Car go BOOM!

“My parents' Ford Windstar just blew up this evening. Literally. The front end is melted and/or powdered, and there's something to be said for all steel engines versus aluminum/magnesium alloys that go "fwoop!" in blue-white flames when they hit the right temperature. Luckily no one was injured. It's going to be a challenge cleaning up all the debris of glass and metal bits in the grass and driveway. I figure a wet/dry shopvac is the way to go, since this was in an area both my daughter and my parents' dog frequents. I get to take my mom to and from her classes tomorrow, while my dad takes her car. Fun. Guess I'll be helping them look for a new used van for them, too. At least they're okay. But I have one hell of an adrenaline buzz going now, and I don't like adrenaline.”

“Wow, glad I sold mine, lol...”

“Yeah it was a '96, 180k + miles on it. My Dad was ticked because he just had the battery replaced a few days ago and had just put $35 of gas in it not 15 minutes before.”

“Sheesh! That would get my adrenaline running! Glad everyone is okay.”

“Mine was a '96 too, but with about half that many miles on it.”

“Ugh! And a bunch of those words that Matt doesn't allow on TT.”

“Wow!
Tree-- glad to hear everyone's okay... how the heck did it blow up?! That sounds very scary!”

“Uh...I hope the Hell's Angels didn't mistakenly target you. Joke.

Actually happened in our city a few years back...some poor soul lost both his legs when some idiot Hell's Angel wannabe,placed a bomb under his car. The real target had the same coloured and make/model car....only about 6 houses down.

Anyways, U probably know...Ford stands for

Fix
Often
Repair
Daily”

“Found
On
Road
Dead

The sure way to tell if an unknown part is made by General Motors is to smell it. GM parts will smell of alcohol.”

“Well, it looks like it may have been an electrical problem. They got home last night from Barnes and Noble and both thought they smelled something burning but thought it's from the neighbors house. Five minutes later, my mom starts to check her email and my dad starts screaming to call 911, the vans on fire. It looked like it was going to go out on its own, but it hit that magic temperature number where the magnesium alloy engine components ingited, and it was a blue white flame that burned the car hood out of exhistence, shattered the glass and melted other pieces of glass into neat shapes. The windshield actually delaminated, so you can see the individual layers of glass separating. Very cool. Very smelly, too. It still reeks.”

“Photos
http://www.humanpackmule.com/carfire.htm

Still waiting for a claims adjustor to come out. Gawd that thing smells horrible.

I'm just glad they were home and not in the car on the road somewhere when this happened.
last edited: 10/31/04 7:41:30 PM”

“Looks like a total loss to me...”

“Ya think?
lol.”

“If I still had my Windstar, I'd buy a couple of the rims off ya. But I don't, thank God...”

“I've already been looking to scavenge parts from it for my 48 ford. The two middle seats were in the garage and I think I can use them but I'll have to wait and see what the insurance guy tells my inlaws first though.”

“Man that looks nasty! Couldn't believe the height of those flames. Glad no one was hurt, other than having to change underwear.”

“Ahhhh .... a little paint here ... a new fan belt there ... she'll be good as new!”

“Hope the flames didn't melt the asphalt. Just think if you had your backpacking gear in the trunk....yikes.”

“Not asphalt, concrete, about 25 years old at that. A section'll have to be dug up and repoured, no biggie. That section of driveway already had problems from when a tree service removed a large hickory and dropped big a$$ chunks of the trunk on the concrete, which shattered from the impact. Nice.”

“well, there's some excitement for ya! glad you guys are all alright!”

“Well, they FINALLY came and towed the burned out hulk away today. I happened to pass it going the other way on one of the main thoroughfairs here. It was strapped to the back of a towtruck, shedding bits and pieces as the driver sped down the road. Glad I'm not following it. Dad and I swept up most of the guff in the driveway, scraped up what we could, and I put down cat litter on the oil spots. Tomorrow I use a shop vac to get up all the glass and fibrous insulation that spilled into the grass. Yeah, vacuuming the lawn. There's excitement for ya!”

“Hopefully, some joker won't get a pic of you doing that, lol...”

“That'd actually be funny.

When I was a kid my dentist lived across the street from us. His wife would be outside, vacuuming the sidewalks around their house. At least once a week.”

“???

Didn't she hear of a broom and/or rake?”