On Fri, 12 Oct 2007 17:42:29 -0700, Larry Jaques
wrote:

On Fri, 12 Oct 2007 15:03:48 -0700, with neither quill nor qualm,
quickly quoth:

On Oct 10, 12:18 pm, Richard J Kinch wrote:
Joe AutoDrill writes:
If I buy magnesium from somewhere (McMaster doesn't seem to carry it
or I'm semi-blind), can I do the same thing?

Sure. I've done it scraping the tubular handle of a lightweight magnesium
landscaping rake. Odd chunks are on eBay all the time. I have 1/8"
magnesium welding rods from aerospace surplus.

I'm skeptical of the engine block tales. Large pieces don't ignite since
they have little surface area. The 1/8" welding rods self-extinguish if
you light them. They'll only maintain burning if you hammer them into a
flatter ribbon shape. And weren't the engine blocks an Mg-Al alloy?



I've had friends V.W.s go up from not having enough oil in the engine.
It wasn't common, but also not unusual, in L.A./Orange County (So.
Cal.), to drive by burning V.W. on the freeway, with the fire
department just standing around watching it go. I'd see them, I don't
know, maybe once a year or two when I was younger. It's rare to see it
now, though.

Yeah, I always wondered why Nader went after the Corvair instead of
the always-in-flames VWs with the same flaky suspension problems. And
I'm surprised that VWs were insurable with as many as I saw smoked.


He did go after them and (I believe) Road and Track published a
rebuttal citing every instance of Nader using partial quotes from
accident report to support his claims, the false statistics he used to
support his claim and in all but words called him a liar and a fake.

As Nader never sued or otherwise attacked Road and Track I'm inclined
to believe the R&T article over Nader's article.


Bruce in Bangkok
(brucepaigeATgmailDOTcom)