57 under collapsed pole bldg Feb 2019

[brushwolf]

I was off the board from Feb 2019 until recently. This is a part of the reason why (also had shoulder surgery a few months before this adventure..).. Pole building roof collapse with 14 project cars in it.  Here is one of them.

[brushwolf]

This was a partially dismantled Missouri car that I hauled back to Minnesota about 6 years ago. Fairly solid and I had leftover parts to replace most of the missing stuff..

[brushwolf]

Even got a detailed Missouri bill of sale that would have allowed me to title it in Minnesota... I got it out and surprisingly nobody was interested in buying it, though I sold around a dozen of the cars in that building (and sold the whole 33 acres back in June 2020..). So, I brought it home and have not figured what to do with it yet.  I have a 58 very solid Texas 4 door parts car also though, so maybe I can make the 4 door into a 2 door 57 or 58...

[brushwolf]

Here is the 58 parts car. First pic was after the first 1/3 of roof came down. Overnight the middle half of roof came down. The last 1/6th of roof  only leaned in and we jury-rigged braces just in case.

The end two stalls where the roof did not fall had a 61 Galaxie convertible and a 64 Galaxie XL convertible, which we were able to extract both without any damage. We braced the roof before extraction, but even after removing braces, a year later it still was hanging up there.

Obviously the 58 hood is destroyed, but I think I have extra both 57 and 58 hoods around here somewhere...

[brushwolf]

This 56 Victoria also got roof damage. Not as severe as the 57, but it was a 292 runner with 3 deuces. It was sold despite the roof damage, rest of body was pretty good.. I also had a 56 Mercury Montcliar 2 door hardtop in a different building out there, so I still have that. Seized Y block engine, but I have a 351w and C6 for the Merc. Victoria body was better though..

[brushwolf]

But I went and bought a 55 Crown Victoria from Florida, so I would not miss the 56 Victoria too much.. 351c and C6 with AC..

[brushwolf]

I have been goofing off too much the last few days. Had a relative over and broke my stride. Furnace conked out in my front garage now, so gotta deal with that today..

Then back under the 57 again for more stripping and finding more stuff to fix that always requires welding, it seems like. Want to get some paint on the bare 1/3 of the underside and rear inner fenders before going to Florida at the end of the month..

[hiball3985]

That is so sad. Mother nature can be so cruel.

[RICH MUISE]

Well that sucks bigtime. That Crown Vic is gorgeous though...you're well on the path to recovery!! I think the only thing I'd change on the Crown is to change the cruiser skirts out in favor of some cleaner looking fender skirts. I like cruiser skirts on some cars, but they seem to break up the visual flow on that car.
Thanks for sharing your disaster with us.

[brushwolf]

Yeah, I am not sure about the skirts but idk if regular skirts would look right with continental kit either. I don't care for the exhaust tips and also would rather it was a stick, but my wife can't drive a stick so she prefers the C6.

But I probably will leave it as is, with exception of going thru the steering box as it wanders a bit. Only drivable vintage car around here, so have to get anther working before looking for trouble with that one. It was an auction car and I didn't expect to get it as I bid 2/3 what those generally go for.  Apparently the non-stock driveline limited its appeal to some buyers.

[brushwolf]

That is so sad. Mother nature can be so cruel.

Yeah, if I was out there I would have shoveled off that roof and it would not have happened. But, it is 140 miles away and I was having the deep roof snow here too, plus still healing from shoulder surgery. Also got about a 100 trees down from a min-tornado here at the home place over the summer.

So, I will be cleaning up downed trees for years. Have a woodstove in my back garage though, so it will work out. Woods was too dense anyway and I want to put some dirt bike and atv trails in there anyway.

On the other hand, we have an old house in the Florida panhandle and we were there for hurricane Michael. The storm came ashore 40 miles due south of me and was huge, but it angled to the northeast and just missed us. Had some branches to clean up and a couple siding pieces came loose on house,  but that was it. Other homes just a few miles away literally cut in half from whole trees smashing them.  Downed trees everywhere, but not us.  Just some branches and a couple days with no power.

Next trip to Florida I had a tree service completely take down a 100 year old cedar that was next to house and also top some big old pecan? trees that were tall and wide enough to hit the house if they went down.  So, not as worried as before when hurricanes roll in down there any more. You win some and you lose some.

I did get my 54 glasstop, 58 retractable, 60 Impala, 61 Sunliner, 64 XL convertibe, 65 Comet convertible, 65 LeMans convertible, 68 Torino convertible all out of the building with no damage, so it could have been worse too.

Partially damaged vehicles (hood damage mostly, some minor roof damage on some) included a 54 four door parts car, 40 Chev 2 dr sedan and 40 Chev PU, 56 Dodge 2 dr sedan.  All project cars, none runners.

[brushwolf]

I have been working on a new pole building here. Do not have electric service hooked up yet and still need to acquire a 2 post lift,, but hopefully this spring I will be able to do that and pave the long gravel driveway, in between playing with my projects...

Hired the retired carpenter neighbor to do a bath remodel and finish our family room, update kitchen over winter, replace some windows and maybe a deck this summer too. Just had him build 2 small greenhouses for my wife.  He is not speedy, but works cheap and does nice work.  I can do that stuff too, but it takes me away from my car stuff and outside projects. 

[RICH MUISE]

If you ever need to adopt someone let me know. I like your taste in cars, Daddy.

[mustang6984]

After looking at all those damaged cars...I think...no---no---I KNOW I need a stiff drink!!!

[SkylinerRon]

Sorry about your loss of all those kool rides.

You need more roof rafters with the heavy snow load you get.

I built a storage barn with rafters 16" on center. An 18" Oak limb fell during a bad storm and it only broke one rafter and pushed the roof in about 6'.

I jacked up the rafter, glued it with Weldwood and a sister board and it's as good as new.

Goodluck,


Ron.