Almost lost the '88 this morning.
My son is using the car to get to/from work these days, and he comes in the house from the curb this morning where the car is idling, and says, "Dad, can you come take a look at something, something doesn't seem right."
When I get out front, I can see a little smoke coming out of the engine lid, and I think I see
dripping molten metal under the rear end, and a flicker of flame!
Turn it off! Quick! I tell the kid, and then I tell him to go get the fire extinguisher under the sink in the kitchen. I'm bent over at the back end looking underneath when he comes back out and says he can't find it. Now the flames are getting bigger, and I can see that something up near the starter is on fire. I realize I don't have time to go looking for the extinguisher, so I start grabbing the hose off the front of the house. Of course, the last person to use it (guess who) broke the plastic lever on the damned thing that opens the flow, so I'm trying to twist it with my thumbnail. I yell at him at this point to call 911 for the fire dept, as my heart starts to sink, thinking I'm gonna watch this thing burn to the ground in front of my house.
I finally get the water flowing and jam the nozzle up under the rear fender at the starter and just let it flood the area. Then finally open the engine bay and jam the nozzle over the manifold towards the back corner by the airbox. No flames up top, and the smoke dies down just as the fire truck pulls up. The guy says "Good job, I don't think we would have been here in time to keep it from being burned pretty bad."
I haven't put her up on jackstands yet, but I'm not expecting to find much. I did find a piece of one of the heater box cables that had been melted through and fell on the ground, so I'm speculating that it broke, and fell onto the starter lug and shorted out.
I'm all calmed down now, but it was a scenario loaded with lessons learned.
I need to establish a better fire extinguisher location.
I need to pay attention to little details on the car that could be a problem waiting to happen.
I need to put rubber covers on the starter lugs.
I need to replace the hose nozzle with one that's not so damned cheap.
I need a drink, I woulda really missed that car, even though I don't drive it anymore.
Oh, and the silver lining?: My wife comes out after all the excitement and says, "So lemme guess, you have another race car, just like that?"
