Rigging crew rescues 1965 Mustang from the ruins of a house fire

May 26

Written By Staff

A devastating house fire left an elderly Spring Lake woman with nearly nothing — including her 1965 Ford Mustang convertible, the very first car she ever owned. A caring neighbor reached out to Chris Boden, a West Michigan engineer and YouTuber, hoping he might know someone who could pull off what seemed impossible. Boden knew exactly who to call: Gelock, an industrial rigging company he had worked with on past projects, known for moving massive equipment.

The Gelock crew arrived to find a mountain of charred debris with no clear plan of attack and no blueprint to follow. Working on a narrow neighborhood street, the team maneuvered a massive crane onto the front lawn and spent more than two hours collaborating, debating, and rejecting ideas until they had a plan they trusted.

"Nobody just walked in and started pulling things off, we took our time, talked it through, made sure we had a solid plan before anyone started removing wreckage," said one Gelock crew member.

The extraction required a carefully sequenced approach. The team built a custom stub wall to stabilize the wreckage, then cleared charred walls, floors, and bed frames by hand. They fashioned a spreader beam from a 12-foot 4x6 timber to evenly distribute the crane load, made a test lift, adjusted the rigging, and tried again. With 6,000 pounds of tension on the cable, the crane raised the collapsed floor just six inches — enough to roll the Mustang free.

Then came the moment that stopped everyone cold. The car’s restorer, who had finished his work just five years earlier, opened the hood, connected a fresh battery, and turned the key. The engine started.

The owner had stored the car under a double tarp, which shielded it from both fire damage and the enormous volume of water used by firefighters, a small act of preparation that, in hindsight, saved a piece of American automotive history. The physical damage, while present, was far less than anyone expected, given the weight and heat it had endured.

The owner had spent the morning quietly watching, staying out of the crew’s way. When the tarp came off, and her car rolled into the sunshine — running — she watched in amazement.

The recovery was documented by Chris Boden and shared on his YouTube channel, where it has drawn widespread attention and praise from viewers moved by the community response and the skilled, compassionate work of the Gelock team.

West Michigan Newspop Digital Partners