Finished Buffing

I've worked a couple hours daily the last week buffing and waxing the car. I've also touched up the paint in some areas that needed it.

This is the gear i used

Basically I started with Meguires 83 and the white more aggressive pad and applied it to the whole car twice. This re blended and shined the paint, but left swirl marks. To remove swirl marks i used the blue less aggressive pad and Meguires 9, which i also applied twice. After that i hosed off the car and cleaned the windows and trim.

There were a few deep scratches that i filled in with touch up paint and now you cant even see them.The only issue with the process is it stained my bumpers that i re blackened, so ill have to do that a gain. That will only take a few minutes

Here was the hood before

...and after

Got some parts

Almost all of the parts came last week. All that's left from that order are the custom made adapter plates and coupler. Ill get pics of them all once the last things arrive.

Also, i ordered the motor. instead of picking it up in Seattle, it's going to be shipped to my house, hopefully by Friday.

Once the motor arrives i mount it, wire it along with all of the other parts, the TEST! Once everything seems to be working, i will have made up my mind on what batteries i want.

As for buffing the paint, I'm about 80% done with that. Ill add some pics when it's done

Installed Speakers

I put in my new speakers and the sound great

Ordered most my parts!!

Here's what i bought:
* Adapter Plate for vehicle
* Shaft Coupler - Motor to transmission(clutch-less)
* 0-5k (pb5)Throttle Box
* 40 ft of #2/0 ga. Wire Cable
* Contactor- Kilovac EV200 (2000 amp rupture 200 amp continuous)
* 50-150 VDC Volt Meter
* 0-500 Amp Meter
* 50mv - 500 Amp Shunt
* Gauge Holder Bracket
* 12 - High Current Ring Terminals
* 40 - Battery Cable Terminals
* Fuse - 400 amp slow blow
* Quickcharger 120 VDC (Smart Charger) 
* 12 vdc Smart Battery Charger (for accessory battery) 


It should all arrive in about a week

All i have left to buy is the motor and the batteries

I plan to set up all this stuff with the controller, then mount and connect the motor. At this point i can test everything and get the wheels moving slowly off one battery. After all of that is working ill purchase and install the batteries and bed DONE!!

Finished Controller

I finished the controller in about 3 hours and based off one of the tests i ran, it works!

Here is a slideshow of the progress from the start

Reupholstered Seats

My neighbor reupholstered my seats with the slightly different colored fabric i hunted down. I was lucky to get the fabric in such good shape since it hasn't been made in twenty years.

I wont be putting these back in the car till its done, but its nice to have them ready to go

New Seats

As you can see the lower fabric is deeper blue instead of grey, but thats fine for my standards

Here is what the used to look like

Fixed Electrical Stuff

Ive been sick the last few days, but last Wednesday i bought a regular 12v car battery to try to fix all of the electrical problems

I got all the existing parts on the car working and ready to go. This includes...

-headlights
-high beams
-turn signals
-tail lights
-brake lights
-front and back windshield wipers
-front and back defrost
-windshield squirter
-radio
-speakers
-interior lights
-dash lights
-ac control lights

I think thats everything

The radio works great. I ended up opening it up and wiring in a little cord so i can play my iPod through the car speakers.

The car speakers however were trashed, so i ordered some new ones off amazon.

Here are some night time pictures of all the lights working


Dash

Radio

Low Beams

High Beams

Controller News

Im still awaiting my shipment of a few parts, and am also trying to track down a 190 watt+ soldering iron i can borrow or rent for the last, bigger pieces.

Here is what my workplace looks like...

Car Status

Today was a huge success in testing the existing wiring in the car

I first reinstalled the dash which was a puzzle of wires, then we connected jumper cables to my dad's car battery and with great anxiety, turned the ignition.

To my surprise, the dash lit up, the lights went on and the "No Seatbelt" noise was ringing. I tested the wipers, defrost, lights and coolant squirter and they all worked. The only thing i noticed was i had a few burnt out bulbs and broken fuses.

All i have left to do is replace the bulbs and fuses, install a radio and wire in the inner, smaller headlights

This is all great news since i was very pessimistic about this stuff working since the car is so old

Controller Status

My kit was missing a few parts so Paul will ship them to me.

I also need to find a way to get a 200 watt soldering iron for the bigger pieces of the controller. the 30 watt on i have is too weak for the job

I would say i have about 4 hours of work left on it

Started Building the Controller

Today I spent about 5 hours soldering all of the components onto the control board for my Controller.

I took about 100 resisters, capacitors, diodes ect. and infused them all onto the same circut board. I learned alot on how to solder and keep a steady hand. I had no major screw ups, however i did take some backward steps.

Overall I'm pleased with how it went, and now I have the larger stuff to deal with which is more drilling and screwing thank soldering.

Click here for pictures

**The photo album above will automatically update whenever i take more pictures

From Controller

Back in Buisness

The tests went well and I'm glad to be done with them. School is winding down, especially since my three hardest Ap classes require no work anymore.

The motor im buying from a guy in Seattle looks like this:

Im probably going to get that sometime in the beginning of summer when its convenient. It weighs about 100 lbs. Much lighter than a 600 lbs gas engine

One of these days i will call a EV company in Utah and order the adapter plates that allow a secure connection between my motor and transmission. These take six weeks to make since they are custom for my car.

Im buying from the Utah company because they are the cheapest ones i could find ($500). Some companies charge over $1000 for heavy duty ones.

Here is an example. The 4 large holes on the border are what drill into the transmission, and the shaft in the center fastens onto the transmission shaft.

Taking a Break

I have lots of stuff going on until school is out.

• Chemistry Subject Test
• SAT
• AP US History Test
• AP Language Test
• AP Chemistry Test
• Hutton Carnival Volunteer
• Lilac Band Parade plus tons of practices
• Golf

As you can see my schedule is jam packed. I don't have a free weekend till the week school ends.

This will slow my progress on the car, and i wont have much to update.

Sold the Starter

I sold the starter for $20

Plan

I have four things to do before i purchase the rest of my EV stuff.

1. Build the controller: I'm in no hurry for this since i want to do it right, so its not a top priority. I would guess ill have it done before school is out.
2. Figure out the batteries i want to use. 15 8v golf cart batteries will get me my desired 120 volts. My other options are 20 6v or 10 12v. The thing with batteries is the more you have is more range before recharging, but also more weight. 20 6v would equate to 1200 lbs since they are 60 lbs each, and i would get maybe 5 extra miles of range. 10 12v would be close to 750 lbs, but i would suffer about 10 miles less of range. 8v howevr are the middle ground, weighing about 63 lbs each, so about 950 lbs, and i would get decent range.My delima is choosing which brand of 8vs to use. Sams Club offers a great deal on decent quality btteries for about $70 each, the problem is the nearest one is in Seattle. So ill need to research that a bit more. The batteries i will buy last, since they lloose life sitting in my garage.
3. I need to test the existing electrical stuff and fix whats broken. This includes the headlights, dishboard, turn signles, wipers ect. I need to buy a reguilar car battery for this. Im hoping to finish this by May.
4. Purchase, mount, and test motor. I already have arranged a great deal on a new moter from a guy i visited in Seattle. I will need to pick that up, since it is $200 to ship, and order the custom adapter plate which will connect is to the transmission. Once i've done that, i need to figure out a good way to mount it all under the hood and connect it to my controller. It shouldnt be too hard since it is much smaller than the gas engine. Once it is all mounted, i can text the motor with a 12v battery, and actually get the car moving (super slow).

After all of this is done, I can proceed on and purchse all of the liitle components to wire it all together. That will be the final stretch of the project.

I plan to finish sometime in the middle of summer, and then it will just be some tidying up and optimizing to get it perfect.

Nevertheless, the final product is very far out of reach right now.

Today's Accomplishments

Today, I woke up excited to put on the newly assembled Quad Grill on the car. Here is what it looked like

Everything fit in great!!

Next i re-finished everything plastic and back on the exterior using Kiwi Leather Dye.

In about 4 hours i cleaned, removed the oxidation, and applied the Kiwi on the rear bumper, my two front bumpers, the mirriors, wheel arches, trim, grill and handles.

I applied 2 coats to get rid of some of the streaks.

Here are the results. It turned out great. Everything black looks new. The next step is to buff up the paint

Re-blackening Project

My bumpers, trim and wheel arches are nearly ash grey, and should be black.

After a bit of research, i found out the best fix resides in black leather shoe dye, specifically Kiwi

You basically apply it like paint, but it soaks into the old plastic, instead of creating an additional layer like paint would. The paint would not stick well since the bumper has been oxidized after years of being in the sun.

Ill post pictures when i finish my little science experiment

Headlight Assembly

Over hours of scratching my head, i finally got the headlight assembly set up.

Caylee cleaned it all too

1. I chose which VW badge i liked better. I went with the chrome
2. I screwed the 7" Lights into the core support. The screws swivel, so it was kinda funky figuring out how the go in.
3. I took the grille and screwed in the 5" inner fog lights. I used the same method as when installing the 7" ones
4. I mounted the grille on the core support
5. The next step is to install them in the car and wire it all to a switch

Controller Kit Details

This kit has over 200 pieces and there is a ton of room for error. Im going to try to get help from an electric engineer.

Basically all im doing is soldering tons of components to a circuit board, then bolting together the housing. Seems easy, but its not

Here are some pics of it still packaged...

Day Two Seattle...More Great News

We woke up and headed for Olympia, which is about an hour south. By around 12 we arrived at Paul's house.

Paul built is own controller, which i like a mini computer, for $600 and sells the kit and instructions for the same price.

We chatted about EV's and he showed me his 1972 Electric Bug which was pretty cool. He also gave me tips on how to build this controller and what to expect. He said to email him whenever i have a question. He needed some time to assemble my 100 plus piece kit, so my dad and i went to Red Lobster to get some food, then to a local EV part warehouse.

This was another awesome experience. I spoke with Dave on of the biggest EV parts retailer in the country about the best method for building my car. This was extremely helpful, and he told me to email him whenever i needed help.

So the only purchase i made, was one of the most important parts of my car, and i plan to get a head start on that before i get the other parts.

Here is the link to the instructions i'll follow to build this.
Controller Instructions

Pics are coming soon!!

Day One Seattle...Great News

Well today went great!!

My dad and i went all around Seattle hunting for various parts and found everything i wanted. Nothing EV related yet, just little things i need to repair.

1. We went 45 min North to Snohomish and bought some parts very cheap from a nice deaf guy
2. Next we drove back to the hotel, then 30 minutes south to meet the guy selling the grill and headlights, which i got in great condition!
3. Finally we drove back North like 40 minutes to a German Car Wrecking Yard which had tons of trashed GTIs that i was able to salvage the last pieces of the puzzle out of.

I doesn't seem like a long day, but seattle driving is nothing like spokane, and we got lost alot.

Ill post pictures when i get home thusrday.

Tomorrow, we are going to check out some EV stores and i may make my first EV purchase

The to-do list is getting smaller!!

Took out the dash

First i removed the steering wheel

 Then i took out all of the screws holding the dash, then disconnected the several wire clusters

Finally i wiggled out the dash

The heater core is what is left behind the dash and i'm keeping that for my conversion.

Im officially gas free!

Sold Coolant Temp Sensor

I got $40 for this little sensor

Its purpose is to make sure the coolant stays at a safe temp

Greg and Deb

Welcome to my blog. I see you have overcome the extreme challenges of becoming a follower and even posting a comment!

I hope you enjoy reading this, it would be cooler if you saw it all in person!!

If you haven't figured out yet, all of the posts are chronologically organized and you can select a month from the sidebar, or just scroll all the way down to older posts.

Plan

I'm probably going to leave the interior gutted during the conversion process because i have to run wires across the car.

Next weekend, i am going to seattle and plan to get new headlights and a grill. I also am going to make my first EV purchase. I'm buying a $600 kit that will allow me to build a controller. Buying one already built is $2000, so im glad i found thia kit.

a controller limits the amount of energy the batteries send to the motor. It basically connects to the acceleration pedal and clutch and sends more energy to the motor when i push on the acceleration.

The motor and controller are usually the most expensive components of an EV

Building the controller will take a lot of work. I have to solder tons of components to a circuit board, program a mini computer and NOT mess up. Im hoping to get some help from an electrical engineer.

Map of Viewers

Here are all the locations of the viewers this week

Gutted and Cleaned the Interior

Today was a beautiful day, so i decided to tackle the interior. My goal was to get the carpet completely out.

To do so i had to remove just about everything else until the car was only metal. I then took a warm sponge and cleaned the red metal til it shined. This process  took me about 5 hours

Gutted Trunk

Front of Car (before)

Gutted (after)

Here is the carpet. It was a like a maze figuring out how to get it out

Next Week

Next Week i plan to remove the interior carpet, door cards, headliner and dash and scrub down the metal in the carand clean the carpet too.

The headliner also needs reupholstering, which wont be as hard as the seats.

I also need to repair part of the sunroof, i have the new part, i just have to put it in

Everything gas related is out of the car, except some of the gauges and wireing.

Once the car is completely clean ill start purchasing the EV parts.

What i did today

1. Replaced the passenger door handle

2.  Separated the Cylinder Head from the Engine 

3.  Removed the lower dash so i could access the relay panel

4.  Sold all of these parts to someone

5.  Removed and cleaned the gas tank (gross)

6.  Borrowed the neighbors power washer and washed the car and all the parts

Clean Hood (before)

After!

Cleaned transmission (before)

After!

I was amazed at how cleans things got, ecspecially after 20 years of grime