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Topic: Zen's Garage Fire  (Read 9200 times)

Offline volksnick

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Zen's Garage Fire

« on: January 19, 2015, 09:59:25 PM »
If you were at the meeting, you heard Zen's story from about 5am this morning. Long story short, Joy's cousin was in town and plugged a motorhome into an outlet in the garage. Somehow in the middle of the night, it caught fire, damaging the motorhome and destroying the garage. Everyone is alive and there is much to clean up and replace. Zen is in unusually good spirits, but he lost a lot of tools parts. Joy's convertible was a total loss.

I'll save all of the great story details and let him tell it once he gets that melted comcast line replaced. Just thought I'd throw this up to let everyone know and keep him and Joy in your thoughts.

Offline casper

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Re: Zen's Garage Fire

« Reply #1 on: January 20, 2015, 09:04:58 AM »
So sorry to hear this and very glad everyone is ok.

Offline Zen

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Re: Zen's Garage Fire

« Reply #2 on: January 21, 2015, 10:39:52 PM »
I'm back on line!  I squeezed in time at work yesterday and today to read and make a post or two, but other than that, I've was off line since Sunday night.   :o   I was going through withdrawal!  The bright side to that is I had two full days without watching an episode of The Wiggles!   8)

Now the "fun" begins.  I have to create an inventory and find replacement values for the stuff in the garage that was covered.  And get the charred mess in the back yard cleaned up.  Fun times!   8)

Offline ASBug

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Re: Zen's Garage Fire

« Reply #3 on: January 22, 2015, 02:59:36 PM »
You were wanting a new, empty garage... Just sayin.
I am sorry for your loss.
Any other autos damaged besides the vert and the motorhome?

Offline Smelly_Cat

Re: Zen's Garage Fire

« Reply #4 on: January 22, 2015, 05:33:48 PM »
I was very sad when I drove by the scene and saw the roasted beetle in the ashes..  SC

Offline Zen

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Re: Zen's Garage Fire

« Reply #5 on: January 22, 2015, 10:46:27 PM »
You were wanting a new, empty garage... Just sayin.
I am sorry for your loss.
Any other autos damaged besides the vert and the motorhome?

No other vehicles suffered heavy damage, but both taillights on my mother-in-law's Passat and one my S-10 sort'a melted.  My Coleman pop-up has a little damage (the paint on the side towards the garage is a different color than the rest of it now and there are a few plastic pieces on that side that melted.  This weekend (provided it isn't raining) I'll open it up and make sure the rest is OK, but it looks incredibly well for sitting that close to the fire.  When I first saw the fire, I just wrote off the camper and everything else near the garage.  Incredibly, my 1950 Johnson Seahorse 5hp outboard looks like it might be OK, and it was sitting on a sawhorse almost touching the outside wall of the garage.  The paint is heat damaged, but otherwise, it looks good.  Again, this weekend I'll pull it out, clean it up and see if it's still a boat motor or if it's become a boat anchor.  All of my antique Maytag engines and washing machine, my Snappin' Turtle mower, my moped, Beetle kiddie car, lawn mowers, weed eater, and lots of the stuff that "should" have been in the garage were not and are unharmed.

I lost a lot of "stuff" . . . but if there is one thing I'm good at, it's getting more stuff.  And after I clean up, I'll have room for more stuff.  It'll all work out.  I'll miss Sunny though.  I kind'a had a semi-mental attachment to that little critter.

Offline volksnick

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Re: Zen's Garage Fire

« Reply #6 on: January 23, 2015, 12:59:18 AM »
The good news is that you can still find late model super convertibles for reasonable prices in very nice condition. I'd say you'd get a pristine one for about $4k and you'd be able to hop in a drive it! I hope there is enough after you create the inventory to put you back in a running dub!

As for rebuilding the garage, I have a guy at a truss company that said he can beat anyone's price. I bet it would be really cheap to get all 4 walls (ready for siding) and a roof (ready for shingles) for less than a couple grand. All walls preframed. Stand them up, set the trusses and put a roof deck down! Could be really easy. If you need to "save some of the building" in order to keep its current location, I'm sure that could be done as well.

We will help in any way we can. Just let us know.

Offline ASBug

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Re: Zen's Garage Fire

« Reply #7 on: January 23, 2015, 09:23:46 AM »
We will help in any way we can. Just let us know.

Zen, you have pulled VW's for me across 2 states and different time zones.
I will help you. Set a date when the insurance is settled, we can make a club event out of it.
I bet I can get some Hooligans over as well.
KC

Offline Zen

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Re: Zen's Garage Fire

« Reply #8 on: January 23, 2015, 04:33:58 PM »
I've got to get with the city codes guy before I do anything and find out what I can and can't build.  I'm sure I'll have to back off the road a little . . . which I would do anyway.  You couldn't see to pull out of the alley by the garage before.  If I keep it a three car garage, I'd like to make all three bays open into the alley, not have two of them opening onto West Main Street.  That's all still a little ways off.  First I gott'a clean up.  Not looking forward to that at all . . .   :-\

Offline Zen

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Re: Zen's Garage Fire

« Reply #9 on: January 25, 2015, 01:33:00 PM »
To kind'a give you an idea of how hot it was, both tail lights on the Passat in the lower left of the picture and the right tail light of the S-10 near the house were melted.

Offline Zen

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Re: Zen's Garage Fire

« Reply #10 on: January 25, 2015, 01:40:12 PM »
The remains of two 1600 dual ports, a VR6 and Curtis semi-automatic key machine.   :(

Offline Zen

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Re: Zen's Garage Fire

« Reply #11 on: January 25, 2015, 01:44:49 PM »
This used to be two Shopsmith Mark V machines.

Offline Zen

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Re: Zen's Garage Fire

« Reply #12 on: January 25, 2015, 01:51:12 PM »
The engine in the background was a running 1600 dual port . . . it just needed a new main seal.  My almost new 12" wood planer and my 90 amp flux core welder didn't hold up well to the heat . . . but they held up better than my Besco folding aluminum trailer . . . All that remains is the tongue.

Offline Zen

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Re: Zen's Garage Fire

« Reply #13 on: January 25, 2015, 01:55:32 PM »
One of the few things to partially survive in the hot end of the fire was a box of old cards . . . this one was pretty appropriate I guess . . .

Offline volksnick

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Re: Zen's Garage Fire

« Reply #14 on: January 26, 2015, 01:05:13 AM »
I second what Casey said. If nothing else, lets load up a trailer and haul a bunch of the lost metal to scrap. I can provide a trailer if we need. Looks like there was quite a bit of valuable little projects in there. I hate to see the reset button pressed on all of those.

If you need help dealing with codes guy, I don't mind to help in any way I can. I don't mind helping with any drawings you might need to proceed.

What is the rear torsion out of?

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