Almost had my worst fears come true tonight

[Lee Dove]

As many of you know I had my car painted not long ago. Then the repaired side sill covers started showing corrosion again.

Well, I bought the after market fiberglas side sill covers from Viper Parts Inc. (Lot's of problems ordering, and with the quality)But, that's another story..

Anyway the second set they sent me(2 and a half months later was at least usable so, I had the body shop prep, paint and put them on my car. (all heat shields in place)

Anyway they have been on for about 4 months now. I've always smelled them after shutting the car off but, no problems. At least till today.

I drove the car about 40 miles to pick up a few last min. gifts, Had to sit in quite a bit of traffic for about 15 min. Then pulled in the shopping center and parked.

When I got out I could see smoke coming from the passenger side, Ran around looked and you guessed it......

The side sill cover was on fire....Oh Sh*t!

These covers have the vent slots cut out on the bottom just like factory pieces and you could see the fire through those. A lady in the parking lot saw me trying to blow the fire out(LoL) and ran in a store and got a fire extinguisher.

From under the car through the slots I shot the whole thing in there. Guess What?

It flared right back up, So I ran into another store and took their Fire ex. and tried it again( No luck )

Ran into a Taco Bell, took the trash can out of the bathroom and put as much water as I could get from the sink(not much, Can to big) and dumped that on the sill.

It helped but, continued to burn....Ran back to Taco Bell found a big coffee can someone had been using for cigarette butts filled it and 5 trips later fire was out.

Funny thing is after inspecting the damage, It is all on the underside of the sill cover and can't be seen unless you get under car. So, I got lucky this time But my advice is stay away from the after market Fiberglas sill covers as Dodge made them aluimnum for a reason.

Now, I have to go clean my shorts....

 

[JimDavis MT 97GTS 650R]

YIKES! Close call Lee. Never underestimate the value of a "on board" fire extinguisher. Taco Bell might not be so handy next time! Stupid Question: Did you have the inside of the side sills coated with anything, or the pipes wrapped with heat tape etc?

 

[Lee Dove]

Yea Jim, I have the pipes wraped at the bends and the inside has VHT.......Didn't help

 

[TOOOFST]

Heartattack.
Cats or not,Lee?Shouldn't happen without cats.Sorry to hear.

 

[JimDavis MT 97GTS 650R]

Lee, I was advised not to wrap the pipes under the sills because of possible fire problems. I never did it, so I don't know if there is any validity to it or not. You might check with Jon B.

 

[Ron]

<FONT face="Comic Sans MS">Sean Roe sells a nice extinguisher that mounts to your front passenger seat bolts.......</FONT f>

 

[Steve-Indy]

The only side sill fire that I have personally seen to date was on a GTS that was running VERY rich for track purposes. Lee, do you think this could contribute to your circumstance? GLAD that there was no major damage. (except, of course, to your shorts).

 

[GTS Dean]

Pardon me, but does anyone else here see a basic problem with putting body panels manufactured with flammable resins in dangerously close proximity to extremely hot catalytic convertors? This is a VIPER for chrissakes, not a friggin' dune buggy.

ABC fire extiguishers are fine for killing a fire, but typically don't do a very good job of removing heat from the source. Therefore, flare-ups are common.

This is the sort of situation (and also burning rubber) where plenty of good-ol' water, or a large CO2 extinguisher (which gets very cold) are best used. However, when your Viper is on fire, use whatever is handy.

 

[JonB]

I wonder if Lee had OEM cats? Wrapping the pipes damages the pipes.....and creates a WICK EFFECT which probably maintained the burn.

Dodge examined and initially used glass/resin sills in 88-90 PPVs and found the same thing. Lutz took David E Davis and other journalists for rides, and the sills caught fire, back in 1990. It was mentioned in Automobile Mag back then !

That is why T.V. when to (very expensive) aluminum sills.

IF you have a non-street application, with HF cats (or no cats) and a HF exhaust, the sills run MUCH cooler.

AutoForm early on discovered the same problem, and switched years ago to a more expensive heat-resistant resin. We has sold several sets, with only minor bottom-paint-below-cat bubbling on ONE set after a long, hard event.

 

[Butch The Snake]

Holy smokes lee thank God you got the fire out I will install a fire extiguisher in my car now. Stay cool

---------------
Yellow GTS 01
Ballanger Headers
Ballanger Exhaust
Toofst Airbox
S & B Filters
Smooth Tubes
Roe Calibrator
Short Shifter
11.9 e.t.@120 m.p.h.

 

[Lee Dove]

Yes, the stock cats are still on the car(not going to be there after today)

I had only wrapped the front bends in the pipes because that seemed to be where they got the hottest.

I think once the cats are gone, It won't happen again.....

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by JMcGuire:
Why are they so expensive? I mean, they're a big piece of shaped aluminum. What's so special about that? (Go easy on me, I don't even know enough about this to recognize whether it's a dumb question...)

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Not a dumb question. Last I heard they were going for 4K EACH! If that's true, I'm going to talk to a classic cars body shop about what they might be able to do. It's hard for me to believe that a good sheetmetal fabricator/bodyman couldn't form aluminum cheaper than 4K.

 

[GTS Dean]

The problem is low volume and high tooling cost. Besides the floor pans, the seatback panel, and the inner rocker panels, the exhaust covers are the only stamped parts of any consequence on the whole car.

I can see expensive, but not THAT bad. Unless of course, everyone is now being punished at the retail parts counter for all the warranty sills that have been replaced by DC over the last 7+ years.

Maybe if 500 of us decided to order a pair of new sills at the same time, DC could cut us a better deal on a volume run. And while we're at it - how about hoods?

OK, who's in?

 

[Bill 96 GTS]

I heard they were hydroformed due to the size and shape with all the curves and that DC pays a royalty for each one made via the special process. If the above isn't true, it still makes a good story. Anyone else heard this? Tis true?

 

[Vic]

I'm in with GTS Dean.

It would be a great idea to have some parts to keep our classics running, after Dodge drops certain parts off their line.