I used my first temporary moving permit to take ERX to Pep Boys on Monday and had the rear springs upgraded from the stock CRX springs to some slightly larger/stiffer Acura Integra springs. This lifted the rear about 2" and is perfect now. The tires were rubbing on the wheel well due to the larger wheels and the weight of the batteries in the hatch area. Once I sit my 250 lbs in the car, it sat real low and any bump at all would cause the rear tires to rub. I took the car around town quite a bit after the upgrade and it drove real nice. I could drive much more confidently and hit bumps without worry. I may need to raise the front slightly, so either a spacer or an adjustable shock may be in order.
I also hoped to upgrade the front brakes to Integra calipers and rotors, but they said the knuckles on the car were not a correct fit, so I need to investigate this further. Maybe I need to find different knuckles. I may also need the Integra Master Cylinder to take full advantage.
As I was driving around town and with the problem of the tires rubbing resloved, I was listening for other sounds. Mainly the battery boxes in the hatch are squeaking, so I need to tighten those bolts a bit, or get some nylon washers to minimize the metal on metal rubbing. I still need to line the hole I made in the hatch for the boxes with some sort of rubber or nylon so the sides of the boxes aren't rubbing against the hatch floor. I also heard the plastic interior pieces making noise which is easily fixed, since I have not completely installed those pieces, so they are moving around more than usual.
I bought a couple cans of Plasti-dip while at PepBoys, so I will check out how that works on my old cracked Fenders to see what the color is and if it might match my white paint. I also bought a can of Blaze Blue to see what that looks like. I am thinking of Plasti-dipping my entire car or maybe just the new fenders and the front grill. I still need to find out if it is ok to use it on Fiberglass and if I should fix the couple little dings I made on the fiberglass fenders before applying the plasti-dip.
Tomorrow I will try to set up the BAR referee inspection for early next week. If I pass, that will be a great day and another milestone in this horrendously long project.
I will try to get some more photos up and maybe some video so this doesn't turn into a completely text oriented blog. Holidays are a tough time of year for me to get work done on the car, so it may take me a bit, but I'll get them up.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Insurance, Inspection, Registration
I am trying to get the car registered so I can legally drive on the road around my town to test it out some more before I attempt a longer trip. It is challenging figuring out the process, so I am posting what I know so far. I will update this post in the future as things progress. btw, AAA is my friend. I don't have to deal with DMV at all.
1. In California, the car must be insured with liability coverage to drive on the road - My insurance company won't insure it until it passes inspection and is registered. But, in order to pass inspection, by law, I must be able to drive the vehicle there. So, I have aquired a one year liability insurance policy on the vehicle through AAA. I probably could have shopped around and gotten a lower price or shorter term somewhere else, but it was convenient, fast and they were very helpful.
2. Temporary moving permit - I have aquired two 1 day temporary moving permits from the DMV services at AAA. The permits are free. You cannot park on the street with them though. Only for moving the vehicle. The first I will use to take the car to Pep Boys and have the larger, stiffer rear springs installed and possibly the larger front disc brakes. This will help me feel more comfortable about taking the 9 mile drive to the inspection since the current rear springs allow the rear wheels to rub on the inside of the wheel well when I hit any kind of bump at all. The larger front brakes should give me some better stopping power which is nice since I have not installed the vacuum power brake kit yet. Thankfully, the car only weighs about 2100 lbs and is not too hard to stop with manual brakes at low speeds.
3. BAR Referee Inspection - Since my car has had an "engine swap," the Bureau of Automotive Repair must inspect the car and then they give it a sticker which allows it to bypass smog inspection. The website for info and locations of BAR referees is asktheref.org. I will use my second 1 day temporary moving permit to drive to Rio Hondo College and have the car inspected.
4. Register the vehicle - Once the inspection is passed, I can then go back to AAA and pay the registration fees to get my new sticker.
That's it. ERX will be road worthy in just a few weeks. My plan is to get the springs and brakes upgraded on 11/18, and then get the inspection on 11/25 or 11/26.
This last weekend I did some minor work on the car. I made some adjustments to my charger to make sure it was turning off at the right time and not overcharging any cells. A couple went up to 3.75, so I lowered the cutoff voltage a bit. I also purchased a large resistor to drain the cells that were high just a bit. A few cells were a little low, so I will probably stick the single cell charger on them for a little longer. Eventually I will bottom balance the pack, but a pseudo-top balance is fine for now, as long as the charger shuts off properly. The couple times I ran it at lower cutoff voltages, it did turn off at about the right voltage, so I am happy about that. Currently, I have it set for 43 cells even though I have 44 in my pack, so it goes into Constant Voltage phase at 154.8 volts instead of 158.4 volts. This works out to about 3.52 per cell on average. The CV phase is fairly short since my charger only delivers 10 amps during the Constant Current phase and it turns off when it get down to about 3 amps in the CV phase.
I also washed the car and vacuumed the inside. That took some time. It has been a while since I have hand washed a car, and especially one that hadn't been washed in quite some time. There are still some spots that could use a little more attention.
1. In California, the car must be insured with liability coverage to drive on the road - My insurance company won't insure it until it passes inspection and is registered. But, in order to pass inspection, by law, I must be able to drive the vehicle there. So, I have aquired a one year liability insurance policy on the vehicle through AAA. I probably could have shopped around and gotten a lower price or shorter term somewhere else, but it was convenient, fast and they were very helpful.
2. Temporary moving permit - I have aquired two 1 day temporary moving permits from the DMV services at AAA. The permits are free. You cannot park on the street with them though. Only for moving the vehicle. The first I will use to take the car to Pep Boys and have the larger, stiffer rear springs installed and possibly the larger front disc brakes. This will help me feel more comfortable about taking the 9 mile drive to the inspection since the current rear springs allow the rear wheels to rub on the inside of the wheel well when I hit any kind of bump at all. The larger front brakes should give me some better stopping power which is nice since I have not installed the vacuum power brake kit yet. Thankfully, the car only weighs about 2100 lbs and is not too hard to stop with manual brakes at low speeds.
3. BAR Referee Inspection - Since my car has had an "engine swap," the Bureau of Automotive Repair must inspect the car and then they give it a sticker which allows it to bypass smog inspection. The website for info and locations of BAR referees is asktheref.org. I will use my second 1 day temporary moving permit to drive to Rio Hondo College and have the car inspected.
4. Register the vehicle - Once the inspection is passed, I can then go back to AAA and pay the registration fees to get my new sticker.
That's it. ERX will be road worthy in just a few weeks. My plan is to get the springs and brakes upgraded on 11/18, and then get the inspection on 11/25 or 11/26.
This last weekend I did some minor work on the car. I made some adjustments to my charger to make sure it was turning off at the right time and not overcharging any cells. A couple went up to 3.75, so I lowered the cutoff voltage a bit. I also purchased a large resistor to drain the cells that were high just a bit. A few cells were a little low, so I will probably stick the single cell charger on them for a little longer. Eventually I will bottom balance the pack, but a pseudo-top balance is fine for now, as long as the charger shuts off properly. The couple times I ran it at lower cutoff voltages, it did turn off at about the right voltage, so I am happy about that. Currently, I have it set for 43 cells even though I have 44 in my pack, so it goes into Constant Voltage phase at 154.8 volts instead of 158.4 volts. This works out to about 3.52 per cell on average. The CV phase is fairly short since my charger only delivers 10 amps during the Constant Current phase and it turns off when it get down to about 3 amps in the CV phase.
I also washed the car and vacuumed the inside. That took some time. It has been a while since I have hand washed a car, and especially one that hadn't been washed in quite some time. There are still some spots that could use a little more attention.
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