[Spridgets] Really Bad day in the garage

[Larry Daniels]

Frank, you are way too funny.  If this wasn't so serious, it would be a 
riot.

You need to write for a comedian.

Looking forward to your next visit!


Larry




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From: "Frank" <spritenut at comcast.net>
Sent: Sunday, March 14, 2010 8:51 PM
To: "Spridgets" <spridgets at autox.team.net>
Subject: [Spridgets] Really Bad day in the garage

I started out doing the final buffing to my Sprite after it's paint job
which I thought was pretty good.
I found tiger stripes and something was on the buffing pad that made
deep swirl marks in the paint all over the rear deck.
So not much could be done except sand it all down and  repaint it if the
rain ever stops.
Bummer #1.
And the engine is all nice and rebuilt and painted and installed so I
had to plastic it up real good so I do not get any overspray on it.
Bummer #2
I went to remove the sway bar to clean it and paint it black before
installing the new links when one side dropped off the frame after I
undid the other side.
I had ripped it out but never new about it.
Oh I know when I did it. BABE Rally send off, I was leaving Staten
Island after the team took off for New Orleans when I hit a New York pot
hole at 55 mph and I thought it swallowed the Sprite. I blew out a shock
and busted a sway bar ling on the pot hole and fixed those things. But I
always had a clunk every now and then. Now I know what it was, ripped
out mounting bracket for the sway bar.
Bummer #3
So tonight while putzing with some small brackets, new air horns, and
stuff, I decide to clean the ribbed rubber inner door liners.
They cleaned up nice but were sort of permanently wrinkled from being
loose on the door skin over the years.
My bright idea was to set the powder coat oven to "warm" and heat the
mats and maybe lay them under some weight on a flat surface to iron them
back to flat.
So how hot is "warm" on an oven? My wife WARMS rolls in her oven, they
never toast so I figure "warm" should do it.
5 minutes later smoke is bellowing out of the oven, I open the door and
find flames, my door liners are burning up.
I can not blow out the flames, I turned off the oven and shut the door.
No good, black burning rubber smoke fills the upstairs of the garage and
I can't breathe.
I reach for the fire extinguisher and the pin does not pull out easily
so I grab pliers and rip out the pin, open the oven and pull the trigger.
Nothing! Nada! no squirt. So,  Oh Sheet! Now what?
I am choking on black smoke, can't breathe, open up a window and try to
breathe, run down stairs to grab another extinguisher but have to catch
my breath to make it back up the steps.
Grab a rag to put around my face, the upstairs looks like a tire plant
on fire with black smoke filling it up.
I think to myself, this is bad. I go up and pull the pin, squeeze the
trigger at the fire and the extinguisher works. It only took a split
second to kill the fire but the smoke was there to stay.
I opened all the windows, turned on 3 fans, opened the overhead door and
came in for a Bucca.
When I went back out, the smoke cleared but I lost my only set of ribbed
rubber door liners.
Bummer #4

Moral of the story, do NOT believe the gauge on your fire extinguisher,
mine read "good" in the green but it didn't do squat.
It was probably the one I got on sale from home effin DEFECT.
Guys, go buy a fire extinguisher from a fire house or gas supply company.
If this defective extinguisher was my only one, I would have a really
big mess on my hands since a rubber fire is not easy to put out.
It could have been a fuel fire or paint supplies, or the interior of my car.
Check your equipment and have a back up. PLEASE!
I still have 2 extinguishers in the garage even after using one and
finding the dead one. I have a couple in the house too.

-- 
Frank Clarici
Toms River, NJ
My own Fleet of Sprites
Suggested annual donation  $12.75
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