New Zealand Datsun Club

Just scared the shit out of myself...
Putting my 1600 together, been putting some big hours into getting this thing going for queens birthday weekend, maybe I'm getting tired or whatever but just did something so dumb!
Hooked up the battery to see what electrics work and what don't, the inlet manifold and carbs are off ATM, the fuel tank
Is empty but there must be a bit of fuel still in the pump/lines, so I'm cranking it over and unbeknownst to me it is squirting petrol out onto the passenger side inner guard, then the ballast resistor which is by now glowing red hot lights her up and holy shit there are flames everywhere!
Tying to blow it out and it just keeps getting bigger, at that stage I hadn't even twigged what caused the fire, now panicking like fuck, remembered I have two fire extinguishers in the shed, lucky because the first be I grabbed didnt work, the second one put it out straight away thank god. Big dry powder mess to clean up but amazingly it doesn't look like it has caused any damage at all. Brand new paint and everything.
I can't believe this happened, especially after there was talk of engine bay fires here a few days ago. Never thought it would happen to me though!
Definitely going to new carrying a 2kg extinguisher in the car when it's going, was a bit of a wake up call. Don't do dumb shit like me!

mate, glad you and the car are ok, so easy to have a lapse in concentration like this when doing big hours to get things finished. fire extinguisher for the win.

Close call mate, glad you are alright, and damage was kept to a minimum.

Fire extinguisher should be within a few metres of your pride & joy through out the entire build process for sure. Good on you for having the safety gear nearby & presence of mind to get to it quickly. blowing on a hot pie doesn't really work, so expect blowing on flames don't do feck all either.... and hard to do while you are screaming "f@ck, f@ck, f@ck, f@ck......"

I am sure we are all guilty of losing focus on occasions, easily done when you are doing ten things at once, and pre-planning the next ten things we intend to do in our heads..... you may have read my EFI near disaster in that thread a few days ago, done heaps of other stupid shit too, like dropping things (like Brand new parts..), breaking things, shearing bolts & screws from over-zealous tightening, cutting into newly manufactured main hard brake line, starting motors with a socket wrench still on main crank bolt, having cars fall off axle stands, not drilling holes on heads for oil passage on Late model heads on early model A12 blocks... (learnt that lesson 3x times! ah Bart!)... and various other dumb stuff, that has resulted in me tossing my tools around, and storming out of the garage, and calling it quits for the day....

Still, if you are like me you spend literally hundreds & hundreds of hours working on Datsuns on an annual basis, so we can be forgiven for a few seconds of madness / stupidity now and again....

Hope the light of day confirms minimal damage, and you get back on track

Close call buddy! Good shit about the fire extinguishers in the garage! I too have a smaller 1kg one in the Datsun and one in each car I own/drive.

We all do stupid shit (like literally dropping an engine into a freshly painted engine bay!). It keeps us on our toes!

holy "fire extinguisher" batman

Must be a 1600 thing them fires, had an incident with some flammable foam stuffed somewhere it shouldnt of been myself. Brought two brand spanker extinguishers even though i dont plan on repeating.

Sounds like your making some progress

I also have a spare pair of those chrome strips between for the rear/quarter window for you if you want them.

Without the means to put it out, even the smallest of fires can be front page bad news!
Glad to hear all was not lost!!!

Yes we'll I'm glad that's behind me. Hopefully not to be repeated. Was probably just the right balance of being serious enough to teach me a lesson without major damage

sr1600 wrote:holy "fire extinguisher" batman

Must be a 1600 thing them fires, had an incident with some flammable foam stuffed somewhere it shouldnt of been myself. Brought two brand spanker extinguishers even though i dont plan on repeating.

Sounds like your making some progress

I also have a spare pair of those chrome strips between for the rear/quarter window for you if you want them.

Car has had many many hours into it since you last saw it mark, although not much different to look at. What chrome strips are they? What I do still need is a interior door armrest/pull handle thing if you ever found one?

Been in another world the last week, a small series of events starting friday lead to a healthy but small dude arriving on Saturday evening.

Brought a spare pair of rear doors that have the strip down between the rear windows in chrome and i already have a set on the car.

Congrats dude! Awesome! Hope mum and the boy ok.
You might as well put a cover over the 1600 and forget about it for a year.

nzdatman wrote:Congrats dude! Awesome! Hope mum and the boy ok.
You might as well put a cover over the 1600 and forget about it for a year.

Everything he said!