But there’s a way you can help…
Back on the morning of September 5, Nickel’s Automotive Wood Restoration in Traverse City, Michigan was destroyed along with about a dozen cars in a devastating fire. The son of owner Michael Nickels received a phone call from his son since the security system alerted him to the fire. Nickels and his wife were camping out outside of town, so they jumped in their car and quickly drove to the business, but it was engulfed by flames in just over half an hour.
Check out the “motherload” of woodies here.
A total of five fire departments responded to the blaze, which took 42,000 gallons of water to extinguish. Still, it wasn’t enough to save the successful business. Nickels says he’s repaired the bodies on over 100 classic woodies, including some pretty high-profile vehicles. Not only was his shop obliterated in the inferno, so were customer vehicles and Nickels family heirlooms.
Somehow, 3 vehicles survived and were saved. One is a 1983 Chrysler Town And Country we think Nickels would’ve gladly sacrificed to save one of the woodies. Anotehr was a customer’s 1953 Buick. Finally, a 1942 military ambulance of which Nickels said his is the only survivor out of 100 made was also spared.
All of Nickel’s tools were lost in the fire, and he doesn’t have a workshop at the moment. Local news reports don’t indicate how the fire started and spread so quickly, or whether or not the shop had a fire suppression system.
To help get Nickel’s back on his feet, a fundraiser has been started. As of the writing of this article, $8,680 has been raised with a goal of $200,000. The fundraiser has been organized by Octie Ham on GoFundMe, which you can see here.
Note: we haven’t verified this GoFundMe campaign, so before you donate you might want to do some due diligence first. Really, you should do that every time someone asks for money.
Sources: 9 & 10 News, Record Eagle
