I know, I know, Im going to die in a horrible fire if I use the stock tank. Well I tried the other way and still had a fire, So the next one gets a stock cowl tank.
I ran stock A tank for years and never had that happen! Is everyone ok? How bad is the car? We need the rest of the story for educational purposes.
And it doesn't look like it was wreck-induced....yeah, we'd like to know more and hopefully nobody was hurt!
Cause was a bad weld on an aftermarket fuel tank. The shiny part is where the liqud fuel was leaking during the fire. The smoke line is where the fuel level was. There was a firewall between the tank and passenger compartment. No one was hurt , just ten years of building down the drain.
Ugh...but glad no one was hurt!!! Can you salvage the body & frame and start over, or is it all too warped?
Any idea what made the gas catch fire. I have seen a lot of leaking tanks here in the rust belt. Usually we get to change them out before they catch fire.
I filled it up the day before and no leak. The weld must have cracked on the trip. Exhaust is the best guess for ignition source.
Glad to hear no was hurt, Is it safe to assume there was no extinguisher on board? I actually carry an extinguisher in all my vehicle's for this reason, Even the daily, Hope you can save it an get her ready for next season, Godspeed
Two large extinguishers were used and had no effect, the liquid fuel coming from the trunk had to stop before the fire could be put out. Lucky the tank was a siphon style instead of a bottom feeder, when the hoses burned off the fuel stopped. Still had 3/4 of a tank after the fire.
I don't think anyone reproduces model A tanks. I see originals at swap meets pretty regularly. I personally have three model A's with original tanks and it doesn't scare me obviously. As someone else said, a well placed fire extinguisher is important. I won't build a car without one mounted where I can reach it from the driver's seat. That doesn't do you any good at this point...you already learned the hard way. Oddly enough, the only fire I ever had in a hot rod was not in one of my model A's, but my '40 coupe. It has an extinguisher mounted between the front seats and the fire was out in seconds, drove it home with just some paint bubbled on the hood. Sent from my SM-G900V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I've ran stock tanks on Model A's for over 30 years, two stock and one street rod with no problems. Building another now with an after market tank in the trunk, have a plywood barrier behind the seat which will hopefully give me a little time if anything happens. The stock tank on my avatar developed a small leak on the outside after about a year but was able to solder it and repaint the tank. Radiator shops around here won't touch a gas tank anymore. Hopefully the tank that failed didn't look like the one I'm using in the coupe I'm building.