p24-1953 Posted October 3, 2011 Report Share Posted October 3, 2011 This is why you carry a fire extenguisher with you at all times. We had a little incident on the way to church tonight. sitting at a stop light we (the wife and i) commented on the strong smell of gas. and then boom. we have ignition. the blast was hard enought that a guy on the second floor of the adjacent building heard it and came running. in fact it blew the cranbrook script off of the fender and bent the head light ring. i put it out with a fire ext. as quickly as i could with out raising the hood, but whats done is done. important thing is no one is hurt. insurance is contacting me tommorow. then i can clean her up and see what damage is done. what do yall think is the likely damage? i think it might have been the fuel filter? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Elder Posted October 3, 2011 Report Share Posted October 3, 2011 OUCH! Any closeups of the engine compartment? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldguy48 Posted October 3, 2011 Report Share Posted October 3, 2011 Did the car have a plastic in-line fuel filter? I had a similar occurence with a 1961 Ford Falcon. The car backfired thru the carburetor and caught fire. Then the plastic fuel filter melted and there was LOTS of fire. Smothered it out with a blanket, and damage was fairly minimal. I hope your damage is minimal as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aero3113 Posted October 3, 2011 Report Share Posted October 3, 2011 Sorry about the damage. Good thing you got to the fire before the fire department,they would have ripped the hood right off! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p24-1953 Posted October 3, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2011 yep. there is a glob where the fuel filter and hose used to be. so what options other than plastic filters are there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p24-1953 Posted October 3, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2011 All together " that will buff right out" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p24-1953 Posted October 3, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2011 im thinking i will need to probley replace the remaining fuel lines and break lines at least inthe engine compartment right, along with rewire, new radiator, new hood, but the bulk of the engine should be fine correct? or will the heat have damaged the engine in any way? will i need to replace the gaskets? i wonder if the heat damaged the valve cover in any way? or suspension? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Young Ed Posted October 3, 2011 Report Share Posted October 3, 2011 You could easily have cooked the rubber pieces of the suspension and some of the engine gaskets. I wouldnt think the engine itself would be harmed with that level of fire. Sorry to hear of the issues hope your ins takes good care of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p24-1953 Posted October 3, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2011 i am covered by hagerty we will see how they do. i hadnt hought aobut engine mounts, thats a good one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plymouthy Adams Posted October 3, 2011 Report Share Posted October 3, 2011 hopefully by the looks of things and the fast action with the fire extinguisher..the damage has been centralized to the top of the engine and wires, hood etc is your worse damage..the fire does not seem to have warped the hood seriously so that tell me it was not a sustained burn..if it has not done damage to the interior side of the firewall (insulation/wiring/heater hoses) I would not suspect heavy damage to the lower side of the engine in way of suspension..a look at your distributor on the one side and the fuel pump on the other will give you an idea if the burn was low in the compartment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobT-47P15 Posted October 3, 2011 Report Share Posted October 3, 2011 They do make metal in line fuel filters. Sorry to hear of your problem.....glad it didn't do more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
54Illinois Posted October 3, 2011 Report Share Posted October 3, 2011 I will make it a point to have a fire extinguisher now. Glad no one got hurt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Horne Posted October 4, 2011 Report Share Posted October 4, 2011 There are plenty of metal fuel filters available. I did a search on ebay for inline fuel filters, came up with alot of results. The ones with threaded ends would eliminate the need for rubber hoses and clamps. Some of these are listed as what NASCAR uses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p24-1953 Posted November 12, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 12, 2012 just thought i would update everyone to the total extent of the damage. The fire warped the carb, so i had to get a new one. The fire melted most of the wiring in the engine compartment, which caused all the wiring in the dash to short out. After replacing the wiring and carb we could not get the car to fire up. We noticed that the compression in several cylinders was low and could not get a spark form the distributor. We ended up changing out the distributor, and after removing the valve covers found that 3 or 4 exhaust and intake valves were stuck tight. At this point we pulled everything and did a complete rebuild. It took 6 months to rewire and rebuild everything. All the body panels could be repaired. There is still some evidence of the fire in the engine compartment due to a smoke damage on the fire wall, but all in all everything is back together. Hagerty did a great job. the preliminary appriser had no clue how to deal with old cars and quoted the damage to be about a 3rd of the total repair bill, but after a few phone calls a new appriaser came out and everything was settled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
40P10touring sedan Posted November 15, 2012 Report Share Posted November 15, 2012 Good...keep us in the loop, and while I'm sorry the whole thing happend, at least it sounds like there going to go the full extent to replace things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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