The poor wee Chevrolet has sat for a month, because Ive just been busy with other stuff around the house, and also work from time to time.
I was watching the episode of Wheeler Dealers where Mike buys a 57 Bel Air, and it catches fire as he's driving it to the port for shipping. That fire started around the carburettors, because of leaking fuel or a split hose or something. Anyway, aside from the disappointment of Mike not having his shite-talking vocal chords burnt beyond repair, it makes you think eh?
My car has some kind of insulation stuck to the underside of t.he bonnet, and that shows signs of fire damage in that same area. I've also had the "leaky carb" issue when the accelerator pump seal went on the front carb, and filled the V-shape of the manifold with petrol - one misplaced spark and you're a fireball!
I also know of at least one other Bel Air in Scotland that had all the paint burnt off the bonnet when the engine bay caught fire.
Just to cheer myself up, I've also seen a few videos on YouTube etc of various cars catching fire. Now usually, the fire starts off quite small, but only takes a couple of minutes to build up. Most people in the videos seem to end up flapping their hands and running in wee circles, while the wee fire gets a good hold. By the time somebody turns up with an extinguisher, it's beyond saving.
In one of my previous jobs, I was trained as a fire marshall - mainly that meant getting people out safely, etc, but we were also trained by real firemen in using the various types of extinguisher to put out various types of fires. The main secret is (surprise surprise!) to "snuff it out early" before it gets too big. I think the advice was "if it's smaller than a football, tackle it - if it's bigger, just run with the others". (It might have been a basketball, or a medicine ball, or a medium-sized ballroom, I can't really remember).
This came to good use a few years ago when I got home from work and found that my neighbour's front door had been set on fire by some eejit with a tin of paint and a bundle of newspapers, right under their gas meter. While the other neighbours were doing the "run around and flap hands" thing, I got a wee extinguisher out of the car, and a reflective coat, blasted out the fire, and then used the coat to knock the newspapers away. Everybody lived, and the neighbour bought me a bottle of whisky so everybody was happy!
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes - the point is, I've been putting this off for ages (as you do) but today I went out and bought 2 wee extinguishers. One is for the TVR when I get it back, but the other one is for the Chevy, to be fitted within easy "reaching position" because as I say, seconds count while a fire is getting a grip.
So here is is! I obviously checked, before fitting, that the door still closes easily (and that I can get my hand around it without opening the door first).
Incidentally, I broke 2 drills drilling 2 holes for the screws. 50's American steel is feckin' tough!