1968 Help a sister out please, car fire

[Mosesatm]

Donna,
It may be a good idea to take a peek under the car because the fire may have also damaged suspension bushings and other rubber items close to the engine compartment.

 

[CougarCJ]

This would also be the time to do the disc brake conversion.

Some time in the spring or very early summer I need to make a trip to Chino. I can be the pack mule to bring parts.

I will be attending the Portland Swapmeet in April.

 

[Midnight Special]

...DD, it looks like the help and suggestions will be overwelming as the actual event!

I have a carb, lots of pieces & period odds & ends I'd love to donate once an assessment, list and place to ship are established.

Keep us posted....>

 

[66hcs-conv]

Donna,

WOW, am I sorry to hear about your car. BUT it looks repairable, and nobody was hurt.

I live in Loveland, CO and have a nice 10 X 6 enclosed trailer. I'm not sure where you are located, but I would be willing to shuttle parts from or to Des Moines, Kansas City, Albuq, NM, points north, northwest, and west of Denver.

Pretty much any where within in a 700 mile circle around Denver.

Lemme know. Dave

 

[rvrtrash]

Steve...it might be time for a road trip again...I can borrow a trailer. Let me know when the snow is gone!

Will do. It might be a bit. It got down to -7 deg. last night. It has to warm up to get to Damn cold!

Steve

 

[Diesel Donna]

Wowee, Now I AM overwhelmed...I never imagined I would get so much help!! I'm gonna cry again!!
Still playing phone tag with the adjuster.
...Thinking everyone should just send parts to Steve...
I'll certainly keep you all posted!

 

[PonyGal]

Donna, I'm so sorry to hear about your beautiful car. As I write this, I too am crying like a baby for you

Thank God that no one was hurt, and your car can, and will, be repaired. We have such a wonderful GTCS family here and as you can see, so many offers of help.

I wish there was more I could say to comfort you... I'm so sorry!!

 

[admin]

So sorry to hear it Donna. Those photos sure are painful to look at.

And thanks to everyone offering up help and parts. It's what makes this hobby so great!

I know I don't have any of the big parts you need, but will dig through my stuff to see if anything I have stashed away can be helpful.

 

[Diesel Donna]

Thanks Renee' and Jon!! I'm headed to the Long Beach auto swap meet tomorrow and my friend Tim will help me compose a list when we get back. Insurance adjuster finally got my number right and will be here on Monday.

 

[Mosesatm]

Donna,
If you've ever considered adding air conditioning to your car this would be the perfect time to install it.

 

[Diesel Donna]

Donna,
If you've ever considered adding air conditioning to your car this would be the perfect time to install it.

Actually I was thinking about it!

 

[CALIF GIRL]

Donna,

Having had the fire issue with my GT/CS, (at the time my car was insured at 25,000) I found I was allowed to take the car to any shop I wanted. This would include a Mustang restoration shop. You should be allowed to use Ford parts if they are available and the insurance company should be footing the bill.

I have no smell of smoke in my car and had no issues with the insurance company. There are a couple of small things I would do differently had I known then what I know now- but they are minor and are not an insurance company issue.

I also have a 67 that had an electrical fire (n 2010) in the dash, (carpet, all dash wiring, dash, radio, the louver part of the cowl on the hood needs repaint, and the interior cowl damaged) This car had regular insurance, not classic car and had no set value on it.

The adjuster (same insurance company the GT/CS is insured with) tried to give me 5k for the car and total it out. I said no. They sent an appraiser out. He put the value around 19K. The adjuster still wanted to total the car stating they would never get the smoke smell out.

I was ok with totaling the car because it was one of my kids car and she really needed a car for commuting. I bought the 67 back for 1k and it has been sitting in the kids garage waiting for time and money to fix her.

Good luck, my heart dropped when I saw pix of your car. The sentimental value of our GT/Cs's is worth way more to us car lovers than the financial cost shown on a piece of paper.

No matter what happens with the insurance company the GT/CS community here will take care of you. I feel like many of the people here are like family. That is one of the things I love about this forum.

Good luck my friend.

Marion

 

[our special]

Donna
I just now read your post and seen the pictures of your "special" and it felt as though it had happened to me. I feel your hurt and if there is anything I can do for you, you know I'm here for you.

Take care, Dave

 

[Diesel Donna]

Thank you very much Marion and Dave. I went over the car very carefully today and made a list of what it needs. Boy the list gets long when you really start to itemize everything. My friend Tim helped me because I really needed an extra set of eyes and, well like they say, two heads are better than one!
Even just sitting in the drivers seat for two or three minutes, I smelled smoke on me and in my hair later in the day!
On another note...we went to the Long Beach swap meet early this morning. If any of you saw the local news today there was a horrible fatal wrong way driver accident on the 60 freeway about 5 am...it happened about 30 minutes before we would have been going through that section of freeway. OMG, the freeway was closed so we took an alternate route. One of the vendors at the swap meet is a friend of Tim's and the wrong way driver (21 y.o. drunk female) in a Camaro had missed him by SIX inches. He saw her coming on a hill/curve and couldn't clearly see that she was on his side..carpool lane. He said he practically went sideways at 70mph to avoid her and she was flying. His truck was loaded with Ford parts for sale and he didn't lose anything..but sadly he saw her hit someone head-on. Six people were killed and she lived. We saw the carnage on the way back 5 hours later.
Just makes you think about how fast everything can go wrong...had we not stopped at Jack in the Box...had I been ready a little sooner.
Anyhow...didn't mean to hijack my own thread but it sure makes you pause.
I am so grateful for my family here and your advice and suggestions mean so much to me.
I have had a fan running inside my car but the weather has been chilly and rainy and the carpet is still very wet. As soon as the adjuster gets here I can maybe remove it, but suppose to get more drizzle or rain in the coming days.
More news tomorrow after I get the estimate.
Thanks family!!

Donna

 

[BroadwayBlue]

The true spirit of cs.com shining through! Awesome!! :thumb:

Sorry to hear about the fire Donna. I know you messaged me about it off the site but finally seeing the pics makes it real. :sad:

I don't know if I have anything that will be of use but once the list is out I'll dig through what I do have. You have hooked me up more than once asking nothing in return. It's the very least I can do.

Wish I wasn't across the country. Would be a fun group project!

Hang in there - it may take time but it will get there.

Great to see everyone pulling together!

 

[Diesel Donna]

Thanks Rich! I finally heard from the insurance company,,,my favorite part of their list was the part that said it was driveable. HAHAHAAAA! They will be hearing from me shortly.

 

[Diesel Donna]

Okay so what parts are specific to the CS besides the grill and the wiring harness?

 

[68sunlitgold]

Donna,
a good place to start is the "how to identify" link above. If you are discussing the 'specific parts' associated with your car fire which looks like it was 'contained' (not a good word but it works) to the engine and interior...nothing to the back of the car. You hit most of the parts potentially damaged: Grille (mainly the brackets), hood locks and retainers, Lights (Marchal or Lucas) with pedestals, and potentially the wiring harness going back to the reartail lights (don't know how far the fire went). One additional things I was thinking about is the blinker relay (don't remember the actual name) which is under the dash. Most of the other parts are on other '68 mustangs. I might have missed something but I hope this helps.

Doug

 

[robert campbell]

Donna,
My guess looking at the "contained" (yikes, when is a fire contained in a car)location of the fire, that Doug is spot on. I think the hardest piece will be the proper wire harness for your car and the wire harness for the fog lights. The grill supports for the Marchal style fog lights are made of steel and should be fine with just clean up and paint. You Lucas fog lights may be damaged, but they seem to have easy sources. I think Neil said he had a wiring harness.

I have a complete perfect OEM hood off my car with new wiring and twist locks. I will take some good pictures of the cut outs for the hood locks and send them to you and Steve. If you get a chance you might want to lift the hood and take a close up of the bottom side of your twist locks and the cutout for them in the hood. My car was very early and may or may not be similar to yours. IMO the cut outs range in all sorts "looks", but want you to be happy if you use it. The twist locks and such are brand new. Your twist lock receivers are also made of steel and doubtful that they are hurt.

A good OEM dashpad is hard to find I think? The repo's I have seen leave a lot to be desired. The board can weigh in on that one.

I will talk a bit with Steve. Are you still thinking about letting him help you out?

Rob

 

[franklinair]

An original (used) dashpad sold on e-bay this past week for $700+
It was not a perfect speciman at that. I wouldn't have bought it for 1/2 of that. Marty may have some good insight on dashpads.

Neil