Mounting Fire extinguisher on top of the tunnel

Erm, Ron,

if that car's built on a Beetle floorpan, that tunnel aint fibreglass but some serious steel! If you do go into the tunnel, you'll need to run a threaded tap in there so you can then screw the bracket down well enough to secure it there.

 

regards

 

Alan

Another good place is under the dash in front of the passenger seat.

Be careful putting a drill bit into carpet!

You shouldn't hit anything drilling in the top of the tunnel between the shifter and front bulkhead. The fuel line runs along the bottom, the clutch and throttle tubes run along the side.

 

Only concern might be if it'll interfere with your foot while driving.

Agreed with Rusty,

anywhere under the Dash with a good mounting to make certain it stays in the bracket and doesn't fall out accidently.. This way it's not in the way, it's an easy mount, and it's still accessible.

Here's what I did with mine.  One flip of my finger and it was was undone And ready to use.

It took several flicks of my finger and it still wouldn't come off so I used a cleanex...

 

That is exactly where mine is going to be mounted. I just bought a Halguard Clean Agent in the 1.4lb size. I hope that I never have to use it. And, if I do, I hope the hell it's enough! I don't want to be posting a picture of a fireball on the side of the freeway.

Tunnel top is fine. Set it down where you want and MAKE SURE YOU CAN REACH THE STRAP ON IT EASILY. Cut away with a rug knife a half-inch square of carpet around each hole-to-be. Drill them small and use a couple sheet metal screws to affix the hanging thingie that comes with your bottle. 

I mounted mine on top of the tunnel behind the E brake. Easy to reach and does not interfere with the shifter, brake, or my feet. 

I mounted a vertical piece of steel tubing about the diameter of a dime and half as long as the extinguisher to the top of the tunnel with a solid weld, then cut a one-inch section of pipe in half and welded that at an angle which allowed the extinguisher to lay at an incline. I welded a second piece of steel in, dished to allow the bottle to sit in it like a cradle and it is held in place with a stout rubber strap.

 

If I can figure out how to post a photo, I will. If not, maybe somebody here whose computer isn't this effin' stupid could hook a brother up one time. I think there are a couple pictures of it out there.

 

:-I

 

 

Cory-

 

Re: Posting photos-

 

Don't try to put them on this site. That's useless anyhow (nobody can look at your photos by just clicking on your user name). Just post them to photobucket, and link them here.

I put anything I'm going to post into "My pictures" in the computer and then add them to my post through the "add attachments" prompt below. I've found that works well.

Ron, I did exactly what you're thinking

about doing with no problems.  The post

about interfering with the gas pedal is

important.  Mine is awfully close.

 

What a giant PITA that was!

 

It's the computer I'm using, I'm almost convinced. It wouldn't even let me look through Photobucket without giving me a hard time about how it was "protecting" me from the evils of sites which host images.

 

Now, I would like to point out that this tiny little editing window in the middle of the screen is a bit asinine. That could change, and I'd welcome it. Along with the 'who the f*** is who,' aspect of this site.

 

I'm sure I know half of the people here (and most everybody on this thread, thankfully), but I'm equally sure I'm not going to ferret out the old site's denizens from people now using identities which have nothing to do with their names.

 

Side note -- Terry is the first guy who hired me into the workforce (back in about 1987 or so) and he's a wicked cool dude, if you guys ever get the chance to meet him.

 

Back to the extinguisher thing; before I changed out the seats, I took these pictures, which ought to have some relevance to the discussion.

 

The top of the bottle is resting in a cradle which is slightly bigger than the bottle's neck, and the cradle at the bottom was patterned from the bottle itself. The extinguisher can't slide up or down because of the surface adhesion of the rubber strap, but it'll be a cinch to pop it out of the strap in an emergency.

 

Between that, the racing belts and the emergency battery cutoff switch, those are probably the three most important nods to safety in the entire car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cory, call me sometime and I'll walk you through posting pics here.  It's actually much easier than it was on the old site.

Lane, I will do just that. Stan's Photobucket suggestion worked, but I had a devil of a time with the firehouse computers (which suck) and had to work around their system a bit.

As you know, I use my phone 90 percent of the time.

Back to extinguishers -- those of you using them, please do a couple things as routine maintenance.

First, occasionally take the bottle out and give it a good shake once in a while, the same as you would a spray-paint can. Once every six months is good.

The agent may clump if you don't, just because of its chemical makeup. Even out-of-date ABC extinguishers will work well enough to get you out of a burning car if the agent is powdery.

Second, please make sure the needle is in the green on your extinguisher's gauge. The pressure inside is what enables that thing to work -- so if you're like Dale and Greg and bought your extinguisher with your project in 1984, it might be time for a replacement.

Third, if you do need to use it, aim at the base of the flames. The agent's job is to remove oxygen from the tetrahedron (Oxygen, fuel, heat and flammable vapor must all be present for a fire to burn. Remove one of those things, and it'll go out.), so aiming at the flames does next to nothing.

Know what you're putting out, too, and with what. VeeDub cases made of magnesium act differently than cases made from aluminum when they're impinged. When the fire engine shows up and your case itself is on fire because your carburetor got mad, they may be able to put it out by smothering it with a class D or K agent, aircraft foam or any number of things that are more appropriate than your ABC -- but you'll have to know what they're up against and communicate that to them.

Really. YouTube happens when you don't.

Know where your fuel filter is, and if it's in your engine compartment, maybe think about relocating it someplace cooler. If you're a dual-carb person and your fuel line runs past moving metal (fan, specifically) or your belt ... Fasten it out of harm's way.

Not throwing stones at JPS, since it's up to each owner to look after what they've bought, but they're prone to the fuel line being pulled into the fan inlet and the chaffing that results tends to damage the lines in >5,000 miles.

Be safe out there.

Hey I resemble that remark - I have only had my Speedie project about 5 years!

I forgot to post these. This is how I mounted mine. It looks very clean under the dash.