Hot Rods Little set-back with the 36...Fire

Backed it out of the garage the other day and it was running a little rough. Next it back-fired and smoke started rolling out of the hood. Turned off the power and jumped out, through the louvers I could already see flames. It was a little windy and when I opened the drivers side hood a breeze caught it and just fanned the flames. Fuel must have been pumping out like crazy cause by now there was a puddle under the car and the cement was also on fire. Ran in the garage and grabbed my good fire extinguisher, pulled the pin and squeezed the handle...nothing...ran back in grabbed the little K-Mart extinguisher pulled the pin hit the button...nothing...Now I'm freakin out. Yelled at my daughter to call 911 picked up the K-Mart extinguisher again shook it and could tell it was full, pointed it at the fire and smacked the button and it fired.Whew!...relief. I think it had been sitting around so long the button had just gotten sticky.
One carb is torched, plug wires, dist.cap, coil, wiring harness one air cleaner,paint on the firewall and hood was about the extent of the damage.
It's all fixable and was actually planning on re-wiring the car and re-placing the plug wires anyway. The hood bothers me the most, hate to re-paint it and have it not look old like the rest of the car ???
Good news Grundy Ins. adjuster was out yesterday and said it's covered 100%, what a great Co.
Lesson here, keep fresh and up-dated fire extinguishers close by, this could have been much worse. Removing the carnage and repairs start today. Gary

 

Man sorry to hear that, but glad the car, and more importantly your house, and you are safe! Real bummer about the hood though!

 

That sucks! Lucky it wasn't worse.....what was the cause of the fire?

 

How old are the rubber hoses? This newer gas is not kind to them.

 

Um, not pretty at all. In the overall scheme of things it could have been a lot worse.......homes have burned down because of a car fire, so you relatively came out ok. Looks like the fire started by the distributor or solenoid ?

Don

 

Did you figure out what was the actual cause?

It looks like the rubber lines are still in good shape but did the steel line get a hole rubbed in it behind the distributor or is all the gas out of the back carb? Those carbs look cute on that engine but they have a long reputation of being prone to leaks.

 

wow, lucky not worse and you and garage OK. so, what did you figure caused this to happen? might want to keep a small extinguisher in your car. yep, think we all assume the fire extinguishers we buy will always work when needed. as for hood, maybe get it louvered long as you have to redo it anyway. hope you have changed your oil too in case fuel went there too.

 

everyone go give your exitnguishers a good shake.

 

Oh man..I was holding my breath reading that... Sucks to have new scars, but glad it wasn't worse.

-Abone.

 

Yikes! Glad everything is relatively ok, and interesting to hear that Grundy has you covered on this issue. Good deal.

 

Man, glad it wasn't any worse, fire is my biggest fear.

 

Awhile back someone posted they drove a few blocks from their house and had a fire.A good safety precaution is to fire it up , open the hood and check for possible leaks before attempting to drive away. Always have a working fire extinguisher near by!

 

On the subject of dry chemical fire extinquishers, I worked in the marine industry and these are used on every boat by law. The gauge can be up in the green range and they still can be bad. What happens is that the powder inside settles to the bottom and clumps up.

When the Coast Guard boards your boat to inspect your equipment what they do is turn the fire extinquiser over and hit the bottom of it with their hand. If they feel a clump break loose inside they deem the extinquisher no good and must be replaced. I have seen some go bad in a couple of years and some will last 20 years, you just have no way of knowing.

Don

 

Man I am sorry to hear/see that. But it is no hill for a stepper right? I coould have been a lot worse.

When I began to read I was expecting to see a pile of ashes with a little tuft of hair sticking out of it.

I am damned glad to see that it is not any worse than it is. You're OK Right?

 

Neat safety trick. Going out to thump my extinguisher on it's butt this very minute. Gary

 

Damn...that ain't good at all...thot you were talking about the '40 at first...didn't even know you had a '36...!!!

At least it didn't catch anything else on fire...

R-

 

I bump mine (extinguisher) on the bottom with a rubber mallet.

Very sorry to hear about the car! Thankfully it's fixable. Not easy to hear though.

 

Sorry to hear that, but as you have said, that could have REALLY gone bad. If that had happened out on the road somewhere with no extinguisher handy...

 

Holy Heart attack, man this is scary as can be. Hope it all works out bro. Good save and glad to hear Grundy was cool on the coverage. My insurance co. also! ~sololobo~

 

Had just replaced and flushed all the rubber and hard fuel lines. Along with new filters last week

Fuel lines are good, the rear carb was the culprit. Maybe something got stuck in the needle/seat. At any rate I'm going back to a 4 bbl. Don't want to deal with this on a road trip

Excellent Co. Highly recommend them

Great Information, Thanks

Was a little scary, but it's all going to work out. It was probably worse for my daughter when she came out and seen the flames she got pretty upset.
Again Grundy is a great Co.

 

I still soo bummed out that this happened, also very happy it isnt any worse.

 

Looks like a great reason to paint that firewall white!

 

best wishes with the repairs.

knowing you, it will be better in the end.

 

Wow. Good luck with the repairs. That is a little scary

 

Thanks Jeff, it's on it's way back

I've been thinning bout that, just not sure it fits this car ???

Thanks Bob, I hope so. I am going to do a couple upgrades

 

Holy crap, Gary! Glad it wasn't any worse. Like Roger said, I also didn't know you aquired a 36...when did that sneak in? Looks like a nice car.

 

Patina. Leave it.

 

WOW, stories and pics like this scare the crap out of me and should be a wake up call to all of us. Imagine if you had an unused hole on the firewall that would have let the fire get to the interior insulation, could have been a total loss in a hurry. It is a "firewall" after all, everyone should take a close look at your cars before you hit the road in the spring, good to see that it didn't have worse outcome than it did. I keep a fire extinquiser next to my electrical kill switch in my truck, but will look it over again before it hits the road again. Scott

 

Oh man that really sucks.Sorry about the ride, but thank god no one was hurt...