Classic up in smoke

[ejenner]

Is it common for people to accidently set fire to their own classic / retro car by accident?

I've done it twice myself but was expecting it both times when welding the body or messing with a leaking oil gasket. In both cases my fire was very simple to extinguish and very little / no damage caused.

I heard about a guy who burnt down a council house after a welding spark got into the carpet of a car he was welding, nothing happened until he'd been back inside the house for about 20 minutes so the tiny little spark had been smouldering away all that time. As a result of hearing this story I tend to hang around after welding just in case something like this is happening and I don't know about it.

I also heard about another who's car mysteriously exploded. He was having a constant struggle with a cold starting issue which had been going on for months and then one day trying to start it it exploded, burnt the car, garage and lots of other stuff nearby.

So is it unusual or have I heard of more than most? I suppose cars catch on fire often enough - hence fire cover on most insurance policies.

[PandaSelecta]

Well my mam's Renner 19 GTSX went up in flames, and when it did it destroyed the front of my Fiat Fiorino. This wasnt due to welding though, as the fire brigade said it was a leaking carb, but as it happened on November the 5th, we think it was one of the chavs putting a firework under the car (maybe just hoping it was chavs, as the thought that it might have exploded while driving was worrying ). Also the explosion could be heard a few streets away

From this....


to this

[scruff]

I set fire to my old 924 while stripping it for parts.

I dilegently disconencted the battery before starting adn removed it, however, I needed to check the fuel level so I popped it back in but neglected to remove it again.

Later on I was pulling the engine apart and the alternator live dropped onto the side of the block... but I'd removed the earths and, due to the design, the whole lot was isolated from the car...except for the stainless brainded rear brake lines via the rear trailing arms! Clearly 500A cranking battery earthed through a tiny thin braided line melted it pretty fast and ignited the brake fluid! The first I knew was athe put-put-put of burning brake fluid and melted plastic dripping onto the drive!!

Like a tw@ I ran inside and grabbed the powder fire extinguisher...despite there being one in the car 2 ft away!

Then I discahrged it... into the wind!

Fire went out but I looked like an extra from mad max, smoke and white dust everywhere...! No serious harm done other than the braided brake line!

[Del]

My uncle managed to destroy my Mum's Mk1 Escort when I was a kid. That was a welding accident, I seem to recall.

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Had some smal fires when welding... Nothing serious, though.

I always have a wet rag & CO² fire extinquisher at hand when welding. Or at least a garden hose

Don't use powder/dry-chemical extinquishers - they do more damage than a smal fire

[ejenner]

Feb 9, 2012 13:28:38 GMT TurboDieselWeasel said:

Had some smal fires when welding... Nothing serious, though.

I always have a wet rag & CO² fire extinquisher at hand when welding. Or at least a garden hose

Don't use powder/dry-chemical extinquishers - they do more damage than a smal fire

yeah, I set one off for kicks the other day. It was either that or chuck it in the bin. The way they discharge is pretty epic. Two good words to use in a sentence there

[Ratdat]

I've not had any significant fires when working on a car but then I do remove all the interior before welding and tend to stop any welding and grinding about an hour before going indoors. My workshop is a timber building (albeit lined with 28mm MDF and painted) so I don't take chances with it in that respect. I also have four fire extinguishers in the workshop too, just in case.

[skinnylew]

This:
www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/top_stories/9494298.Explosion_risk_as_classic_car_fire_in_New_Cross_forces_children_to_stay_inside/

the one you heard about?

[ejenner]

Feb 9, 2012 13:36:44 GMT skinnylew said:

This:
www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/top_stories/9494298.Explosion_risk_as_classic_car_fire_in_New_Cross_forces_children_to_stay_inside/

the one you heard about?

No, but reports like that one and what people are saying on here seems to prove that it certianly happens and often enough!

[Indie]

My fairly near neighbour had a very clean Scimitar which used to burble past the house on sunny weekends only - It was fitted with an (obviously) aftermarket Alarm which used to drain the battery between weekend blasts. At some point in the early hours the elderly battery charger/ timer switch combo he used to keep it topped up failed and it, well, incinerated everything in the garage, melted half the Conservatory and scorched the side of the house up to the roof, nearly setting the contents of the loft alight.
The Fireman said the blaze was particularly fierce because of all the inflammable items in the Garage and as part of the settlement his insurance insisted on a separate shed for all the half used tins of paint, lawnmower petrol, gallons of oil, bricks of C4 that we all find necessary to have to hand.

He has yet to replace the car - although he's kept the slightly melted V6 block (yes it was that hot) to some day make a coffee table from…….

[nofrills]

My old fiat marea died in a fire, the battery was flat, so i called the AA they got it going and told me to leave it for about 45 minutes, so i did, went indoors chilled out the next thing i know my neighbour knocking on teh door saying he could see smoke coming out of my car, so i rushed outside, but it was too late, popped the bonnet and put a damp towel over it. i called th AA again as i thought maybe it was something to do with what the guy had done (as they like to check everything) he came back and had a route around, but it was caused by an electrical fault on the the fan on the radiator, there was meant to be 2 fuses or something but there was only one, anyway it got hot shorted out and hey presto it was deaded... so as i didn;t want to claim on my insurance as i would not of got much i stripped it and sold all my spares and got a tidy sum back.... but to say i was peeved off was an understatement.

[loudandproud205]

I set fire to my 205 just by jacking it up!

When I lowered it one wire from an ill fitted alarm was caught under the strut brace and caused it to arch out I have never ran so fast or panicked so much, ripping an assortment of the curse word fitted alarm out before the fire really caught hold.

After that I bought some rear lights that used to catch fire, you could smell smouldering plastic in the drivers seat when driving down the road, again a poor fitted after market product was to blame

I did have a SPL wall fitted in my 205 at one point and I took it for some welding to be done to the seats and cage I got a call saying that the box had caught fire, but got a nice pay out and my welding work done for free alias the last time I took it else where to be worked on.

[Deleted]

I had a fire on the motorway in my 100E. I'd picked up some road debris (a bundle of rags) that had got caught around the prop shaft, soaked up quite a lot of oily greasy stuff and when I hit the motorway the friction made it burst into flames. First thing I knew about it was people flashing me and when I looked behind it looked like a bonfire burning in the wind. I managed to kick it off once I'd stopped but it was basically burning right under the fuel line

The second bad experience was quite recently in my Anglia. The engine was a bit worn at the time and the Webers were spitting something chronic. I'd pulled up at the builders' merchants and when I fired it up, the spit noise was more of a burp and I could see fire through the bonnet vent. The fuel spat out the carb was alight on the inner wing. I went to whip the flipfront up, frantically undoing the Dzus fasteners but the poxy bonnet latch jammed and I couldn't lift it up. Literally within seconds it burned through the fuel line connecting the carbs and it fireballed, knocking me backwards. I ran back into the shop begging them for a fire extinguisher and they looked at me like I was mad and wouldn't help. Luckily, outside, a truck driver rolled in and could see what was going on and jumped out with a small powder fire extinguisher that put it out. The stuff went everywhere, wrecked all the paint and to this day I still find residue, but it saved the car. Luckily (lucky number 2) they also had a hose there and I managed to wash it down before bodging a fuel line and throttle cable repair to get me home.

Moral of the story is keep a fire extinguisher in the car even if it's a powder one...

[scoobypete]

I keep one in the van at all times now as my mates bay window caught fire one day after he had just finished refitting the engine,something got hot and melted a tiny hole in the plastic fuel filter which then sprayed a fine jet which then ignited,after throwing my cup of tea on it then blasting it with their powder extinguisher it luckily went out,engine bay and brand new engine was a right mess tho,had to take it all back out just to clean it up......

[popuptoaster]

[avengertec]

thats it I'm ordering a plumbed in kit now
thancks for this usefull post

[MaDSeB]

had a fire in one of the minis i used to own, turned out to be a perished fuel float line to the su carb (which sat right above the exhaust manifold)
didnt have an extinguisher to hand so i remember using a bottle of lemonade to put it out, then making a hasty repair to get us the rest of the way home.
havent had any other expiereinces to date. although with the weldathon due I'm sure I'm due some.

[nomad]

Did some welding on the A-pillar of the Triumph 2000
Removed the glass & trim, checked under dash & cleared cables etc.
Quick patch went on fine, then I had a brew to work out what was next on the list.

Went around the car 30 mins later to check things and could smell smouldering

Eventually traced it to some kind of hair/matting inside the windscreen pillar, I guess it was some kind of sound-deadening effort by Triumph.
Not something I'd ever heard of before so didn't look for it when I did the welding ... live and learn

[optima21]

had a couple of small fires when welding, due to stray sparks and cavity wax. these days I used compressed air to blow them out (but still have other fire control measures handy.

once someone tried to help my mk2 polo catch fire though buy trying to light a rag in the neck of the petrol tank

[gazzab1978]

i had a mk3 astra convertible that wouldnt start because of a
knackard battery so i went and got a new one, connected it up and a couple of mins later saw smoke coming from in the drivers front wing, so i rolled it out the garage and legged it to get a bucket of water, disconected the battery and threw the water in the wing to put it out.
when i took the wing of i found the alarm bow had shorted out and caught fire, that was draining the old battery and putting the fully charged new battery in was to much power for the alarm box and up it went.