Okay.... I guess I can share this... it's been a LONG time since it happened.

When I was in High School, my first car was a 1959 Ford. What an ugly beast. But, hey... the price was right. I pulled the engine, bored that 292 V8 out and blueprinted it. Topped it off with an Offenhauser 3 Deuce manifold from JC Whitney and 3 carbs built from a box of old parts, and built my own progressive linkage from scratch. Saw that cool looking "clear" fuel line in JC Whitney.... thought it was awesome.... so I had to have it.

The stuff s u c k e d. It dried out, became brittle, and slowly lost its sealing ability. But I didn't know that. I was in my "raging hormone years".

I went to a practice session (I was a lead guitarist in a "rock" band), trying to be cool with my 3 Deuces... and the hose came off one of the carbs....dumped fuel all over the top of the engine. The engine was quite hot.... I guess I was driving a little fast. It caught fire just as I parked.

Some woman across the street came out her front door and started screaming and flipping out.. and she went back inside and called the fire department.

So what did I do???

I took off my coat and threw it on top of the engine and then jumped on top of the coat to put the fire out. Dang I loved that engine... my first born. LOL

Sometimes I wonder how I made it this far.