Sad day for the war machine and my shirt..

Freaking car caught fire. Old wiring under the dash. I got real lucky. I took off my shirt(almost stopped to admire myself in the rear view mirror ) and wacked it out.I then ran to the back to the kill switch. It started back up and I wacked it out again. Lesson learned. I should have had a fire extingisher. I didn't . I was always gonna do it, I ordered mine today. Now I got to do some rewiring. Pertaining to the Turn siginals, Brake lights, dash lights, Head lights......But the "War Machine" marches on, through hellfire and brimstone. :evilsmile No chevy is safe.....

 

look at it this way. now it will be a safer car. maybe. sorry about the fire but glad it wasn't any worse.

 

that's a good lesson for all of us, one or two fire extinguishers would not be a bad idea and the small one's empty fast! so have a spare. glad you are ok and hopefully the car didn't get to much fire damage.

 

I have to reinforce the plea for everyone to put a fire extinguisher in their car. I always try to put them in my trucks but never needed one until a couple of months ago, when we sent a crew down I-5 towing a trailer behind an F-350. The tranny pump blew in Portland, dumping ATF on the hot exhaust and igniting the underside of the truck. Luckily, they pulled over, grabbed the fire extinguisher and got the fire out with no real damage. The tranny was swapped for a rebuilt unit the next day and the pump blew up outside of Eugene, igniting the truck again. The new fire extiguisher saved the truck again and the shop that put in the transmission fixed it.

We haven't had any trouble since, but it does prove that fires can happen out of the blue, even with brand new parts, so put one in your car! If we had not had the fire extinguisher the first time or had neglected to replace it promptly, we would have lost the truck and everything in it. A $20 fire extinguisher is cheap insurance for all the time and money you have invested into your Maverick.

 

I got two fire extinguishers in my back seat, easily accessible from either open door or window. Not that I am smarter than you and did it to prevent a fire, it is just that I had my fire 3 years ago...!!!

Same fire. It is a mess to fix, led to new floor shifter, new carpet (which I still haven't purchased) and lots of stuff "upgraded" under the dash.

 

That's too bad. Wanna sell it?

All seriousness aside, I'm glad you escaped with relatively minor damage. Good luck on the rewiring.

Do you know what caused it, other than it being 30 y/o (small gauge) wire?

 

sorry to hear man ...

 

Got em all over the place. Learned my lesson years ago.

 

Always a fire extinguisher in my Mav,,, seems once burnt it puts the fear in you forever. Glad it wasnt too bad Lance,, getter fixed.
Dan

 

sorry to hear, glad the damage wasnt too heavy though.

 

I don't consider any car to really be mine until it has caught fire at least once.
It's a rite of passage.

 

Glad everything is Ok

but I have to ask.......
what was glowing brighter :evilsmile
the fire or you without your shirt on
sorry but I had to ask since everything is OK!

 

had a small fire once.. sure puts the fear in you like DAN said.. have 1 in the kitchen, car, garage, and bedroom.. JF don,t even go there haha

 

My '74 Grabber had the amp gauge short out and catch fire running about 75 mph down the interstate one evening. Car started running strange and missfireing, then smoke starts rolling out from under the dash. Look down and there are little flames INSIDE of the amp gauge, insulation starts burning and melting off the wire. Scared the crap out of the girl that was rideing with me. Pulled off, jumped out and pulled the battery cable off. Five minutes of rewireing later we were back on the road. My carpet has a hole burned in it from that.

Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to carry and extinguisher in the '72 that I drive daily with a 34 year old under dash harness and 31 year old under hood harness.