Saturday, September 13, 2014

Quick bling shot

I found a great deal on 914 compatible halo-gen headlights on E-Bay so I snapped them up before some else could (I'm noticing a trend here).   I have already installed the old light (which will SUCK volts) so these will be added after the car is complete and I am going thru a final check lists.  But it's nice that I have them (and some else doesn't).

Final shot of the engine mount

I swear!  The last time I tried to document what this assembly looked like it was a blurry mess.  So I wanted to make sure I had plenty of pictures this time.

Second rear battery box installed. Whew!

 I flush screwed the attaching bolts.  So they would not interfere with the batteries.  Worked like charm.
 And the other side as well.
And finally a fist full of dollars.  OR a trunk full of batteries.  There's still the front set to install.  But I have to remove the hood to have the room to work on it.  And I have rule; only one hood off at time.  It minimizes the chance of scratching the paint.

Paint and prep the second rear battery box.

 Everything gets a nice coat of rust-tol-lium.  Paint it black indeed.  The larger set of angle iron are for mounting the charger and inverter in the engine bay.  Should be fun.  I've measured and they will fit...
 Here's the first flange installed.  Finally closing that huge rust hole in the trunk.
And the second in.  I had little hand helping out while I worked under the car they held the bolts in place.  Definitely a two man job (or a one man, one daughter).

How do you wire all those batteries together?

 You get a whole bunch of braided cables!

 I got lucky and scored all the smaller one on E-Bay; for a ridiculously low price.  But now they are mine; so you can't have them!  The larger ones I ordered from Evolve EV out of Australia.  Great product fantastic price...  But about that shipping.  I paid less to ship all my batteries (3 creates) to my door, then 74 of those jumpers.  It just about doubles the per-unit price!  Great product, but someone local really needs to start making these.

Not so with the larger jumper cables!  I had a local battery shop make them up for me. Took a couple of hours and about $4 each.

This gets to the one bit of high voltage wiring I have not yet figured out...
I got one of these on Amazon $5 bucks or so, but I have no idea how to crimp the cables.  The guys at the battery shop said they could...  Then they saw the cable diameter.  It wouldn't fit in their crimper.
:(

Parts from the machinist arrive!

I need some part fabricated, so I contacted a local machinist since sometimes you need exactly instead of close.
This is the AC motor mount I created a while ago.  But after getting it all bolted in and tighten down; I really felt it needed to be welded to be 100%.  So here's the welded version.
 These are some flanges I need bent to support one of the rear battery packs.  I could have bent them of course.  But this is the difference between a shady tree mechanic and someone with a shop full of toys.  I guarantee I would not have hit those perfect angles.  And I wanted this cold bent to keep the strength of the steel.
These are some angle iron I needed cut.  I absolutely cold have done this good in my garage. But since we're "enjoying" +90 degree weather.  I just tacked is onto the job.