Rusty Is No More :(

Shift518 Automotive
1

for those of you without heart, i guess you will be happy. but it is awful to see a car burn down of this caliber.

[quote=“M.Burroughs”"]

I’m sure everybody’s wondering what’s going on, so I’ll start with some back-story.

I had Rusty torn pretty far down because I was planning on some summer renovations, the main one being a shaved bay. I was also working on a new air management setup so I had the suspension off of the car sitting off to the side.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5182/5560559374_ed38477c1a_o.jpg
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In the middle of all this, I decided to get Ratty’s old engine running while it was sitting in the driveway, all out of sheer boredom. I made a new wiring harness for the engine and during the starting process managed to hydro-lock one of the cylinders full of gasoline. I pulled the spark plugs to plunge the gas out, and while turning the engine over, the battery lead hooked up to the harness sparked. The fuel ignited and sent a fireball towards the garage. By sheer chance, the flaming gas landed directly on another 5 gallon tank of gas. The garage more or less exploded. It went up so fast that there was literally no stopping it.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5223/5610054005_4cfbb20549_o.jpg
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We’re not allowed to enter the garage until the fire marshall clears it, so we aren’t sure of the extent of the damage. All of the wheels that I own, except for the BBS Prototypes, were in the garage. The car itself looks pretty bad and probably isn’t salvageable, but we won’t know until we’re able to pull it out of the garage. It’s visibly damaged.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5307/5610139436_ff8c6d0bcc_o.jpg
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The bags on the suspension look to have burned up , and what little interior was in the car is toast. Judging by the size of the fire, heat damage has probably rendered the chassis of the car and the wheels structurally unsound. It doesn’t really look like much in the garage itself survived, and the garage itself will have to be torn down.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5222/5610139584_70ed391c11_o.jpg
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We got Cory’s car out before the fire spread to his side of the garage.

I appreciate everyone’s kind words so far, but I’ve already been asked by several people if this is some kind of elaborate scheme to bring the car back again. If you think I’d actually burn my garage down, losing most of everything I own and risking the lives of others in the process, that’s pretty sad.

<iframe src=“http://player.vimeo.com/video/22223287?color=ff0179” width=“400” height=“225” frameborder=“0”></iframe><p><a href=“http://vimeo.com/22223287”>Untitled</a> from <a href=“StanceWorks”>Mike Burroughs</a> on <a href=“http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>

At the end of the day, it is technically just a car and I’m glad that everyone is alive and no one was seriously injured. I guess it’s on to a new project so I’ll be on the hunt for something unique.

I guess Satan just wanted his car back.

[/quote]

http://www.stanceworks.com/forums/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=428740

i was really hoping to someday see this car in person as my sister moved down to the outskirts of nashville last summer, guess that wont happen now.

2

Yea, that really sucks. Mikes a good guy and a friend of mine. Hate to see this kinda thing happen to anyone, let alone someone you know.

3

I am not familiar… Pics of car together?

4

Here is his build thread

5

what it last looked like:

http://www.stanceworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/MG_5601-as-Smart-Object-1-copy.jpg
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6

i about shit myself when i saw this come up on fb

7

Wow sorry to hear.

So what could he have done to prevent something like this from happening? I am asking so I could learn from this.

8

The best course would be to install some kind of sprinkler system. But even then, with such an odd chain of events, it might not have helped

9

Ok. I have seen this. Car is/was BA

10

I’m more saddened by the fact that all of those poor wheels got burnt up :frowning:

11

not gonna lie my first thought was i hope somehow the ronal’s made it out okay but doesn’t look that way…i am a wheel whore at heart but have no collection.

12

Actually, that reminded me that I should get a good F.E. for my garage and have it stored need the garage doors. Not that a good FE might totally prevent that in his case, but it should be sufficient for my bikes.

13

Sorry to hear about that I guess.

BUT it sounds awefull fishy.

How does enough fuel get into the cylinder to hydrolock it? I mean mechanically speaking, I cant really see that happening. Even if an injector was stuck open, you have a 1 out of 4 (out of how many cylinders have the intake side open at a time) for it to piss enough fuel in to more than fill the chamber up to lock it solid when the next cycle comes to close each valve and compress it.

Also pulling a plug and turning it over to let the fuel piss out is dumb to begin with. cold motor or not. also he apparently just had the battery terminal just laying on the posts or had some bunk ass wiring to cause a spark that would ignite the liquid gasoline, which is a lot harder to ignite over its vapor form.

also for a “fire ball” to launch out of a car, ARC in a direction, and “somehow” fall directly on another fuel container. (which also says he is an idiot for not having a cap, lid or something covering the outlet on the container). And nowhere in that first pic do I see any gas can(s)… unless thats one I see WAY in the back left corner on the grey shelves. and for a “fireball” to launch from the driveway, over that car and onto the shelf… I dont buy it.

Its just a lot of far fetched bad luck in my eyes. But what ever.

14

the pre-burned up picture was not from the night of the fire.

15

@ KrazyKid

I sort of thought the same thing. then i read

“I appreciate everyone’s kind words so far, but I’ve already been asked by several people if this is some kind of elaborate scheme to bring the car back again. If you think I’d actually burn my garage down, losing most of everything I own and risking the lives of others in the process, that’s pretty sad.”

and i don’t personally know him, but from what others have said he is a wicked nice dude. so i don’t know.

16

I mean really.

an engine pumping gas out a cylinder is going to go almost straight up. so when it ignited under the hood would still shoot straight up. If the car was facing the garage, hood open, I MIGHT see it directing the flames toward/inside the garage, but it would be a flash fire, not napalm falling everywhere! it would make a big POOF and combust up from the motor.

17

It definitely sounds like a bullshit story, I don’t even see how something like that could feasibly happen. It’s quite obvious that the car killed itself on purpose.

18

the engine was on the ground in front of the garage. you can see it in the pics. He made a wiring harness just to get it running.

19

I assumed that too. but just saying. It looks like a well orginized garage, doubt a uncovered fuel bottle was just hanging around near the open doors. But I have no idea I am not a physic.

I hear you i never met the dude, and people can say they are nice as pie. Also it states "I decided to get Ratty’s old engine running… " not a big old group of friends and family. Not to mention if I were to set fire to something I own, and wanted trusted alibis, they sure as fuck wouldn’t be standing near it! So that point is irrelevant IMO.

just playing devils advocate for something to do thats all.

20

Ugh I see ‘burnt shitbox’ becoming the new rust scene.