Today was beautiful, sunny and low 70's. I take the vette out for a small drive as as greeted not so pleasently with an electrical fire behind the dash. I am so pissed it isn't even funny.

Fortunetly, the house I stopped by had a fire extinguisher (add one inside your vette if you don't already have one) and the firemen that came to the car were super cool (didn't want to just douse the entire car with water, as the fireman was a bit of a car guy). Other than pissed off, I am totally fine.

Going back to survey the damage, it actually doesn't look as bad as the word "fire" conjures up. Looks like my fairly quick action with the fire extinguisher prevented a larget amount of damage. The winshield is toast, dash pad and winshield frame pads are toast. The speedo/tach mounts are melted. Steering column and steering wheel are fine, carpet and door panels are fine, as is the center instrument cluster. My biggest concern was damange to the VIN tag (as the fire was right around there. The tag is readable, but has a nice charred layer on top of it).

I'll post some pics soon.

Heh, anyone want to buy a slightly toasted '71 LT-1 (I'm only half kidding at this point, I kinda sick over it right now).

Alex

 

Thats sucks.

 

fire ex + battery quick disconnect you may be able to stop the fire before it starts (smell smoke? disconnect battery!!)

 

that really sucks but the main thing is that you are OK. really it is.

 

Document what happened. Pictures, insurance claims, fire department report. If you can explain why the vin plate looks a little different it isn't as bad. Any idea how the fire started?

 

I have an fire extinguisher in mine, I would hate to just watch it burn on the side of the road, even though it is insured, that would suck

 

Glad to hear your Okay. There was a post recently about who carries fire extinguishers. Quite a few replied they don't think they are of any use. Glad one was available could of been much worse.

Kona

 

i always carry an extinguisher... but that could possible be because i have murphy's law hanging over my head ESPECIALLY with this vette...
what can go wrong... will...

good to hear you are ok

 

I don't have one, but maybe it would be a good idea to get one. Anyone have a suggestion on which one to get?

 

i have a recreational kiddie extinguisher... it was 17 bucks from wal-mart and is for small electrical as well as small chemical fires... aka gas and old wires... just the things we need!

it is small enough to mount in the back that won't interfere with the t-tops or anythign but has enough in it to put something out...

 

Thanks, I'll check it out.

 

It looks like a short in/by the headlight switch. I don't know if the problem was with the switch itself or the wiring up to it. I've run the car several times over the summer, but because of daylight savings time, this was the first time I had the headlights on (headlights were working fine).

Overall cost of the damage is close to my insurance deductable (probably within $500-$600 of it), so I I'm debating on bypassing them completely, we'll see as I pull things apart. I am in the process of getting the fire department report....

I've always been told "experience is the best teacher", well, that is especially the truth here. I wish the school of hard knocks wasn't so hard sometimes. Battery cut-off (~$20) and fire extinguisher (~$20) from now on...

 

The light switch seems to be a bad design, it sees the full current (amps) and gets real hot. Some forum members have wired a relay to it so it just turns the relay on and off and see less current.