How to convert outlined stroke to object

Ojinika,

From your description I wonder whether you are actually trying to paint in a black compound path rather than a path/nothingness inside it.

As I (mis)understand it, you had a single stroked path forming the flames and maybe the bottom straight sides, but there is something strange at the transition between them looking like a transition from thicker to thinner, as if the flame path (originally) was (originally) open and then outlined and cut, and then the outer path was joined with the (continuation into) a separate path consisting of the straight parts; this could explain the apparent change in width.

If the original stroked path had a white Fill, outlining the Stroke ought to have given you a Group with the Fill as a separate Filled path, and this path would be the the original path of the Stroke.

So if you still have that original white Filled path, you can just work with that, and add the original Stroke to be back to where you started.

If not, you can get rid of the inner path and work with the outer path (as a Stroked path) as suggested by Scott.

In this connexion you can copy the former outer path behind itself and give that copy a white Fill and no Stroke and colour as you wish.

You can also align the Stroke of the former outer path to Inside to get the original appearance rather than one that is half the Stroke Weight larger; or you can use a negative Offset of half the Stroke Weight, which can however give changes to the shape/number of Anchor Points (you can see that if you compare).

Remember that Ctrl/Cmd+Z is your friend when trying out things.

The outline is comprized of two paths - the outer shape, then an inner shape counter (or hole).

Option 1 - If you use the Direct Selection tool (white arrow), you should be able to click directly on the inner path and then delete it. this will leave one path for the shape.

Option 2 - Select the object and choose Object > Compound Path > Release. This should "break" the compounding and then allow you to select and delete the inner shape. You may need to also ungroup after releasing the compiund shape.

I could absolutely be incorrect here, but I beleive "Convert To Shape" is designed to convert to rudimentary shapes - rectangles circles, triangles, etc. It's not designed to create "Shapes" for any random path... again, I could be incorrect about that. It's a fairly newerish feature and I haven't really had any need for it as of yet.