autorama this past February. There is a picture of the car on the Road Rockets website under "shows" "2008 Autorama".

No pictures of the car after the fire. Just wanted to bring it to everyone's attention the pitfalls of red plastic fuel lines and electric fuel pumps that run only on the key.

 

That Sucks. Glad nobody was hurt.

 

Wow, thats horrible. A local guy here in NJ had a '32 Milner clone a few years ago until he sold it. I was interested if it was the same one. Apparently not. Best of luck on the rebuild.

 

Photos from:
http://www.indyroadrockets.com/2008_motorama_1962.html

 

Sad to hear of his loss. Sounds like it was a real looker. I hope he had good insurance and will be able to save it.

 

it was a very nice car. what a shame. hope Steve had enough insurance on it

 

Hate to hear of anyone losing their ride in something like this or a wreck. Hope he can rebuild.

 

No matter what kind of rod it sucks to lose something you have put time, effort and of course money into...hopefully its insured well

 

That is terrible.

 

That sucks...hope he keeps his head up!!

 

Sad day when something like this happens to a fine ride, hope he can build it again. **FYI** Ron France's has a good fuel cut off switch, not runnung a fuel cut off switch is like having no natural safty switch.

CRUISER

 

hope he can build again

 

I'm assuming it was fiberglass?

 

Insurance? think that is the liability of the guy that was working on it. Warning to doing work for others.
Friend of mine had a nice streetrod get heavily damaged by fire at his shop. He and his insurance were responsible. A crappy running car came in-turned out that the needle valve in carb stuck open and carb was acting like a siphon-filling engine with gas. Went to drain oil pan and gas shot out at a high rate and right onto drop light.
Having a rug on floor helped to contain fire from spreading. Very lucky was at that moment another friend happened to stop by and pulled him out from under car by his ankles. Then used a couple big fire extinguishers.

 

Thats awful. At least noone got hurt.

 

I know that this is too little too late,but whenever you backfrire out the carb, keep cranking in order to suck down the flame back into the throat. I didn't take into consideration for the red fuel line and the electric fuel pump.
On my T-ster, I have it switched so that I can kill it. I hope that the deuce is rebuildable, It is a bitchen car and it deserves rise from the ashes!

 

Damn that's horrible new's..Glad no one was hurt..
Looked like a nice clone too..

 

Oh man that is.....er..... was nice. I hope it was glass.

 

Steel

 

That's too bad! Sorry to hear about this. At least he's okay.

 

Actually, this is not the case. Your car, your insurance. The shop only covers the shop & people in it. The car is YOUR problem!

A 53 split wdo, 57 bird, & 2 other cars burned to the ground a couple of yrs ago in a shop fire & some of the owners were S.O.L. because they had no ins on their cars.. tough lesson.

 

So sorry to hear the news. Heartwrenching for sure.

Agreed Value policies such as what Grundy and Hagerty have for speciality cars cover the car no matter who was at fact or the reason for the loss. These two companies will pay the owner of the car the full agreed value as soon as they get the report from the adjuster that they send to the damaged car along with the fire marshal's report. My check from Hagerty took exactly 28 days from the day of the shop fire to my mailbox.

The hot rod shop my car was in when it burned had a $90,000 policy to cover customers cars inside the shop. Those that didn't have insurance on their cars PLUS the insurance companys of the insured cars all went to court and the court decided who got what percentage of that $90,000. Trust me that amount of money didin't even begin to cover the value of the cars inside.

 

that is so awful. i have a ton of pictures of that car somewhere. to the guy asking if was fiberglass- no . it was steel.

 

sorry to hear,,no matter what vintage hot rod,,all tho the A/G coupe is probably what started me hot rodding,,my favorite car of all time,,

hope he can find another body and rebuild,,

 

soory to hear bout his loos, hopefully he has insurance

i am sure we will herefrom him shortly on the next rebuild, but just dont wait to long (lol)

 

Sorry to hear that ....lthat woiuld be my worst nightmare. It loooked like it was a super ncie ride. Glad no one was hurt though.

Kill switch on the elec pump is a must, but presence of mind would have had him turn the key off therefore killing the pump....

Hope he can rebuild her with the insurance payout. Good luck !!

Rat

 

2 Great lessons to take from this thread aside from insurance........

A cool head goes further than a fire extinguisher when fighting flame. Take a breath and cover the basics in your head before expending that empties-in-seconds extingusher.

And there's a reason OEMs use oil pressure interlocks with electric fuel pumps. It's not a newfangled contraption designed to confuse and complicate, it's a valuable safety device that would have saved this car.

Sorry to hear about it, but at least nobody got hurt. Too bad he was into AG instead of Herbie.

 

That sucks! That was one of my favorite cars in the area. I hope he will build another with what can be salvaged.

 

What a shame! I know first hand what it takes to build a nice steel clone of one of these...I wish him all the luck and hope the insurance makes good!

I too run an electric pump, but with a shut off...that's a must!

 

Been there, done that... (1985)




My heart goes out to the owner...


JOE