Rust never sleeps, we’ve heard, and neither do insurance companies when they sense a pot of “gold” ripe for “harvest” (sorry, that was the best we could do). Unigard Insurance is suing a company founded by Neil Young in connection with a 2010 fire that damaged his one-of-a-kind Lincvolt hybrid electric conversion, the Silicon Valley Mercury News reported Friday.

A charging malfunction set off the fire that almost destroyed the Lincvolt, and damaged some of Young’s collection of musical memorabilia. The insurance company is suing to recover $482,000 that it paid to the building’s owner. According to Unigard, “The altering of a gas-powered 1959 vehicle and its components is an extreme departure from what a reasonably careful person would do.”

Well, that would be news to a lot of Charged readers – people alter vintage vehicles in workshops and warehouses all over the world, every day, and we imagine most of them are reasonably careful.

Young and his team converted the 1959 Lincoln into a hybrid electric vehicle in 2008, and documented the process in a film. The chrome-hearted land yacht features a Ford Atkinson 4-cylinder engine fueled by cellulosic ethanol, a UQM 145-kW generator and A123 lithium-ion batteries. Since the fire, the Lincvolt was completely rebuilt, and is now undergoing driving tests. Long may you run!

Images: LincVolt.com