First Welding Fire: close one!, dang near burned down my 14 on the lift Options

[Calwaterbear]

so I am welding sheet metal patches on the holes on my 72. I started thinking I had 6 holes, now I'm at 12, and will be rebuilding the bottom back 1/4th of the tunnel before I'm done with the welding.

Car is up on the lift, I'm welding between the rear of the pan, and the bottom of the firewall - Ironic , as it turned out.

So my left shoulder is getting hot - that seems odd. I stop welding, and there seems to be more smoke than normal. Luckily, since i had already cut out the bottom of the tunnel, I happen to see flames inside the cabin - weird, I have it stripped, and just got done painting it.

so now : shut down the welder, move it from under the lift, lift the lift a few inches, that allows me to pull the safety catch cables, then finally lower it down till I can see inside. full blown campfire on the floor.

Turns out I had left a nylon bag fiull of my rags inside, as well as a roll of masking paper and they were fully engulfed. Threw on the welding blanket, shut it down pretty quick, but it shook me up a bit. I guess I'm done for the night.

lesson learned, make sure i know whats on the other side of the weld,

I'll be back at it tommorrow, remove and redo the interior paint on the passenger floor, then back to welding, wiser and more carefull!

[Dion]

Sorry for your mishap. Glad to hear you had it controlled quickly.
Serves as a reminder to everyone. As I am guilty of keeping items in car while working on it. Yeah Metal heats up mighty quick.
Again glad all is well.

[amfab]

I too started a small fire the other day welding—almost the exact scenario.
I had a piece of foam that I was kneeling on while working on the back of the firewall.
I crawled out and into the passengers compartment and started tacking in a patch panel into the firewall and a couple sparks went through and landed on the foam. About 30 seconds later, I thought.. "hmm that doest smell like seam sealer",

I hopped out and saw a little campfire going underneath the engine compartment.
I yanked the foam out and stomped it out.
It really shakes you up


-Andrew

[My 914]

I'm glad you and your car are OK. Good lesson from your story though. Thanks for sharing it.

[Jeff Hail]

It happens to the best. Usually starts with ears, scalp, ankles and moves on to other things that burn.

Glad your ok. Be safe.

[DM_2000]

Get one ( or 2 ) of those stainless steel water filled fire extinguishers and keep it near by. These are great for those small nuisance fires when working on a car and unlike the powder type can be, refilled with water and a tire chuck, partially used and are easy to clean up after.

A regular large power fire extinguisher is a must if things get farther out of hand / live electrical circuits are involved ( over 48 V )

[Unobtanium-inc]

Early on I was once welding cross-legged, the book said to weld in comfortable position. One leg was getting really really hot.
Yup, pants on fire, but no liar!