from the ashes

[markswagen]

so today this happened.
the wife's favourite vehicle she's ever owned l think.
this was bella, 1990 carat, auto

this one is called bobbi, 1984 with a factory 5 speed.

with luck in a couple of weekends she'll become an auto, and get bella's old {18 month old} power steering rack, the whole front suspension and brakes, all recently rebuilt
_________________
markswagen {mobile mechanic} san diego area all early VW's cared for.

619 201 0310

[RoryGirl]

RIP Bella

[E1]

OH NO, Sorry to see this, Mark!
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‘84 Westy, 2.1L with Digijet, 5.43 R+P, GT Gears
"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere."
— Colin Chapman

[Abscate]

Oh crap. Let us know if you need parts/help or whatever.
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.ssS!

[dhaavers]

Damn, that sucks.

Circumstances? Any clues to the cause?

- Dave
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86 White Wolfsburg Westy Weekender
"The WonderVan"
<EDITED TO PROTECT INNOCENT PIXELS>

[Steve M.]

Recycling, it works!
_________________
This free advice is worth exactly what you paid for it.

There are seven days in a week. Someday is not one of them.

[markswagen]

thank you, but no, l got this covered, the donor van is now sat safe, aaiting dismantling, her replacement, well, she's at the top of the hill here, as the city is digging up the street, and l don't want our neighbours more pissed than they need be, so the vanagon fleet is spread about.

[sanchius]

Arg, sorry to see this happen, Bella was a beautiful van.
Good luck with the resurrection.
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The Syncro years (2005-16) - The 2WD years (2017-23) - Westy & WBX rebuild spreadsheet - Sanchius & Tuna: The Video
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[dobryan]

So sorry. That just sucks!
_________________
Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2002 Subaru EJ25 and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646

Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794

[4Gears4Tires]

I'm so sorry that happened. I had an e30 burn down over a decade ago and I still miss that car. I run a blazecut in my Vanagon for this very reason. It's zip tied to the bottom of my engine cover.

https://gowesty.com/products/blazecut-fire-suppression-system
_________________
'87 Syncro
Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition

[DanHoug]

[calsurf]

Wow, that's terrible. Hopefully & thankfully there wasn't any injuries that was mentioned. Still that had to be a shock for your wife.

[markswagen]

i had a 12' blazecut in there, there's one in lucy also.
a waste of $

[Shonandb]

[markswagen]

there was a 12' blazecut in there, and two other motorists stopped that had fire extinguishers, it still wasn't enough.

[MsTaboo]

Such a bummer .

Saw the additional pics in your gallery. A few questions.
Did the fire department pry out the driver's D pillar, and what happened to the nose over the radiator?

Also, did the Carat still have the original foam engine lid liner? I have a pet theory that the foam contributes to a hotter fire because the stuff is so flammable. I replaced mine with a metal foil backed insulation and taped the seams with metal tape.

Best of luck with the new ride!
_________________
Currently:
'90 Syncro Westy 3 knob w/Zetec

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[E1]

I really hate this thread, because Mark is such an absolutely awesome guy.

I kinda thought we may start discussing prevention. I hesitated to, "after the fact," but since others have it's probably a good discussion for all readers, so...

We have:
— A Blazecut
— A stock-sized extinguisher
— A stove fire bottle
— Two Element 100s

Honestly? I've been too lax on this horror. Ignorance is Bliss... until it isn't, and it could happen to any of us.

One of my goals, had we been racing as planned, was to work with an onboard fire extinguisher manufacturer, as is standard fare in race cars.

If anyone wants to collaborate on enticing a manufacturer to design a Vanagon-specific system, complete with a cockpit trigger button, let's discuss more seriously. It's easy to post about, but the concept really should be looked into much more seriously.

I know one of the owners of the Element system a little, from racing (he owns a former Greg Moore car, a late comrade of mine), and am enticing him into our thinking more about all this... that system is very interesting in that, to my limited understanding, it deprives the fire of oxygen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdWZmsRwQ94

After surviving a total-loss barrel rollover off a cliff, two tranny rebuilds on two buses, and an engine swap, all while living in these things, fire just freaks me into absolute, ignorant submission. I can barely even think of it.

So Sorry Mark, despite your great recovery stance.
_________________
‘84 Westy, 2.1L with Digijet, 5.43 R+P, GT Gears
"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere."
— Colin Chapman

[markswagen]

they made the mess, the radiator was only a couple of years old, they cut the rear of the van, the flames coming out the vents led them down there.
l have no idea why they went in the front, but they destroyed the radiator while they were there

[markswagen]

Eric, l honestly don't think anything you have on board with you currently would do any good, those elements may, but if you have anything over the top of the engine compartment, the time it would take to get that stuff out of the way, would give the fire long enough to take a proper hold, then there's the noticing the fire in the first place, my wife didn't notice, she was in traffic, a car behind her saw the flames coming out, she had no idea.
l've looked at those race car systems in the past, maybe a 5lb bottle would do it, a 10lb l would hope would, but where do you put them.
l think prevention is better.
someone posted up there, that likely it would have been the plastic manifolds that the injectors plug into, thinking about that, l agree, so l have just ordered two pairs of the aluminum ones from RMW, one for the engine in her new van, and one for burni, ALL the stock plastic manifolds, will be going in the trash next time l go out to my garage, l likely have more than a dozen pairs.

[jimf909]

Here's looking forward to bobbi's build!

I once attempted to use Westy sized fire extinguisher (1-A:10-B:C - see below for what that means) to put out a VW Rabbit that was on the side of the road and on fire. The owner of the car retreated 30' away so I didn't bother getting close to open the hood so effectiveness was minimized. The fire extinguisher slowed the fire briefly but it resumed after the extinguisher was empty. Since then I doubled the size of the fire extinguisher in the van but I doubt even that will put out a gas fire if you can't remove the engine cover and get the extinguisher directly at the fire.

Fire fighters show up in fire resistant gear. Many of us will be wearing flip-flops, shorts and synthetic shirts. Not stuff to wear when opening the hatch, removing the engine lid and activating a fire extinguisher. Even pointing the extinguisher in the license plate won't be ideal.

https://www.guardianfireprotection.com/blog/numbers-fire-extinguisher/