Power Wheels Magazine A Notch Above
On a sunny Sunday morning in July 2022, Ferdi Raquelsantos, started his classic American muscle car, a 1970 Pontiac Firebird Formula 350, to warm it up while waiting for his family in front of their house in an exclusive gated village in Alabang. As the Chairman Emeritus of the Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP), Ferdi usually drives his DongFeng electric sport utility vehicle (SUV) every day, except Sundays. Since the weather was nice that Sunday morning, he decided to drive his family to church in his seldom-used 52-year-old muscle car.
Since the Firebird is seldom used, the Pontiac 350 V8 engine runs rough at the start but smoothens out after it warms up.
On the initial short drive, Ferdi felt the 350-cubic-inch (5.7-liter) V8 engine was sputtering a bit. He thought that perhaps it just needed to be used more often to remove the gunk, gasoline residue and varnish off the fuel tank, fuel line, carburetor and intake manifold. After a while, he saw smoke and some flames spewing out of the hood and cowl vents. He instinctively pulled to the side of the road and quickly ushered his family out of the car. He then realized that a big blaze was consuming the engine compartment. His beloved muscle car was on fire!
On initial inspection, the engine fire damaged the hood, melted the vents at the edge of the hood, and consumed the cowl, including the “Hide-Away” windshield wiper mechanism.
The fire was spreading quickly around the engine compartment. Luckily, someone nearby saw what was happening and called the village fire marshals who rushed to help extinguish the fire. Once the flame was out and the burnt portion cooled down, Ferdi opened the hood to assess the damage. He found that a rubber fuel line had burst, spewed gasoline around the engine, which was probably ignited by a misfire that he felt as an engine sputter. The damage was localized around the engine compartment, hood and part of the cowl in front of the windshield.
Thankfully, help arrived quickly and the fire didn’t spread to the rest of the car.
Ferdi was glad that his family was unhurt and that the fire didn’t spread into the interior and engulfed the whole car. He was a bit devastated with what happened to his classic car but he was also confident that it can easily be restored, especially with the available Firebird restoration parts in the United States. Instead of moping over the burnt out front end of his Pontiac sports coupe, he started making calls to engage a car shop that can assess the work needed to restore his Firebird.
Upon closer inspection, the fire melted the distributor, coil, and wiper motor, damaged the cowl and fenders, and burned the aftermarket Edelbrock air filter.
After assessing the damage, Ferdi started making calls to shops that can restore his beloved Firebird.
(Next week: The Firebird undergoes damage assessment ar a restoration shop.)