Saw a bunch of different designs for sale on the internet, but they all looked pretty flimsy and designed for mini 2.5lb fire extinguishers. Since I'm interested in protection for more than a cigarette fire, I decided to make mine out of some slightly beefier 1/4" mild steel.

I don't have mig gas yet so this was all done using flux core (hence all the splatter)

The fire extinguisher is a 7lb Halon 1211 with a flexible nozzle.

Roll bar clamps are 2" exhaust clamps welded to welded to a 1/4" steel plate. Roll bar is from Autometer 4-pt.

Retaining pin used to be a bolt, I cut it short and ground it smooth with an angle grinder, then drilled a retaining hole for the hair pin clip











Some silicone hose and a cut piece of scrap APS pipe was used to protect the roll bar's paint. Some strips foam window sealer protect the fire extinguishers paint.

Right now I'm using screw clamps but I have some thicker T-bolt clamps on the way, once those arrive I'll swap them out since the T-bolt clamps look much much stronger.

No extinguisher is 100% guaranteed to put out a car fire since there are so many different types, but at least with a halon, your chances are higher of winning.

I also have a mini 2.5lb sodium bicarbonate extinguisher behind my seat but that's only if the halon fails, I'd hate to have to clean up the dry chem afterwards.

The relocated battery in my passenger side bin also has a circuit breaker to help in case the fire is electrical in nature.

 

Nice work. There have been a couple of write ups lately about fires that have had me thinking about upgrading my extinguisher. I have an old dry chem one in the passenger storage bin. about same size as yours. It is old but the pressure gauge says it is still charged.

But it is a dry chem... halon, you say?

 

I hope you never need it, but you're set if you do.

 

Very nice work!

 

Beautifully done!

 

If it were me, I would seriously look at moving to a Halon system however. I don't like the dry chemical stuff. Leaves a HUGE mess if ever used.

 

arent the halon extinguishers crazy expensive? also if there is a fire are you going to be calm enough to pull that retainer pin then the ring? Or maybe start pulling the ring and panic that its not coming out?

 

I bought the halon extinguisher used (well, not new) off kijiji for $70, they're still affordable for now but I'd expect the prices to rise since it only exists in finite quantities in the world now.

I doubt remembering to pull the hairpin will be an issue, its also tied to the pull ring on the retaining bolt

No fire fighting system is perfect and guaranteed to fight all types of fires, a halon system is better (but much more expensive and harder to install), a halon extinguisher is good and provides a bit more flexibility (like putting out a fire in your friends car), but even carrying a dry chemical one is better than carrying nothing.

 

Leave a huge mess or watch your car burn to the ground?

Wich one would you prefer lol

 

or what about that $20 spray can extinguisher that guy on tv was selling? and i saw a thread on here about it.

 

Honestly the powder ruins everything. I bought a chassis that had an engine fire and it wasn't the engine fire that totaled the car (well it was) but the extinguisher powder ruined what the fire didnt. Halon is the way to go in cars, the powder stuff is corrosive and if you get the dust in the interior and the interior ever sees any moisture your car will turn into a car size petri dish . There is "halotron" which is basically a carbon dioxide extinguisher but it takes twice the volume for the same "fire power" as a halon bottle.

 

Looks like a nice and clean setup!
I would swap out that black colored band for a red or selfglowing yellow one for screaming visibility, if i was to be picky. black on black, at night, with smoke from the fire can be tricky to see.

 

From best to worst (in my opinion and research):

Halon
Halotron
aqueous film forming foams
sodium bicarbonate dry chemical
ammonium bicarbonate dry chemical
potassium bicarbonate dry chemical
not carrying anything and watching your car burn down

The cold fire extinguishers that come in an aerosol can (or bigger extinguishers) look really nice and very effective, however they're quite expensive and hard to get here in Canada

 

It's my understanding though that "per volume" halotron has half the fire power as dry chemical and halon. That's the downside of halotron, you need twice as much volume, the upside is it doesnt ruin your car like powder, and isn't as expensive or hard to get as halon (which is a CFC - chlorofluorocarbon and has been put out of production because it depletes the ozone layer). It's like r12a or whatever the old AC refrigerant was called... it's grandfathered in in the sense that no new supply can be produced, but supply that was made before the ban can still be sold. Since r12 is a consumable, the price is going up as people recharge their leaking systems... halon on the other hand can be recycled into new halon and it's only for emergency use so the supply is relatively stable.

-Heath

 

Nice work there

 

for another alternative, please take a look at our setup --> FD3S Fire Extinguisher Mount: OEM Seats - SakeBomb Garage

We're doing one large run now and we're going to stop taking pre-sale orders shortly.