Cars you have owned :where are they now?

I learned the trades of the road,
late 70's, on an Impala of the Sixties , a rust bucket.
Drove it into the ground. Then got a Mazda GLC
(manual transmission - much more fun) which I totalled
rather fast(my only serious accident) then drove a
Honda Accord (late 70's model) for a while but wanted to
get serious: first a 68 Firebird for two years (sold it
to a friend but never knew what he did with the car) then
a 75 240 Z Datsun (now Nissan - which I got rid to a
collectioner) then an 87 5.0 V8 Ford Mustang. Sold
it as I moved back to Europe.

In Europe, I bought the 91 Ford Escort RXi , than for
budget reasons bought a crappy Nissan sunny from the
sister-in-law but that only gave me problems. I am
getting rid of my Rover 216 to get the new 1,8 Saab 93 .

Although European cars are more fun to drive, I must
say that I have not had that many good experiences,
yet.

Do you know where the car battery is in a VW Beetle? Beetles are funny cars. They have the engine at the back instead of the front, and they have the battery under the back seat You can pull out the seat part if you want to get at the battery.

The journey was going along fine all morning. The two ladies were sitting in the back. As we were getting toward noon, we had to travel over some pretty bumpy road so the people in the back bounced around a lot. Unfortunately, the lady sitting on top of where the battery was not the type you could call slim and light weight, if you understand what I mean. 

 Around lunch time we got hungry, and since we had brought along some lunch, I found a shady spot in a school yard to pull off the road so we could eat. It was just as we pulled to a halt that we noticed the smoke pouring out from under the back seat. "Everybody out, Quick! " We all leaped out of the car and started pulling the baggage off the back seat out onto the ground. Just as it was all out, the worst thing happened -the seat burst into flames.

I stood there, watching my car on fire, and thought to myself, "Well, there it goes. I have lost the car. It will burn completely now and there is nothing we can do. "But Raphael wasn't thinking that way at all. He was brave and clear headed, and he knew that you can pull the bottom part of the back seat right out of a Beetle, so he went right inside the burning car, grabbed the seat by a part that wasn't burning yet,and pulled with all his might The seat came out and he threw it away from the car. Then he jumped inside again and beat out the flames still coming from the battery with his shoes.

Well, the car was saved. He grabbed the fire extinguisher from the front seat and went to put out the burning backseat. He got that out too, but meanwhile, it had started a grass fire. Christmas is in the dry season and there was a lot of tall dry grass around that had started burning merrily.

We three ladies had wakened up by this time so we got some big sticks and a couple of pieces of iron sheeting lying around and started beating at the burning grass, until we got all the fire put out at last. At this point we decided to have lunch. There is nothing like having something to eat while you are deciding what to do. SO we ate, and I was wondering if the car would still go. The next thing we had to do was inspect the damage.

The battery had a hole burned in the top of it. It must have caught fire when the metal springs of the seat came in contact with the terminals during the bumpy ride.

http://www.faithissues.ca/Kids/MissionaryStories/CarCaughtFi re.asp 

And lastly, there is a known problem with the connection of the line to the carb. Many a VW has burned to a charred shell because of this. The brass fitting to which the fuel line attaches on the carb is just pressed in to the carb body, just above the bowl. Often, this fitting pops off and the pump floods fuel all over the top of the engine block. In the running engine, it is sucked up into the fan and creates ample fumes. The fuel also will drip down over the heads and hot exhaust manifolds and POOF!. Gravity insures a steady flow of fuel to feed the fire once the rubber lines burn through. Pretty scary. http://www.thebugshop.org/bsfqfuel.htm

Sythguy wrote:

Cheap shock therapy or: Overweight passenger with a flaming buttocks!!! Not to mention the fuel-spewing snake-like hoses!! I love it! Great stuff.

Hey Synth, everything I told you that happens in the
VW is absolutely truth, I'm a personal witness of the
problem with the seat, because of this common problem
they started after 1974 to put a plastic cap over the
positive (red) pole of the battery.

The other two problems were very often and I'm also
sure about that because my father was Sales Manager of VW
in Perú for many years, so he warned me aboout those
problems, he even asked the mechanic to place a metal
ring around the hose to secure it.

This problems never existed while my country imported
VW from Germany, I can't remember if my bug was 72 or 73
so I'm not sure if it was Peruvian or Brazilian,

After I read your comments I checked the net and
 found the exact case that happened in my car's back
seat:

<P align=left ="Childrens">Do you know where the car battery is in a VW Beetle? Beetles are funny cars. They have the engine at the back instead of the front, and they have the battery under the back seat You can pull out the seat part if you want to get at the battery. <P align=left ="Childrens">The journey was going along fine all morning. The two ladies were sitting in the back. As we were getting toward noon, we had to travel over some pretty bumpy road so the people in the back bounced around a lot. Unfortunately, the lady sitting on top of where the battery was not the type you could call slim and light weight, if you understand what I mean.  <P align=left ="Childrens"> Around lunch time we got hungry, and since we had brought along some lunch, I found a shady spot in a school yard to pull off the road so we could eat. It was just as we pulled to a halt that we noticed the smoke pouring out from under the back seat. "Everybody out, Quick! " We all leaped out of the car and started pulling the baggage off the back seat out onto the ground. Just as it was all out, the worst thing happened -the seat burst into flames. <P align=left ="Childrens">I stood there, watching my car on fire, and thought to myself, "Well, there it goes. I have lost the car. It will burn completely now and there is nothing we can do. "But Raphael wasn't thinking that way at all. He was brave and clear headed, and he knew that you can pull the bottom part of the back seat right out of a Beetle, so he went right inside the burning car, grabbed the seat by a part that wasn't burning yet,and pulled with all his might The seat came out and he threw it away from the car. Then he jumped inside again and beat out the flames still coming from the battery with his shoes. <P align=left ="Childrens">Well, the car was saved. He grabbed the fire extinguisher from the front seat and went to put out the burning backseat. He got that out too, but meanwhile, it had started a grass fire. Christmas is in the dry season and there was a lot of tall dry grass around that had started burning merrily. <P align=left ="Childrens">We three ladies had wakened up by this time so we got some big sticks and a couple of pieces of iron sheeting lying around and started beating at the burning grass, until we got all the fire put out at last. At this point we decided to have lunch. There is nothing like having something to eat while you are deciding what to do. SO we ate, and I was wondering if the car would still go. The next thing we had to do was inspect the damage. <P align=left ="Childrens">The battery had a hole burned in the top of it. It must have caught fire when the metal springs of the seat came in contact with the terminals during the bumpy ride. <P align=left ="Childrens">ryStories/CarCaughtFire.asp">http://www.faithissues.ca/Kid s/MissionaryStories/CarCaughtFi re.asp

Most important is the method of retaining the new battery, which will be larger than the original. Loose batteries flopping around under VW rear seats have been known to short out and start fires. Don't even consider tempting fate by leaving the battery loose. _from.htm"> http://www.clubvw.org.au/archive_of_previous_stories_from .ht m

<FONT face="Comic Sans MS">And lastly, there is a known problem with the connection of the line to the carb. Many a VW has burned to a charred shell because of this. The brass fitting to which the fuel line attaches on the carb is just pressed in to the carb body, just above the bowl. Often, this fitting pops off and the pump floods fuel all over the top of the engine block. In the running engine, it is sucked up into the fan and creates ample fumes. The fuel also will drip down over the heads and hot exhaust manifolds and POOF!. Gravity insures a steady flow of fuel to feed the fire once the rubber lines burn through. Pretty scary. http://www.th ebugshop.org/bsfqfuel.htm <P align=left ="Childrens">