Good way of remembering the type of extinguisher for the type of fire: A - Ash - Fire residue is ashes - Wood, Paper, etc B - Barrel - Fuel source typically stored in Barrels - Gas, Oil, etc. C - Current - Electrical Fire
When it stopped,was it because the fuel line had come off and was pumping fuel into the distributor? . When you tried to restart it it probably ignited the hot fuel ( vaporising ...gas...spark .. boom). You're lucky in some respects,the whole car could have burnt down and you would'nt have anything worth saving especially as you say,the sheet metal .
Sorry to see that happen to anyone. I had a fuel line split on amy first car when I was 16, lucky a neighbor had an extinguisher handy, all it did was blister the paint on the hood and eat the wires. s.
WHAT A WAY TO SCREW UP YOUR DAY.. CAR WAS LOOKING SWEET... MAJOR BUMMER.. GOOD LUCK WITH THE REPAIRS..
i found out today after scraping some crap out of it... the dash is pretty much toast and the heat did suck in a few spots on the hood as well as a spot on the cowl near the middle of the front windshield.... still could be worse i guess... but thats a bummer in my book
they also make really cool missles if a hammer is applied with enough force.. fire extingushers classifications are easy just remember the word JOE class A = Junk class B = Oil class C= Electricity
Don't feel like the Lone Ranger, This reminded me of a bummer I had in my 20's. My 70 Ranchero got stolen and never recovered...no theft insurance on it either, just gone. And that's just one that came to mind, I know there is more. Oh yeah, my first wife cleaned me out. I'll bet lot's of guys here have taken big hit's.
Sorry for your loss and I know it's been said before, but at least you were not hurt or worse. Bring her back, man!
Sorry for your setback! (Wont say loss because it is not a loss) It is unfortunate that it happened. It could have been a hell of a lot worse. At least you're ok and the car doesn't appear to be severely damaged. Get your chin off the ground and go to fixin her back. It needs your help!
Yeah, and they'll be first up to borrow one if they're on fire. A good reason to carry an extra - or two - is if you use your extinguisher to help someone out, then you're running without protection. I like the 2 1/2# extinguisher in the passenger compartment and a 5# or 10# in the trunk. It pays to have the larger sizes in the garage. And a couple of them to boot. One at each end opposite corners. Here's a site that carries well made extinguishers. http://www.professionalequipment.com/fire-extinguishers/ When I worked at the power company, good ol' Southern California Edison, they had fire training seminars every year or two. Everything from old 12kv circuit breakers up on a stand as they would be out in the switchrack to temporary pools of oil covered water. The circuit breakers had a water line to them and once lit, they duplicated a circuit breaker fire in which the flaming oil boils over and runs down the side. Once the fire got going good and the steel etc. was hot - with heat which didn't take long - it could be tough to knock the fire down with a 150# Ansul extinguisher on wheels. If you ever use one of the 150 pounders, push it, don't pull. Otherwise you'll run over the back of your foot. The guys who did that usually went down and then you had a victim to contend with as well as fight the fire. If you have two guys - and I'm including the gals here, I can't see Denise just standing there watching things burn - with extinguishers have one back up the other. A car fire can be similar to our circuit breaker fires where the oil ran down and behind you and re-ignited. Guy #2 can put out that fire while you work on the fire proper. Don't get too crazy here, you don't want to hurt yourself. Even so, a few scratches and cuts are acceptable to me if I can get the fire out and save the car. See if you can talk your company into having a fire training seminar. Good for them and good for you. Most fire departments have fire training locations and it would be great if you can have some hand's on training. Otherwise, do some studying and reading on the problem. The time to read the extinguisher label is not right after you notice the hood paint bubbling. One mistake I see a lot of people make when fighting fires is they shoot the top of the flames which doesn't do a whole lot. Aim the extinguisher at the base of the flames and work your way forward. I don't know what kind of training racing organizations give their volunteers, but if they're going to station extinguishers near their work stations, they need to have a reasonable level of training for them. Some televised races make me wonder. I've saved one car, a Rocket motor Shoebox by having one small extinguisher on board. Got some old extinguishers around? Get some new ones and use the old ones to train family members to use extinguishers as they should. And, sometimes you have to abandon ship. You just have to let things go and take care of yourself first. Ya know, with all the hot rods, 4x4's and nifty cars along with all the Soccer Mom vans kicking around, it seems theres a good potential market for an underhood fire extinguisher that wasn't crazy in cost. Granted, a race car on-board extinguisher would work, but the cost is prohibitive for many. If the cost could be held under $200. or so and have an extinguisher that would flood the engine compt with dry powder whether set off manually or with a heat link under the hood I'd go for one or two of them. A main battery shutoff that could be part of the package would be nice. Last, but not least, how many guys running electric fuel pumps have oil pressure safety switches on them? I do, once the engine stops, power to the electric pump is cut off. Along those same lines, I've heard of guys adapting the inside the car safety switches to hot rods. These things trip in a wreck or even a firm bumper to bumper parking lot tap and would be a good addition to a hot rod.
ouch, that sucks. can't imagine losing a car like that. i have a plumbed in extinguisher in my build aimed right at the carbs. seems like a good investment.
That's a nice lookin' '51. I use present tense because you will rebuild it, even better that before. That is the reason I haven't run a Holley carb for 30 years. I am happy with the driveability of Edelbrock. If someone outruns you, it's not because you don't have a Holley.
FIRE SUCKS ASS!! my buddy just went through a total loss senario, a couple of days ago where his storage barn went up. Since then Ive been rethinking my storage/garage/insurance situation. Heres a link and a pic of the scene, 4 complete cars were lost, plus years of hording parts http://olskool37.onfinite.com/album/1311987/ story on another board http://forum.olskoolrodz.com/showthread.php?t=41151&page=1&pp=10 '61 Savoy '66 Charger, '67 Coronet, '72 Charger Rallye I will be putting an extinguisher in my car when its ready to hit the road along with other road trip goodies. Worst way to learn something....
HOLLY SHIT MAN ! ! ! ! ! ! DID you have a breather on the carb or not? ARE you O.K. ? man THAT just sucks the life out of ya!
thanks again all.... ya, as soon as this missouri weather straightens up a bit and i can get a warm weekend, i will be stripping it clean, yanking the front end off, pulling the engine/transmission and going through that... its going to look slick when im through with it, its my baby, ill die in this car!... holley might actually be doing something too... oh, by the way... there will be a holley on top of it again believe it or not! ha, its just a fluke thing, i dont think every carb will have that problem... my bro has had one on his cutlass for years and im sure many other people run them with no problems... so, im not skurred, this time ill be prepared with a little, excuse me, huge red bottle in the trunk!
Odd Ball, glad you are alright (evidently), sucks about your car though, sorry to hear it. C9, I remember someone trying to get an underhood extinguisher on the market, specifically for street driven vehicles (they were marketing them to late model stuff though). IIRC I saw them at a race in Bremerton WA. Can't remember who they were. This would have been in 1995 or 1996.
i keep forgetting to say this.. but yes, me and my buddy that was in the car with me are "physically" ok... ha, thanks! everything on the engine was like it was for 8 years... never had a problem like this, if the timing was knocked off at some point it would pop out the carb, but not like this, i checked the timing when i put it on, it was dead on... idled fine, air/fuel was set right... floats werent flowing over... nothing, everything was good... dunno what happened...
The Jalopy Journal
