Thought some of you might get a kick out of this, others might learn.


Acetylene Gas Lesson

Guy left an "acetylene bottle" in his new FJ Cruiser.
Next morning the garage and car smelt full of gas, so he opened the garage
door and rode the car out. As he pushed the electric window button....boom! He only suffered hearing damage---. and his IQ increased substantially concerning gasses.

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WOW, so much fail so little time. Glad he is ok.

Lucky for him the tank was in the back.

his tires still look like they are in good shape

"Set of 5 FJ Rims for sale. Good condition. Minor scorch marks that will likely buff out."

Image 6^: Thats a lot of plastic!

:jaw drop:

I bet it still starts and drives like a Toyota should.

So here's the full story in his own words that he posted on CT4WD:

"Im a journeyman plumber by trade and a 5 cubic foot 'B' tank of acetylene is an extremely common tool within the trade. At the end of the day the tank gets put in the back of the truck like everything else and forgotten about. Well it was moving around and bumped the key that shuts the main valve off. It slowly leaked overnight. i walked into the garage i could smell the gas, i opened the big door to air it out, then i opened the truck and wow it was overwhelming. i aired the truck out for 5 minutes and when i felt the truck was cleared out enough i fired it up and drove it out to the alley. i wanted to roll the pass window down to get a breeze for the way to work. the instant i touched the window button, everything went orange and i was pinned to the seat by the airbags.

It was the fuel within the doors and fenders and under the console that didnt get aired out before that i didnt think about. Acetylene is much heavier than air and has a flammability % of 2.5 to 82%. by comparison natural gas is 5 to 15%.

i lost my hearing in my right ear and got a bump on the back of my melon. im very grateful to be alive, and the lesson learned is to NEVER be complacent about the little stuff.

Tie your bottles up correctly for transport, and do not store them overnight in an enclosed area.

Im not embarrassed or mad about the issue or story getting around, quite the opposite actually. I hope someone sees this and learns about the dangers of flammable gasses in an enclosed space.

As far as the fj goes I settled already with the insurance and am in the process of ordering a 2012 TT 6M. There are only going to be 125 TT total for canada, 15 manuals only. im going to have one."

I'd like to think that most of us are aware of the dangers of flammable gasses in an enclosed space. It's the same reason you don't use a flaming stick to see if the gas can is empty.

There you go "thinking" again......lol.

Thanks Intruder. What I posted was e-mailed to me. So I did not have the whole story and frankly, was not sure the story was true. Now we all know. Thanks again.

or a cell phone

Indeed. Because there have been soooo many documented cases of cell phones blowing up cars at gas stations or such.

Seriously though, moving past the various issues that led up to this, I don't think I would have thought about gas in the doors and body. I mean look at the carcass, it blew off outside body panels leaving the inner ones standing in some places. That's what I'm taking away from this.

Crazy. I'm amazed that guy didn't pop a lung.

It looks like the airbags were a big factor. Consider he lost hearing in his right ear, and his right side was the only side not surrounded by airbags, and the drivers seat. Good thing the truck was running. Honestly, I wouldn't have had the balls to even start the thing!