My 68 caught on fire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Way_Fast_Whitey]

:crying: Ever seen a grown man cry? I was in the process of moving about 2 weeks ago. My car has been sitting for about 6 months. I had just put a new intake on it. (RPM air gap). The carb was 2 days old. (Holley street avenger 770) Brand new battery. All so I could get it able to move across town. The damn thing backfired halfway out of the garage and the rest is history. It is actually alot worse than what these crappy pics show. My grandfather bought this car new in 1967. It was given to my cousin by my grandmother and I had to buy the fu#$%^g thing from him. Talk about depressing. Put every dime I have into this thing. Splurging big time to buy good quality stuff to get it running and this is what it does to me. I will never start a car with a carb without an air cleaner again. That was almost the worst day of my life. I guess it had a fuel leak. It was burning good enough to where it cracked the windshield. It also burnt all the wires in the damn thing. The car was trying to start while it was burning. The fire dept had to come and help put it out. Talk about 2 steps forward 30 steps back. Oh Well. Thanks for listening to me whine a little bit. Probably won't see me posting any progress on this site for a while. Don't know when I'll have the Cheese to get this started again. As it was going to be expensive before,....It's really gonna suck now. But it was my grand-dads so I can't just say no. Gotta do what you gotta do. Thanks guys. I feel a little better now. Heres some pics.
Bubba

[Way_Fast_Whitey]

I'll try and get some more pics if anyone really wants to see this up close.

[jeff s]

I had a fire in Cadillac Attack a few years ago. The cause was a backfire, which lit my carbon fiber air cleaner lid on fire. I had inadvertently left my extinguisher at home. Had my 2 kids in the car with me too.
Cracked windshield, melted inner fenders, shroud, harness, ac box etc. Took a year to put it back together.
sorry for your mis fortune, at least no one was hurt.

[Way_Fast_Whitey]

True. Thanks man.

[MrQuick]

Damn that sucks, at least it didn't get to the tank.
I make it a habit to reinstall the air filter. I've had several friends burn their cars down due to a bad back fire. Them old Edelbrock foam triangle air cleaners go up pretty good too. Hope you get it back together.

[Ralph LoGrasso]

Sorry to hear about the fire, Bubba. Hopefully you can rebuild it bigger and better in the future.

[yody]

yeah, just get over it and start looking at it for how it is, no point in dwelling on it now, just start your new plans and don't look back. Dwelling on things is the worst. When bad things happen to me, I am depressed for about a day, and then i look at it in a new light. Don't get all down on yourself, start making plans on how your gonna hook it up now. I had to pull my brand new motor in a brand new undercarriage(frameoff) after the cam went flat. Took the whole motor down to the bare block and redid the whole thing back up. But I put a solid roller in it, Road race oil pan, and an oil cooler setup. Ask Mrquick, one day I was like I was going to leave the car and never touch it again, next day I was getting ready to pull it and had all kidns of new plans.

[Steve Chryssos]

Wow that blows. Sorry. Best thing to do right away is strip off all the burnt parts. You'll feel instantly better about the car if you are not looking at the damage. And stripping the burnt parts off is free.
Good luck
/Steevo

[boodlefoof]

I almost had a fire in my Nissan last winter... fuel line worked itself half loose and smoke starts coming out from under the hood while I'm going down the highway! Fortunately, it didn't actually ignite and I was able to cool it down and cinch up the leak...

Good luck putting her back together. Will your insurance cover it?

[Jim Nilsen]

I had a fire in my 67 years ago and it was all because a guy gave me a Holley to replace my Qjet because he claimed the Holley would be ultimately better. It backfired and caught on fire with no air cleaner also. The neighbors called the fire dept. instantly. When they showed up they couldn't believe it was out.I had an old sweatshirt in the car and grabbed it as fast as I could and smothered the fire out with it. I didn't get burned badly but I didn't have any hair left on my arms either. I vowed never to put a Holley carb on a car again and haven't. I have had Qjets that have outperformed Holleys in every way since. I laughed the day that a bunch of guys tried to tell me that I couldn't have a Qjet on my car and get the throttle response I was getting until I opened the hood and showed them. Their problem was they didn't know a guy named Walt Gray who could get more out of a Qjet for the street than any Holley. He always claimed that Holley carbs were meant for drag racing and that was about it. No all around performance like you can tune a Qjet.

Sorry to hear and see the photos and I agree with Steve, pull all of the burned stuff off and take another look. You will feel a lot better and as Yody said move on . I actually think you will just be replacing a lot of problems that you might not believe you were going to have problems with in the future anyway. If it didn't have a new harness in it and it was old paint to start with you will be on the road to a better car that much sooner.

Think Katrina a few moments and say your prayers.

On another note be glad it is something you can fix , I am still glad I wear glasses and the backfire didn't take out my eyesight. I was starting the car from the soleniod while under the hood and it went up right in front of me. The fire singed my eyebrows but mostly went over my head fortunately.

Jim Nilsen

[Way_Fast_Whitey]

Thanks for all the motivation. I guess this s@#t happens all too often. I do like the idea about ripping all the burnt crap out. And it didn't have anything new in besides those parts I mentioned earlier. It still has the original 327 in it. I guess it was a sign to just make a bigger and better car. Is there anywhere I could ship that carb off to and have them totally re-do it. I don't really just want to throw that one away. Even if I can get something for it after I get it fixed. I dont want to see how far the fire went back into the firewall. I will definately keep you guys posted and pics up. Thanks again and keep the motivation coming. Here comes the LS-1 and the mini-tubs / 315's.
Oh yeah, I had no insurance. Of course.

[vanzuuk1]

Steve, you hit the nail on the head,remove all the burnt parts and compound off what you can.

[Smoke'm]

Hey Bubba I bought a pile of Camaro stuff the other day and you wont believe this but I just happen to have a complete wireing harness front bumper to the back bumper for a V-8 '68 coupe.

tell ya what pay for shipping and I will donate this to getting you back on the road, it needs a couple tailight sockets from your harness and you will be in buisness, they are pretty easy to install... a few hours and and some cussing and you can try to start her again.

[email protected]

Bud.

[Way_Fast_Whitey]

Hey Bud you got mail. Just wanted to say thanks in front of the crowd. You guys rule. I e-mailed the "carb shop" earlier to get a price on rebuilding my burned up carb. I'm sure it will be a real kick in the nuts. I still haven't started tearing it down yet. I will soon hopefully and will put some pics up for you guys.

[Way_Fast_Whitey]

I put some slightly bigger pics up. A little bit better.

[RobM]

i have a compleet stock used harness from a 67 its all in a box. if you want mine also. all you need to do is pay shipping and shes yours. i have some extra stuff ill donate as well i just have to look around. ill do what i can to get a fellow hot roder up and running.

[blackbeast]

i feel your pain. 2 winters ago, my carb also backfired, not very big really ( with a k&N open element) drove about 2 blocks, noticed smoke, thought maybe leaves or something on headers, but pulled over and saw a pool of gas in the bottom of my RPM airgap burning and scorching my HEI cap and a few plug wires. Tried to put it out with a shirt, but eventually ran into a dentist office to borrow a fire extinguisher. Ended up costing me $10 to refill the extinguisher, and a few bucks in an HEI harness. Could have been a lot worse. Good luck getting it back on the road

[CAMAROBOY69]

I am sooo sorry to hear about this!!! That is everyones worst nightmare. What insurance company did you have? If you had Hagerty they would have just wrote a check out for all the damage. Good luck repairing all the damage.
This just reminds me I HAVE to get a fire extinguisher!!!!
EDIT: I just read you didnt have insurance. :help!: CALL HAGERTY!

[bretcopsey]

I have a fairly straight flat hood if it turns out you need a replacement. You would only need to pay the shiping and it's yours.

[Way_Fast_Whitey]

Rob and Bret...Thanks alot for your guys help and interest. I have a harness on the way from Bud "Smoke'm". It should be here in a couple of days. We'll see how it goes. But that doesn't mean I won't hit you guys up later. Ha. I really do appreciate it though. I will definately bee carrying a fire extinguisher from here on out too. I was running around the apartment complex busting them out of those little glass boxes. 2 to be exact. I used all of one and it just kept going. Then I had to run and get another. Just to keep it to where it was at until the fire dept got there. Nevermind the glass in my elbow. Ha. That **** was just burning forever. I really have no idea how it didn't blow up. Guess my granddad was watching over it.

[zman1969]

(this is my 2nd attempt to contact last time 3/4 into my reply comp lost power and lost it all! :crying: ) anyway, sorry to hear of your fire- at least it didnt get it all!(like theres a silver lining in this) I had bought a 78Z that had a underhood fire while changing a carb(not as bad as yours est was like 2k)towed it home cut out all the burnt wires, cleaned up the carbon mess and sanded and painted firewall with good old Krylon 1613 semi-flat black it was looking good, after a trip to the junkyard and finding the approprite wiring it was up and running again, running GOOD until 6 mos later it was plowed into by a drunk illegal alien and totaled , so here comes a 80Z shell - towed home (is this getting old?) and a thrashing of swapping engine,trans,rear,interior, some suspension until it was up and running added new flomaster duals , new paint job, all was well till the son had a accident and it was totaled - now comes camaro#3 - again total drivetran and exhaust swap and 2 months later we find a 72 chevelle 4 speed - buh bye camaros :woot: now he's 20 and im done assisting on his projects but your allways a father ...... :Alchy:

oh i HAD a camaro flat hood that i would of donated but i sold it 4 or 5 months ago sorry - and good luck