I took the Olds on a errand to the grocery store and when I returned there was a gent giving her the once over, he saw me approaching complimented me on the car and then said I used to have one of these, Uh oh here it comes (I'm always patient friendly and listen)
but this was different !! this guy was Oldsmobile knowledgeable, this was evident after about 2 min of conversation he said his was a 1956
88 hardtop, he said he was from Idaho and it came to him as a barn find with 76k on it (grandpa's car) unrestored survivor, no frame or body rust but had some rodent damage to the interior he stated the owner did have it running although poorly but all that was needed was a major tune up
he purchased it and brought it back to his small farm where he started its restoration all fluids changed, belts hoses ,lubed etc... he stated it was 100% drivable so his next step was interior, he said he did not use factory cloth but came as close as poss to fac looking interior, that being done he turned his attention to body prep stated he was looking only for driver quality not concourse paint and was saving for the paint job, catastrophe !! appears there was a power outage and he was using a generator to run a fridge in the barn that had animal medicines that needed to be refrigerated till use, the generator caught on fire and the garage / small barn burned down !! no animal or human casualties just equipment and 1 1956 Olds 88 , no insurance on the Olds since it wasn't being driven and he was waiting till completion for a appraised value,
he is now retired and renting a house here in the area to see if he likes it here, he says if he decides to stay he will look for a 55 or 56 Olds to replace his, but no project wants it complete, bummer that's now two people I know losing classic vehicles to garage fires.

 

Bummer.

At least none of his family/friends or animals were hurt.

 

At least he hasn't completely given up and is possibly looking to purchased another Oldsmobile... Maybe someone here can help him out...

 

That is sad, If you look at those insurance pools you will see burnt and otherwise totalled classic cars all the time. I think that's why the values of these older cars still go up, because they are getting rarer, their #'s are falling, though not as fast as everyday drivers are. Some say the fans of certain era cars are dying off, so the market for say a Model T is getting smaller, which is true, but the # of Model T's are getting smaller, too. I need to increase the amount of insurance on my 'vert.