Do ya think so?



Wait til the stars and bars gets painted (camo style) on the roof!

 

A good reason to never let anyone work on your baby. Had a local mechanic put in a new fuel pump cuz I was busy working out of town. Now she's ready for a full resto.

 

Ouch! That hurts. Do you know for sure the fuel pump started it?

 

Looks like it was caught in time to save the truck though! Sad day indeed.

 

Mechanic mentioned spilling some fuel on the manifold I think. Was running in front of his shop getting warm when I stopped by to pay him for putting in my new fuel pump. Closed the hood and drove half a mile and when I lifted to prepare for the approaching stop sign, she died on me and I tried turning her over a few times to no avail. Call mechanic and he tells me to try again. Next thing I know there's smoke starting to come out from under the hood gap closest to passenger compartment. Mechanic says he'll be there in a jiffy. I get out and pop the hood and it's fully engulfed all around the carb/air cleaner area. The old fire extinguisher the rig came with I had pulled just prior to replace and well doesn't that just suck. Call 911. Watch her burn. Mechanic showed up when it was going pretty good. You'd think when I mentioned smoke he'd have brought a fire extinguisher with him. Nope! so he races back to the shop and grabs one and comes back but it was too big at that point so we had to wait for the local FD to show up which was pretty quick. Now I have a full on project on my hands and no time so I went out and found a donor/errand truck to help as I sort out the burnt out old girl. Will need all new hoses, batteries, belts, carb, wiring harness. I'll post some more pics of aftermath to get some ideas from everybody. I really love this truck and would like to see it through to get it going again. plan on pulling the motor soon and probably will attempt a full teardown and rebuild with the help of my neighbor who's rebuild ford engines before. I did tear out the seat and the floor covering to find I do have a little perf on the passenger side floor pan. Thinking I can prob just patch that. I really like the patina on the hood after the fire and overall I love the look of the old patina on the rest of the truck. What would you all do?

 

New grille inserts needed. Kinda dig the look of the hood after the fire.





Close up of melted out grille inserts.





Can see how the ducting melted down onto the floor.





Really bummed about the instrument panel.





I'll need new dash and ducting.





New headliner which was needed anyway.








Just a charred mess on top.

 

I think I have a 71 all gauge cluster I can donate to rebuild if you want it.

 

Thanks Gembone! You rock! I would appreciate that immensely! I would gladly pay for shipping and try to repay you somehow.

 

Shoot me a PM and we can make arrangements. It's just sitting in a box so get yourself sorted with the aftermath.

 

Surely your mechanic bears some responsibility here. Any discussions with him about it?

 

I wonder if the new fuel pump didn't have too much pressure for the carb's needle and seat. I hope you have some good car insurance on it. I think I have an old heater box with a bad heater core out of a 1971 F100 without A/C. If your donor truck doesn't have one let me know. I'll donate it to the cause.

 

Gas tank in the way of the AR?

 

That's so sad!! I just found this thread and was reading it from the beginning. I was going to write how fortunate you are to have found such a nice survivor. In spite of what happened I would still say you are very fortunate. Hang in there, sometimes life throws you a curve ball.

 

The mechanic was somewhat in denial but I think his good conscience took over and A) gave me my money back for the fuel pump "repair" and B) stepped up to file a claim with his insurance company. State Farm deemed it a total loss and offered me about double what I had paid for her minus $100 to keep the carcass. This all happened about a year ago. I recently acquired a 1970 F250 camper special that is in drive able shape that needs a little carb? tlc (it hesitates occasionally upon accelerating from a dead stop) other than that it's a pretty straight work truck that's got the guts I need to get old fireball back from the dead.

 

I'm glad it turned around and came out for the good. When you asked "What would do" at the begining of this page, I was thinking, "I'd probaley go to prison after I finished beating that mechanic into an oatmeal base. If you take the '70 F250 to the same guy for you carb work, I bet he's a little more careful.