I am definitely the Tortoise

The estimated hours left on this project is around 130-150, but at my rate and skill level, it will be like 250+. I have managed to get some things done though. I took some photos of specific spots where I am having trouble and posted them to diyelectriccar.com. I got a bit of feedback which was helpful. Also, Bruce came over and we discussed my motor mount and battery rack mounting. He gave me some suggestions and I have started working on them. Here are a few of the pics I took of the motor mount and battery rack situations.

Motor and Motor mount bracket James fabricated

Another Angle

Face of the motor and second shaft

Overall view of the bay

Firewall - The circled items are things I need to remove like fuel lines and water lines to the heater

Here is where the firewall rack will be. Mounting the top to the three circled bolts with some brackets

I will run a piece of angle iron across the bottom and secure it on either side with bolts going in to Rivet Nuts

The other side - Rivet Nuts are an awesome invention allowing you to place a threaded rivet into a blind location

Front Rack location - probably weld some steel to the bottom of the rack and then use the rivet nuts again to secure it

Other Side

Shot of the clearance I will have between the firewall rack and the tranny/adapter plate - about an inch

Mock-up of component board location.

So I have realized that my conversion will definitely not be as pretty and neat as others. I am ok with that as long as I get it done. I am not going to be messy about it, but I don't have CAD software to make perfect mock-ups and my measurements are ballpark-ish, not to the millimeter. In the above mock-up of the component board, the Red is the aluminum board outline, the green is the planned angle iron needed for support and mounting, and the yellow is some sort of raised mounting location. Originally I had toyed with the idea of putting hinges on the firewall side of the component board, so I could lift the front and get to the motor easily, but I decided to just bolt it in all around.

After Bruce gave me some ideas, I went to Home Depot and bought a cheap angle grinder, some angle iron and a contour tool. This is the beginning of the support bar that spans under the firewall rack. I cut the angle iron to the length I needed, but part of the angle iron will run into the side of the frame so I needed to cut a curve in it to match the curve in the frame. The contour tool helps with this. It is like one of those things that has a bunch of metal pins in it and you can put your hand or face or whatever in and it outlines it. That is what the contour tool does except just in a straight line. I pressed it up against the frame and it made an impression of the curve. Then I used it to draw the curve on the angle iron so it will match the frame. Took the angle grinder to it, and although it wasn't pretty, it looks like it works perfectly. I will post photos of this next week.

This weekend I am planning on finishing the support bar. I need to drill holes in it for the mounting points to the frame, add the rivet nuts to the mounting location, and bolt it in place to make sure the fit is nice and snug. Then take it off, clean the bar, spray paint primer, dry, spray paint final color, dry, and then bolt back into place.

Decision 2012

The flip flopping is over, the primaries and caucuses (cauci??) have concluded, the major parties made their nominations and the precincts are reporting their results. We are calling the race right now. You heard it here first. Little known blogging site ERXperience is calling the race and the decision is.....

Coming up, right after these messages....(NETGAIN MOTORS. HOME OF THE WARP, TRANS-WARP, AND IMPULSE MOTORS, INTRODUCE THE IMPROVED....)

...and we're back... so the decision is, I will continue the project. Yahhhh!!! I called a local EVer and he said he would help me out here and there. He lives a couple miles away and has a full shop of tools and he has a lead acid car which he is planning on switching to LiFePo4.

I have already started on a huge To-Do list and have gotten the front battery racks from James. I will be taking some photos and starting the process of figuring out how to mount the racks this weekend, as well as starting the design of the component board.

Crossroads

I am at the crossroads. My project stalled for a year for various reasons. I have basically two options.

1. Find someone in SoCal with EV build experience to help me finish the project. I can pay a bit, but not a lot.

2. Sell the project. This has 2 subsets.
a. Sell the whole project to a local person who wants to finish my build or wants all the parts and will scrap the car.
b. Part out everything and sell the batteries locally as I really do not want to ship them.

I am sad about not being able to get anything done this year but also realizing I may have bit off more than I could chew. If any of you live in SoCal and are interested in helping me finish, message me or email me at octagondd@hotmail.com.

If you are interested in buying my project, get in touch with me. I spent around $15K and will sell it for $9K OBO. All the parts are new and never used except the Motor has been mated with the Tranny and is installed in the car. I purchased a 144V kit from Evolve except for the controller. I purchased and built the OpenRevolt 144V 700Amp controller from Paul and Sabrina. It is finished except the end plates. I would probably just throw it in as a bonus if you want to play with it and decide whether to use it or not. It works as I have hooked it up to the motor with a 12V battery. Also, there is a serial port that communicates with a Win XP program and shows various things like throttle, Volts, Amps, etc. I have 45 TS(Winston) 160AH batteries. Check my blog out if you want to see the rest of the components, or check Evolve Electrics page for their kits

I really hope someone is interested in my project so it can either be completed, or moved along to help another project.

Dave