national judging

[Paul Ayres #5640]

Roger, Now that you mention it, I did not see fire extinguishers there.  Perhaps a bit of education is in order?  Surely a fire can occur there as sell as anywhere else!.  Paul

[Otto Skorzeny]

I've always carried a fire extinguisher in all of my cars since I had a windshield wiper motor catch fire in a 1968 Camaro when I was in college (1985). I was able to put it out with a blanket that I retrieved from my dad's shop but not before paint was melted on the hood and all the plastic and rubber in the engine bay was melted.

Lesson learned.

Last summer at a local cruise in a hot rod mustang with a huge blown engine caught fire and the guy didn't have an extinguisher. Luckily many people around him had them and put it out before it became serious.

A friend of mine's newly restored VW Beetle sprung a fuel line leak and burned to a crisp in a gas station parking lot. She had no fire extinguisher and by the time the quickie mart guy ran out with his, it was too late.

[Whit Otis, 1188]

On the fire extinguisher issue, if you drive your car you should always have one available quickly.  Both of mine ride inside the car when I'm touring.  However, even a fire extinguisher will not handle certain issues.  For example, let's say you burn out the rear wheel bearing (these are sealed bearings) and a fire starts back there because the axle seal also cooked and now we have gear lube leaking onto the hot bearing... you can spray all the fire extinguishers in the world on it and the fire will go out momentarily.  However, due to the extreme heat, as soon as more axle fluid hits the hot steel, it re-ignites.  You guys will laugh at this, but I always carry a six pack of club soda in the trunk.... or sometimes the big full litre bottles.  If a fire of this nature occured, I would shake the crap out of the bottle or can to presurize the contents, and then punch a hole in it with my pocket knife and spray it directly on the hot area.  This would cool the steel down and get rid of the re-ignition problem.  Just a thought.
Best,
Whit
PS Even better if you throw a couple cans in the cooler in the trunk!

[Whit Otis, 1188]

Oh, one other quick thought I left out of the above response..... I always carry club soda and never seven up, coke or what have you.... who wants to clean up the mess of all that cooked sugar.... and, of course, if you have no such misfortune, you can always use the club soda in combination with a little Scotch..... and you get the idea.

Whit

[Ross Morgan #22943]

Guys,  this forum is another incredibly informative one with lots of experiences and knowledge from across the globe!   Bruce, I attended the Australian Mustang Nationals here in Perth recently and I noted that fire extinguishers were not required to have a car judged.  I found this odd because of the stringent rule required by CLC. Anyway, I'm going to stop procrastinating and buy an extinguisher for each of my classic cars. I like the Cadillac bag idea, sitting on the floor of the back seat - nice and handy.  Thanks again for these great contributions - they really help me!

Regards, Ross Morgan
Perth, Australia

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

G'day Ross,

One thing that I would recommend to you, and everyone else for that matter, is when you purchase the Fire Extinguisher of your choice, if you aren't sure of what to actually do when a fire starts, learn how to use it.

You would be surprised at just how many people don't know how to use them.

Bruce.

[Glen]

One of the things I tried to get the wife and daughter to do was practice with the fire extinguisher.  When the gage on the old one gets down low and you buy a new one then take the old one out to the backyard.  Build a fire in a safe place and put it out with the old extinguisher.  It still has some life left when the gage gets down to low end of the green area. 

Working around welders I had plenty of practice with the CO2 bottles.  Then the shipyard came up with trigger spray bottles of water.  One of those can put out a small fire without discharging a CO2 bottle that will then need to be refilled for $$$. 

Glen

[Bill Podany #19567]

I am amazed at all the good suggestions on this forum; it is greatly appreciated.  I like Glen's idea of practicing how to use an extinguisher.  When my 55 Eldorado caught fire I was so stunned that my temporary loss of composure disabled me from figuring out how to immediately made the extinguisher work.  I am 62 years old, and this was the first time I had to use an extinguisher.  The suggestion to teach others in the family is am equally valuable idea.  Many thanks from this CLC, CCCA, and AACA member.

Bill Podany
Knoxville, TN

[Dave Leger CLC #19256]

Interesting pointer on the club soda Whit.  I'll keep in mind that you are armed and possibly dangerous when we do a tour together again!    :-)