The Honeymoon is Over

We lived just outside town on about 4 acres, so we had a long driveway out to the street, think farm, but it wasn’t. Started up the beast and headed out the driveway, she started spitting and sputtering, like she was starving for gas. Gas gauge showed 3/4 of a tank. Maybe the choke was stuck? So I stopped in the laneway, put her in reverse and started backing to get back to the house so I could figure out what was going on. Just as I got back to the house, POOF!!!! I knew exactly what that sound was, the unmistakable sound of gas igniting. She was on fire!!! Shut off the engine, went flying in to the garage to get the hose. While I was doing that, my Dad came out and saw what was going on, so he slipped her in neutral and rolled her away from the house. If she was going to explode he didn’t want the house to go with it. Well I managed to get the hose and got the fire out. Talk about a broken heart, I was devastated. So much for my cool car.

Once things settled down, we opened the hood and had a look. The damage wasn’t too bad, the flames had shot out the right hand side and melted the plastic air scoop in the side of the car and the paint was burned off, but all in all, not too bad. Coolant hoses had melted, but with lots of looking, we actually found out what had happened. The original fuel lines, a rubber/cloth/mesh combination, were original and dried out. Be careful, storing your car for long periods of time is not always a good thing if you don’t do it properly, too bad the previous owner didn’t know that. Basically dry rot, they had cracked just like the sidewall on old tires, the pressure from the fuel pump was too much and fuel was squirting out of the lines. Once the exhaust manifold was hot enough the fuel or vapors ignited and that was it.