OT - so long to a car

[tdrown]

Thursday morning on my commute to work my (now former) car, my late grandmother's 1990 Buick Century caught on fire. Besides a few recent events (which may or may not have related to the fire), it was always a good drive, comfortable, good gas economy, relatively low milage, reliable (except for that setting on fire thing). It was my first car and I've had her for 4 years now, it previously belonged to my Nana who used it for Church and groceries before she became homebound. No one was injured or hurt, traffic was slowed on a major highway during rush hour unfortunately (I-476, southbound at Plymouth Meeting Interchange). Cause of the fire is still unknown but we can only assume it was electrical due to the fact that the fire (which totaled the car) was on the cabin side of the firewall and that the power locks stopped working a week ago. Fortunately, I was able to pull to the side of the highway as soon as smoke started pouring through the vents. Soon after I popped the hood to look at the engine (which remained fine, even after the body of my car was charred) I noticed that smoke still poured out of the vents in the dash. It was then I noticed something drip down from under my steering wheel. My car was on fire.

The car was featured in at least 5 pictures in my building log of the Weekender (which going over I find many of the things that I wrote incomprehendable, a result of late night working and even later night typing)http://tyler.drown.org/build.html

On a happier note I am almost 3D on the dory that I'm building and I had a great time sailing and trying out my new cutter rig on Monday. I also made the very fortuitus decision of getting a mobile phone the afternoon before the fire. And loss of car part aside, I was able to witness one spectacular fire.

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[Frank Hagan]

Always sad when you lose your first car, even if you're trading it in on a new one.

At least you know it won't be mistreated by a new owner. And it went out in high style. Not everyone has a car that self-emolates, you know!

[tdrown]

this picture is what is left of the steering wheel. It used to be a thick vinyl thing.

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[capt jake]

At least you had a decent first car! Mine was 1974 Vega. Remember those, you older folks? ;) LOL One of Chevy's 'minor' mistakes........ Then ford took over in the mistake department.

[Guest]

We had a 1990 buick Lesabre supreme, 170,000 miles, the power module, where the plugs went into, melted and died. The cause of the problem was a lose battery, positive cable, side terminal, and shorted the system out. The care was in a shopping center parking lot, and happened upon starting up. The amount of electrical current that comes out of it, is a huge amount. My mechanic said I was lucky but I did not fix it. It would have cost 450 dollars. We got 28 MPG and never used a drop of oil. It had the 3.8 engine in it. The retail on the car was arond 1,000 and it would ahve taken around six hundred to fix it. It had the usual GM paint problem.

[Tom Holder]

At least you had a decent first car! Mine was 1974 Vega. Remember those' date=' you older folks? ;) LOL One of Chevy's 'minor' mistakes........ Then ford took over in the mistake department. [/quote']

Now, now, jake, I too had a Vega and it was a GREAT car. I had a Hooker Header kit that allowed me to squeeze a 327 into it. It was a genuine rocket. It went throught rear ends like crazy though - I never did get around to putting a proper 12 bolt in it. The engine outlasted the car though and went on to star in a Monza for a few more years.

My first car however was a beetle of many colours - my friends and I patched a bug together out of junkyards and dune buggies. It went for many a crop tour before it was replaced. Had the sunroof and the floor holes to eliminate the empties . . . ah the rash foolishness of youth.