Man I really feel for ya. This is my 1st post and recent 68' bronco purchase has me stoked! I live down in sb but If you need any help fora weekend from a certified mech.lemme know, I'll haul oats up there w my tools. How does the wiring look? Any pics? Have you done any cleaning or located the source ?I had a fire in my 49' century ( wood boat) right after resto and the engine cover blew so hard it shot my gf into the air and over the side of the damn thing. I fought that fire knowing in the back of my mind if the varnish catches it was goin to Davey jones locker, and how much that boat meant to me and my family. The last puff of fire ext got it knocked out luckily but I had to replace the whole interior. Soot me a pm if you want some help and want to send a couple pics to me.
That is very nice of you, thank you. And I'm very sorry to hear about your boat fire. I'm glad to hear that everyone was ok.
I'll separate my responses to your questions one by one, for readability:
Source of the fire: I've never worked on cars before, so it is hard for me to diagnose the problem. The rig is also inoperable right now, so I can't easily get it somewhere for a mechanic to look it over. Ground zero of the fire was the distributor cap. I was thinking that the glass fuel filter broke, because when I got back to my parking spot after the fire, there were bits of thick, clear glass sprinkled on the ground underneath where my engine would have been. Also a thin stain trail on the pavement following the route I backed up and left my parking spot. Other forum members have shared their opinion that it was a faulty or decayed fuel line. That is all I can tell you.
Cleaning: I've cleaned up the inside of the rig and most of the exterior. No work done on the hood or engine bay. I live in an apartment building, so I can't really do anything that would involve pressure washing or chemicals as there are no drains in the community garage. I did use my wet/dry shop vac as a blower to try and get a bunch of the extinguisher residue off of the grill, etc., but it sent a massive cloud into the air, and since it was a nice day, and people had their windows and patio doors open, I decided to stop that pretty quick.
Wiring: Battery and cables look like they may be salvageable. Spark plug wires are toast, as is all the other wiring. Blaster coil, etc. are all toast. The fire spread under the dash, so some of the knobs on the dash melted, as did the stereo. It will need a new harness, probably new switches in the dash, stereo rewire.
Pics: There are a few pics at the top of this thread. I'll try to send you some via PM/email.
In regards to your offer to help, I may just take you up on that at some point. There are a few locals on the NorCal Broncos forum and on here that have offered to help as well. At some point in the future when I have some funds to put towards this, it would be great to coordinate a time to get everyone together. The tricky part is that I'll need to find someone local to lend me a space in their shop for the weekend, as there isn't space or much I would be allowed to do here in the apartment complex.
Thank you very much again for your offer to help. I'll get you some pics.