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from the ashes will be rebuilt. cycle of life dude.

sorry to hear about the jeep...the charger, eh...guess that sucks too.

more than likely, if the temps weren't high enough to warp your sheet metal equipment, it'll be good, just get it cleaned, those soot particles can kill ya.

Not to be a jerk, but it looks like an improvement.
The new shop will be a lot better I'm sure. That sucks about the vehicles too, that 49' jeep being burnt makes me sick.
On the brighter side modernizing is all ways a good thing.
Sorry for the loss.

The new shop will be much better. The offices will be bigger, and there will be a lot more usable space. The old shop had gone through a few additions over the years, which created a lot of wasted space due to parts of the old walls being left in place. Construction on the new shop should start next week some time.

Most of the sheetmetal equipment appears to be useable. The brake and shear arent too bad, but we havent tried to use them yet. Most of the smaller stuff is in pretty good shape since most of them were usually stored under the bench or shelf when not being used.

having gone through a similar fire, my guess is nothing inside will be usable. Possibly sheet metal brake will be ok if not heated too much. Vehicles no way. Complete destruction. Temperatures in my building were far above critical temp for steel (1300 degrees) as noted by the bent ceiling trusses. A real estate salesman told me it is better to not even look through the mess for things salvageable, but just call the insuranse adjuster and tell him to send a check.

That's rough man....but it was only material items. Everything can be replaced and that is the bright side. No one was hurt. I see a new and improved shop, mom with a new ride, dad with a sweet jeep before it's all said and done.

Sorry for your loss, atleast insurance will cover some of the damage.

Our shop

A little over three weeks ago our shop caught on fire and was totally lost. We were out of town for the day and got a call just before 5pm that it was on fire. We hurried back and got back just in time to watch it finish burning.

Being built out of wood and close to 50 mph winds made it impossible to put out. The fire investigator determined that it was likely an electrical short that started it.

Most of the sheet metal equipment looks like it can be cleaned up and used, but there wasnt much else that was salvageable. My dad's '49 jeep truck and my mom's brand new 08 Charger were also in the building. The truck might be rebuildable, but there wasnt much left of the car. Ironically, the car was in there because she didnt want it to get dirty.

We finally got what was left of the building torn down and cleaned up yesterday. Construction on the new building should be starting soon.

This is a hard lesson to learn just how valuable good insurance is. We had decent coverage; although it wont cover everything, atleast we have enough to rebuild and replace a few other things.