Passport Transport truck burns with full load.

[JamesBulldogMiller55Buick]

Just received a few photos and, well, it's pretty bad. 

oh wow

that's too bad

[mercer09]

Had you engaged in civil litigation it is very likely that you would have been successful.

 

 

 

Lawyers arent cheap, as you know..................

 

5000. to get started and my time to fly to Florida made it wiser to just walk away.

 

sometimes it just isnt worth it........................................!

[Ivan Saxton]

It seems that there is not much understanding of the reason that wheel bearings can cause a fire on big trailer axles. About 30 years ago I had to rebuild all the bearing seats on several sets of semi-trailer axles. I did whatever work customers brought to me, and these were pretty heavy to handle alone; but my big old English Lang lathe was long enough between centres to offset the end I was not working on enough in the 4 jaw independent chuck so the end I was rebuilding and machining ran true by the dial indicator to the original camber bend on the tailstock centre. The bearing seats were significantly worn by fretting because the bearings were loose on them. Obviously I could not grit- blast the ends in the cabinet, so after thorough cleaning I ran a rough threading cut across the worn sections do give the nickel-aluminide bond coat a good grip for the Metco Spraysteel LS repair coating. I finished them carefully to size so the new bearings were a dead size fit. The last set I did were for a very experienced operator, who I used to see occasionally in the supermarket at weekends when he was no driving his shuttle run carting Dulux automotive and industrial Dulux paint from the Melbourne factory 600 miles interstate to Sydney. Eddie had been replacing bearings very frequently; but he never replaced another bearing in 0ver 15 years after when he retired and sold his truck. The hubs were tight to get off and on when he had to replace his brakes; but he used his jack and a chain to pull them off, and he was as happy as a dog with two tails. A bearing relies on good thermal contact with its hub and axle to dissipate the heat it generates. If it cannot get rid of its heat, it may eventually ignite its grease. The old metaphor: "For want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost".

[Guest BillP]

Tom Medley's coupe got pretty thoroughly burned up and it was rebuilt to its original self. Almost makes this truck look like an afternoon project.

 

http://www.hotrodscustomstuff.com/latest-stuff/stroker-s-tom-medley-s-1940-rebuild-project.html

[Guest ShiftCraft]

I am expecting a full assessment from the insurance company (Grundy) on Monday. At that point I will weigh out the options. I am more inclined to do the work over than to let it go for scrap but I also am not keen on fitting reproduction panels (aka door and fenders) onto the oem parts.

[edinmass]

Grundy is very easy to deal with. If you had an agreed value policy, they generally will offer you a payoff and the chance to buy it back. They will be chasing Passport for any payouts. In the small collector car world, it's not in anyone's intrest to try and turn the loss into a hassle. I saw the owner of Passport today at the Boca Raton show if I am not mistaken. His Model J Duesenberg looked very nice.

Edited February 22, 2016 by edinmass (see edit history)

[auburnseeker]

I think there are probably still some excellent doors and fenders out their that are original.  You would be surprised how much stuff is lingering in Garages and how many guys have spares.  NOS may be tough to find but even that is out their.  I'm amazed at what turns up.  I'm in the parts business but unfortunately don't have any parts for your truck.

[R Walling]

 All state laws involving insurance very and you should ck. with your state before proceeding.

 

 In MA, your insurance company has the right to total the truck and pay you the full value of it. 

 If you want to "buy it back" they must receive salvage bids from 3 different buyers and they will "charge" you the highest bid if you want it back.

 

 (Legally they don't buy your car and sell it back, they just pay the difference in the value of the car before and after, and it is not conceited a total)

 

However, If you claim damages through the "at fault party", and the damages do not exceed the value of the truck, then they can not total it if you fix it.

 

 There is no law that I know of where somebody can damage your car and force you to sell it to them. (except your own company by your accepting the terms of the policy)

 

 I am not a lawyer, nor should this be considered legal advice, but it happened to me and I fixed the car and the cost was within $100 of the total value of my car.

 

 This is very important to conciser if you are under insured as to the value of your car.

It is possible for an insurance company to total your car and then sell it for salvage and make money in the process if you don't have the proper value placed on it

Edited February 22, 2016 by Roger Walling (see edit history)

[auburnseeker]

If you are unhappy with the insurance write up you can ask for a copy of the estimate for the repair and check it to make sure nothing crucial is missing or that parts or labor are not undervalued.    I checked mine on my Vette and they had the body shop rate drastically undervalued as they estimated cutting the top off my all original numbers matching fuel injected 1960 corvette and having the whole top panel replaced at 40.00 an hour.  I asked them what shop ion my area were they going to get to do it for that price.  They instantly adjusted the claim to the rate a shop in my area that actually fixed corvettes quoted for their labor rate.  It was a very large adjustment.

Not being able to see the truck in person also will make it difficult to know if they missed anything. 

[mrspeedyt]

still no doors should have been opened in ANY case.

[Guest AlCapone]

still no doors should have been opened in ANY case.

Not even go get another fire extinguisher?? Wayne

[Restorer32]

Last insurance job we did the insurance adjuster underestimated the labor by 100%. It is important to remember that in case of a loss the adjuster who comes to look at your vehicle will likely have no experience with antique vehicles. All insurers farm out their adjustment work. It is your job to educate him. Also some folks don't realize that specialty antique insurers are in reality just a front for another large insurance co and generally have little  actual expertise when it comes to antiques. On the bright side when they are presented with a claim involving an antique they know they are out of their league and just want to settle as quickly as possible. If there is no computer program telling them the cost of parts and labor they are lost. On the bright side we have found all the companies we have worked with, not that many actually, to be very reasonable. Antique cars are such a small part of their business and claims so rare that it behooves them to settle quickly and move on.

[Guest ShiftCraft]

Last insurance job we did the insurance adjuster underestimated the labor by 100%. It is important to remember that in case of a loss the adjuster who comes to look at your vehicle will likely have no experience with antique vehicles. All insurers farm out their adjustment work. It is your job to educate him. Also some folks don't realize that specialty antique insurers are in reality just a front for another large insurance co and generally have little actual expertise when it comes to antiques. On the bright side when they are presented with a claim involving an antique they know they are out of their league and just want to settle as quickly as possible. If there is no computer program telling them the cost of parts and labor they are lost. On the bright side we have found all the companies we have worked with, not that many actually, to be very reasonable. Antique cars are such a small part of their business and claims so rare that it behooves them to settle quickly and move on.

[Guest ShiftCraft]

Restorer32, thank you. I am starting to hear some sentiment about the repair estimate that makes me feel like the person assessing my damage thinks this is a 2014 Chevy pickup under dealer warranty. They are sourcing the easiest to find parts and getting their quotes from "collision specialist" style body shops. we have a photo documented restoration here and the delta between what my labor and materials are vs. theirs is quite vast.

I am trying to be patient. The claims adjuster seems very understanding so I hope my experience ends up mimicking yours.

[Restorer32]

You have to stick to your guns. We repaired a '29 Pierce Arrow. The rear bumper had been badly bent and had to be straightened and replated. The adjuster just didn't want to believe that we couldn't just buy a new one ready to install. You should probably get a local restoration shop involved, one that does no modern collision work but strictly works on collector vehicles. They would have a better idea as to parts availability and labor.

[Restorer32]

Interesting side note. Jim Grundy's Grandfather was a dealer for Pullman Automobiles built in York, PA 1905-1917. He owns one of the 21 or so surviving Pullman autos.

[R Walling]

  I think that you will find that Grundy will handle this claim to your satisfaction.

 

 For future thought,

 

 I have found that many times when an appraiser writes a low ball estimate and the work is started,

there can be so many supplements that the insurance company ends up paying more for the repairs than the original

stated value of the car.

 

 It takes an independent shop owner with many years of dealing with insurance companies to do this.

 

NEVER use a shop that is a direct repair shop for the insurance company or a recommended shop by them.

 

 I know a shop that wrote his own estimate for a car that was much higher than the insurance company's.

He started work on the car and then called the appraiser and told him that he had already spent 3 hours

(the allotted time by the appraiser) repairing the Qut. panel and it needed at least 4 more hours of work.

The appraiser balked and the car sat, (with the owner collecting loss of use of his car) eventually they "allowed"

him more time. This went on for each "allowed" time. Eventually the car was repaired to the owners satisfaction

at a cost well above the original estimates.

 

  Remember, an estimate is just that. An estimate. The final invoice is what it actually costs to repair the car!

[Paul Dobbin]

I think the main lesson here is, no loss is without consequences.  Unfortunately, time and stress are probable when the car we love is destroyed.  If we insure them properly, our own carrier is under contract to repair of replace.  The State insurance Commission is on our side.  After the loss is adjusted and the damage assessed and paid, our company can subrogate the claim against the responsible party and we avoid all that finger pointing and litigation.

[West Peterson]

You should probably get a local restoration shop involved, one that does no modern collision work but strictly works on collector vehicles. They would have a better idea as to parts availability and labor.

Not "probably." Do it. An insurance adjuster didn't even look at my car. I immediately took it to a restoration shop. They sent the insurance company an estimate, it was approved, badda-bing, badda-bing. Said restoration shop did the work, and that was that.

[trimacar]

From personal experience, be very careful accepting an "offer" from the insurance company, as mentioned, the adjusters they send to look at the vehicle are usually not familiar with work needed to restore an antique car.

 

I had an engine fire in my '31 Pierce, and the adjuster came and an offer to settle was made that was extremely low.  Now, this was with Grundy at the time, but I really don't blame them, I blame myself.  I rejected the offer, and they doubled it, which I then accepted.  My mistake, as the actual repairs were much more.

 

If you want the truck restored to the condition it was in before fire, the BEST thing to do is negotiate with the insurance company, taking the vehicle to a known restoration shop, and let the INSURANCE COMPANY pay the bill.

 

When I worked at White Post Restorations, this was done quite often, a damaged car would show up, it'd be fixed and returned to insured owner, and insurance company would foot the bill.

 

Many years after my engine fire, I happened to be talking to Jim Grundy and mentioned the incident, and though I signed the check, ended up spending much more to repair damage.  He actually went back and tried to find the file, as he wanted to make it "right", but got back with me and told me the file was gone or destroyed, I'm not sure how long they keep them.

[1937hd45]

There must be totally different safety rules for the companies hauling a full load of Pebble Beach cars. Bob

[Guest AlCapone]

There must be totally different safety rules for the companies hauling a full load of Pebble Beach cars. Bob

Why do you say that? Wayne

[8E45E]

Hi AACA folks, I am sad to report that one of my vehicles was on this transporter. It was a '65 Chevy C10, full rotisserie restoration on its way from North Carolina to my home in Reno. To say that I am sick over this would be a gross understatement. Here is a photo of the truck loading onto the transporter a little over a week ago. Awaiting news from Passport Transportation on the extent of the damage or if it's a total loss. Presently accepting all love and sympathy from any car lovers, also trying to find a silver lining in any of this.

Very sorry to read about your loss. 

 

Keep that photo of it being loaded onto the truck as PROOF of how it appeared before boarding.  An insurer could easily argue that it was not fully "100% restored".

 

Craig

[Guest prs519]

Note on the index to this webpage that the item is considered hot. I think that comment might now be outdated. smile!