Death of the Iron Regal

You can see both videos from ignition to end on Youtube at WEEKENDER825

This adventure started in 1999 with the purchase of a totaled 1978 Buick Regal. This is the second mishap in the last 20 years. The first, my grand daughter slammed the wall at Mid-Michigan Drag way in 2013 while driving for me, I took a year to complete the rebuild from that incident.

This one was caused by having a senior moment being distracted while changing jets in the Pro-systems Carb. The fire lasted about 75 second before I got it under control but it totaled the car with a damage estimated for insurance purposes of $29,000. This was just the car; the smoke damage to the building and my office complex will probably be in the neighborhood of $30,000.

Just finished a race with a couple bests before this occurred; We had a 60 foot ET of 1:35 and 1/8th mile of ET of 6:35 on E85.

 

That sucks! Can you salvage it? Can you buy it back? Or will you be parting it out? I T-boned somebody in one of my cars and the insurance company totaled it. I bought it back and rebuilt it.

The engine/transmission combo would interest me if you decide to sell it.

 

Really sorry to see this. Fire is scary.

Glad you were able avoid further damage.

 

Ouch, glad everyone is okay!

 

That sucks, what actually caused it to start

 

Wow glad you are ok

 

Seriously scary! Glad your ok, and the building is intact. Hopefully the car is repairable also. I recommend NOT showing the video to your wife if you haven't already done that.

 

Wow.. glad your OK,. could have been worse, GOD was definitely watching over you... You have this car running so well and some of the stuff you engineered on it is so cool, like the oiling system and serpentine belt drive...
You've done a great job with this car... I hope I have this much energy at your age of 77...

I hope you have enough buick heart and soul left in you to put it back together,.. Would like to see you out at Milan again in 2022, ... Milan will be up and running...!!
I feel your pain about this cause I did the same thing at Milan dragway years ago when I changed some jets and forgot to tighten my fuel bowls all the way...
I was trying to start the buick and it wouldn't hit and didn't realize I was shooting fuel on the intake and the spark from the distributer ignited the fuel,.. had a big fire like yours and the insurance covered it...

Good Luck,..

 

Hi guys! Thanks for all the well wishes, commiseration and good thoughts. I did buy the car back, it is like one of the family, not nearly as precious as my wife and kids, but it has been a labor of luv. It is fixable. The most concern I had was the engine, which, when I ran out fire extinguishers, I turned the hose on it to finish putting out the plastic and fiberglass which remained burning after the E85 fuel was put out. No air cleaner meant water in the engine, I kept turning the engine over with a power arm and oiled the cylinders to prevent rust which proved somewhat successful. We will start the engine on the engine stand this week after reassembling, will let you know the results. Interestingly, I had a crankcase vent at the back of the intake and the fire actually went down that vent and set fire to the oil in #7 cylinder, the piston was at the top, I had to hone out of the cylinder and reinstall the piston assembly.

To J Staged, God was with me as he always is, teaching me humility and the things of this world are only temporary.

How it started? Hum! I am not proud of this, but as I said previously, I remain humble being the flawed human that I am with an A.D.D. personality and a penchants to be distracted. I was testing my new Zeitronix data logger and noticed a lean condition which was not previously evident to me. I removed the fuel lines to the Carb to change jets when I became distracted for a few moments, probably my weak bladder, I don't recall. I came back to the task at hand, replaced the bolt in the fuel bowl, became distracted again. Forgetting that I took the fuel lines off the carb, I tried to fire it up, pumped the 50 cc's in the accelerator pump in the engine and it backfired and the whole front end went up. The fuel pump remained on (6 gallon a minute) for about 30 seconds until you see me hit the master short off in the video.

The rebuild - Most of the mechanical is repairable. Even though the carb was at the very center of the fire, Patrick at Pro-systems says the carb looks rebuildable, nothing inside the carb was damaged. The body work is the biggest challenge. It got into the roof line via the windshield and the whole front clip was burned. Rubber, plastic and wiring were consumed but are the hard parts are good with a little cleanup and paint. Thanks again for your comments. We may get a few passes in later this year but it will never be as pretty as it once was I'm afraid.