Ground Zero Labs

New look

2011-12-30T16:04:00.000-08:00

I had to apply a new look to the blog. I found out that the ISP that was hosting some of the look and feel for the classic version I used was shut off on the 8th. So images were not coming up, and navigation was all wonky.

So hopefully this new version will have more longevity.

Why eBay was invented.

2011-12-30T14:55:00.001-08:00

If for no other reason than to provide a source of the euro-style turn signal.

Boy they look good.

As long as I mentioned painting.

2011-10-17T16:03:00.001-07:00

I had to replace one of the front turn signals; and E-Bay is your friend. We had some hot weather here so I was able to strip and paint the new signal.

Silver is the new black. Well no not really. Rust-O-lium can only come in black. And I'm almost done with the odd can of shinny; everything else on the car was done in flat black. But of course the one can left when I needed it was shinny (and 33% bigger).

This is just a cosmetic silver; but the lights shouldn't get so hot as to cause any trouble. Unlike say the transmission.

The reason for making sure everything is nice a reflective is so that the LED lights that will go in here don't have a big issue with being too dim.

Did I mention the big ticket item I splurged on for the front of the car?

So I have a spare pair of slightly used (one more than the other) of old orange signal cover.

Don't believe me when I say I'm working...

2011-10-17T15:57:00.000-07:00

Wow no update since April. That must really be tough work I'm doing... Well it did make a hug mess; and I'm 10 gallons of cleaner later. But here's the rebuilt transmission prior to reassembly.

Finally done with the cleaning and alignments and the seals.

I'm trying to locate some high temp silver spray paint so once it's all bolted together I can give it a nice coat.

Back to black

2011-04-18T18:32:00.000-07:00

Black on black doesn't photo too well; but this weekend I got to work on putting the drive train in. Apart from the getting the transmission joined to the motor the whole assembly has to be mounted into the car. The rear will make use of the existing transmission mounts.

But the front of the motor has to be supported. So I'll re-task the forward engine mount.
But it had to be cleaned (which required it to be repainted as well).
I'm not sure where my hex-nut/allen 3/4 inch driver went, so the assembly hasn't been tighted up yet; but here's the dry fitting.
Does that look like 1.70" +/- .01 of an inch? Did I mentioned I can't find my caliber ether?

Oh MY!!!

2011-04-07T20:13:00.000-07:00

In the deep voice of Mr. Sulu! OH MY!!!

Look what I found on my doorstep...

22 lbs of aluminum and steel .

I got my adapter plate!

It's everything the I wanted; milled to perfection. The hub adapter fit 'like a glove'.

It may have been a heck of a wait. But Electro-Auto continues the earn their reputation of quality. There is a chance that the stand off ring might be too long, but that I can get shortened locally.

Of interest: the instruction now ask the the clutch plate and clutch be balanced (and lightened) by a local machine shop. I guess the number of vibrating 914's has been noticed.

In my case I think it might be the rear bearing in the transmission that might be bad. But regardless; it's great that they are including the new steps.

Ironically now that I have the part I been missing for a year; I don't have any free-time till me and my Uncle get some paperwork done.

Look what I found!

2011-02-26T18:55:00.000-08:00

I went to a local Nissan dealership to pick up some information; and guess what they had on the lot?

A brand new Leaf. They had gotten two, and dropped one of them off the previous night. But the second was still there. Waiting in the rain.

The sales women was very nice and got the keys and let me and my girl take a look. First of all it was very well built. And look like a completely normal car (which you would expect).

Lots of room in the back. It was interesting to see it in person; after having read a couple of blogs that talked about how boring a car it looked. I didn't get that at all. I guess I haven't purchased enough Italian cars yet, to get a sense that a nice new five door hatch-back is boring.

I will note that the bug-eye front lights are far 'more' than I had expected. I don't think my camera phone did them justice. They are REALLY 3D!!! I had known that they are big. I didn't know that they actually raised up out of the cars.

The photos I had always seen kind of showed them flush with the car; they're not. It would be interesting to see more cars with forward facing fins! (Yes bring back cars with fins on them!)

Junk in the trunk.

2011-01-23T17:57:00.000-08:00

Not the most original title for a post. I'll grant you that. But none the less. This post is all about the trunk.

For whatever reason, Porsche thought that having a overly complex hinge was a good idea for the rear trunk. So they came up with fantastically over tensioned rods to provide counter weight. Under-sized tack wielded joints, and a small rear trunk to boot. See what I did there? Boot in what the English call the trunk (or at least Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear does).

Anyway when I got the car, the previous owner had MacGyver'd some strange solution (that involved roller blade wheels) to correct that the trunk joints had torn loose.

So the REAL repair is to replace the joint with something strong, and get rid of the bars in favor something current (like say a couple of hydraulic jacks.).

So first, Get help.

Then grind down the old wields.

Both sides, or course.

Some paint, some bolts. And viola'

These are some parts I bought when I first got the car; since I saw the state the trunk was it. So it's kind of nice to finally get to use them. Up next the hydraulic arms (seriously).

Where the Dear and the Antelope play...

2011-01-16T17:53:00.000-08:00

I've been waiting for a part I've order (last MAY) to come in. It's the adapter plate, connects the motor to the transmission. And since I'm not sure what the dimensions are, I can't really fabricate around it.

So it looks like I'm going to be doing far more restoration work on the car then I had thought. As you might guess, it's better to fit parts into the cars, then restore around the new dimensions.

Since the rust had to be dealt with and then the car painted (because of the climate), I was willing to give somewhat on that timetable.

It now appears that I'll have to do more. And hope everything fits later.

So I added a little power toy to the lab.

Thanks 'Bro

2010-05-11T18:26:00.000-07:00

My bother was asking about what I had planed on using for the high AMP DC wiring; when I mentioned 0/2 wielding cable. He said while that would be good, what I should really use is this cable they have at the studio. "It's totally better."

Well I took him up on his offer, if he had any, I would love to get some. So the other day he stopped by here at GZL, and dropped off what I can only call the best cable I have ever seen for this application. The shear perfection of this cable dictates how I'm going to run the DC now. It's going to be awesome.

So much the slacker

2010-05-11T18:07:00.000-07:00

What's in the bucket? Not a list. The business end of a manual transmission more like it.

I like to follow the 914ev group on Google; and try to head problem off at the pass. One of the common problem with the 914 conversion is the RPM's. Mainly how many there are. The 30 year old 901 transmission just isn't up to +5,000 RPM. And they tend to develop a rather sever oscillation at the higher RPM's. So this led me to conclude I needed to rebuild the transmission.

So here I am; pulling one apart. I suspect most of the vibrations are from the rear-end bearing. Even though my transmission is is good shape; the 30 year old bearing has quite a lot of play. and at the high RPM, that might not be the best thing.

I'm still not sure about replacing the flywheel with a lighter racing version, but we'll see.

Motor facelift

2009-12-13T18:48:00.000-08:00

I got the new part from Azure Dynamics; and a friend came by so I gave the AC 55 a face lift.

As always when dealing with a +200lbs motor, the first thing you want to do is put in on wheels. Next we removed the four long bolts; then applied a hammer to break the poly seal. Once that gave, the front pulled straight off. I was worried the bearing might have found a permanent home in the old face plate. But everything was in great shape.

Motor Porn.

After pulling the old face plate off, I transfered the spring and applied new grease. As always since this motor will be out in the environments (such as it is in CA) I used my preferred marine grease.

Old is green, new is red.

I'll skip the 1/2 hour we took getting the motor cleaned and prepped. However Beth at Azure had checked with one of the motor techs; and let me know a couple of the fins would have to ground down. The power grind took care of the four aluminium fins faster than is took me to correctly spell aluminium (only had to remove a 8th of an inch).

I then applied some poly caulk around the seam of the new face plate and bolted it home.

Looking fierce.

I'm happy to report the motor spins like a dream. Had I known it was going to go so smoothly I would have spray painted the motor black; I figured I'd be opening and closing the motor 4 or 5 times before everything lined up. Maybe I'll give it a little touch up.

Anyone need an old face plate from an AC55 motor? It's only 25lbs...

AC55 Solution!

2009-11-16T18:47:00.000-08:00

Woot-Woot! Turns out what I need is NEMA C-Face kit for a AC55!Who knew? Turns out Beth at Azure Dynamics does, and will sell me one. So though I'm not a big fan of cracking the motor open (they're sealed), I am a huge fan of this solution!

So the only remaining mounting question is the forward mounting bracket. I was measuring this weekend; and it's very close to being spot on.

Big toys!

2009-11-10T20:21:00.001-08:00

Got my big old motor. I was thinking that maybe this motor is just too big for the car; but then I reminded myself that it is a Porsche after all. And isn't putting a giant motor into a tiny car what Porsche is all about?

Well as you can see it is an AC 55 motor.

Picture from behind. The silver spot is where a temperature sensor used to be. It didn't make it and had been disconnected at some point. So I just removed it.

Now here is what the front should look like (this is from Ross's Electro Jeep blog).

This is what mine look like. Not quite sure how I'll mount the clutch plate and transmission to it. I'm thinking of making some type of adapter ring.

There seems to be enough spline for a number of options. But nothing is leaping out at me. Of course since it's a 200+ lbs motor; I'm going to have to be mindful of stress when it's mounted.

Sorry about the horrible quality of that last shot. It's showing 2" (trust me).

Going to see the Mona Lisa

2009-10-26T20:37:00.000-07:00

For very different reasons, I found myself up Santa Monica way this weekend. So I availed myself with a trip to THE STORE.

Of course I'm talking about the Tesla store. It was very nice, the had a couple of the cars arranged around the place, letting you see all the aspects of the car.

It was a very nice ride indeed. VERY low to the ground. I used to have a sports coupe, and this was even lower than that. It has a surprising tall front. I assume from the Lotus carriage. I would have rather had the seats a little higher. But that's just me.

Speaking of which; there is me. I wanted a picture for scale. It's a very sporty car. And really designed with that one thing in mind. One note of my own (for what it's worth) I've been a Lotus fan for sometime, and have had the opportunity to ride it a couple of them. Tesla really should have worked more on branding this car as unique; unless they don't mind the Lotus comparison.

Here's the repair center (right off the sales floor) For when your car breaks. Like a tire gets low on air pressure or such.

Having seen what you can do to make a purely electric car as a finished piece of art, I've got a couple of ideas on things I want to be be able to add to mine.

Just slowed down

2009-10-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

I'm still working on the car, just real slowly. I'm often asked how long it will take, and my answer is always the same: "The more money I spend; that faster it will go."

Well I'm spending very little currently.

But I am purchasing things. I have two large purchases coming soon. I'll post on then when they arrive, so as to build suspense.

Looking car shaped.

2009-04-16T19:37:00.000-07:00

Life got out of the way for a few minutes over the last couple of days; and I've been able to spend some time working on the car. So it's starting to look vaguely car shaped.

I need a replacement running light for this side; but I test fit the other side's light, and I'm very happy to report the light well came out great (this side as you may recall was crushed).
Got the hoods on, and the doors hung. There are a couple of trim pieces I want. But the next big thing will be to button up the last of the electrical and run 12 volts to make sure everything grounds correctly. One of the things I've been tracking is the number of issues other EV's are having with floating grounds.
This side was measured several times as the welding repairs were done. Since a lot of rust was involved; I didn't want to risk changing the shape, and the door not handing correctly. So it's a perfect fit!
Oddly this side was fine as far as the 'rustoration' was concerned; so no real attention was paid. The door hangs with more than 1/4 inch to spare. Ah well.
You can see how high the car rides on the new suspension. Now I'm having daydreams of Li-ion batteries again. 1200lbs becomes 324lbs and the voltage goes from 114 to 156, and the amps go to 270. Everything is better!

Except the price.

Bling in the rear.

2008-10-10T17:25:00.000-07:00

Got more work done. The other day we got home from a family outing a little earlier then planed, so I was able to work out in the garage. So I finished up the rear trunk.

Both sides thank you very much.

The only thing I have left to do on the electrical is the console displays. But most of that is ironically mechanical hook ups. What I'm contemplating (read procrastinating) is going ahead and using white LEDS. I will put them in eventually, so why not do it now.

In my best Arnold: "Due it, DUE IT NOAH!!!"

A slow dash

2008-09-29T17:04:00.000-07:00

I have been working the last couple of weeks, just not been posting. Sorry about that.

Since the wiring is all in place now it's time to put the dash and lights together. So here's the dash console all scraped down with the a coast of paint.

Here's another (since it was so much work):

Then I finished wraping up the electrical:

Then the dash and trim gets installed:
BTW, if I have the light switches in the wrong order, let me know. I forgot to document that, and the Haynes manual doesn't cover it.

Dials and lights next. Due to some timing issues; I'll be putting the trunk hoods on after that.

Back in the car.

2008-08-26T09:52:00.000-07:00

Windshield wiper fixed and installed. It's always nice to learn new things; since this had a missing bolt and was otherwise messed with, it was nice to rebuild it.
I also finished installing the head lights.

Both of them.Doors are next and then the dash. But I don't know if I'll install the doors; it's so easy to work on the car without them.

A touch of bling

2008-08-25T13:20:00.001-07:00

Just for some color, I added some bling to the blog. I hope you like it. Rick as always did a great job on 'cleaning' up the graphics.

Scrap and paint.

2008-08-16T22:01:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I started stripping and painting the old parts I'm putting back in the car. A couple of good coats of rust-o-lium flat black will hopefully keep them in good shape for the years to come. The grill over the engine bay, and the rear trunk hinges.

Here's a close up of the hinges with the guide bars all attached and the mounting hardware painted black. The nuts standing out yellow just gave me the willies; so as long as I was painting today, I gave them a coat.

Here's the support arm of the windshield wipers. I'm not painting the whole assembly. And really this part was in great shape.

I found this under the car. I had to remove it to get to the breaks and gas tank lines. I was temped to send it along for blasting; but felt it might get misplaced. Since it provides a bit of aerodynamics under the car, I knew I was going to put it back on. And losing it would be unfortunate.

Headlight assemblies. All striped, primed and painted. I was also able to get these installed as well. Thanks to some well timed wife watching the assistance's.

All tucked away...

2008-08-03T12:27:00.000-07:00

All cleaned up and waiting for another round of venture funding. To assemble the the car further I'll need to order some parts. Rubber seals, carpet, dyno-mats and get the seats reupholstered.

There are some sub-assemblies that I'll be working on in the mean-time:
Head-lights getting put back together.
Tail lights too.
Windshield wipers need to get reinstalled.
Dash board.
The trunk hinges working correctly.
And of course the doors.

Most of these will require clean up and a coat of Rustolium before installing. So I'll blog about each one indevidually.

Parts moving back in.

2008-08-03T12:20:00.001-07:00

I finished up the wiring harness. And put it back in.

Here's the front all taped up, and installed. The three wires dangling on the left are for the gas tank level (irionic ).

Here's the engine compartment all nice and neat. For the first time in it's life.

The middle; not so much. Still needs to be installed, but I have to get the mounting hardware for the fuse pannel.

Working so hard!!!

2008-08-03T12:18:00.000-07:00

I worked my helpers so much today; they had to take a nap.
I wish I could join them.

Better photos though technology

2008-07-30T13:15:00.001-07:00

Back from paint and in the garage.

You can kind of make-out the pearl effect in the paint. No hole for the signal 'puck' or antenna hole anymore.

Focusing is way over-rated. All the dings are gone; nice and smooth.

The flash is making the blue come out more than it really does.

No more rust in the engine compartment.

All patched and painted; no more holes through the car frame.

Nice and straight, and with no rust. I didn't want the jack point; and forgot to remove the one on the other side. I plan to replace the rusted 'runners' with fiberglass replacements. They will stay shinny and black.

Even the doors are nice and shinny. The grill on the engine cover should be removed and painted black (and it will be).

Best photo showing the real color and effects.

And now a taste of things to come....

2008-07-24T19:19:00.000-07:00

Woot Woot!! We have paint. The repair is almost complete. Here's the hood and engine cover.

Left side (which was dented) all finished up.

The Right side (which was a lighter shade of yellow) all finished up.

And just a shot of the front. Everything was so nice and shinny!

The trunk hood and doors have been prepped and will go in the oven tonight. Saturday for a pickup. And into the garage for putting everything back into the car.

On a side note; I got a response back that the AC24LS engine is now ready for delivery.

Working but not working..

2008-07-19T13:54:00.000-07:00

Currently the 914 is still getting ready for it's big reveal. How they do these in one week really is a mystery to me now. Still fabricating metal for the rusted out pieces. The hood, doors and trunk lid are completed and primed. The passenger compartment is complete and the trunk is almost done. We're still working on the engine bay rust.

Oddly the soda blasting is working for and against us. The bare metal is a breeze to fabricate and weld to. But because the job was done so well; the priming paint job requires two coats (minimum) to fully protect. Cal-Blasters got to every nook and cranny; so now the paint has to as well.

Did I mention this car is going to rock? I'll try and get some photo's next time I'm at the shop.

Getting ready for the home-comming

2008-07-05T18:32:00.001-07:00

As long as the car is out of the garage for the second to last time (getting the breaks once overed will be the last time). I wanted to make sure the garage would looks it's best when it gets back in there. This is something I've wanted to do since moving in.

Insert awesome car in to this picture here.

And a huge thanks goes to Rick, for what could have been two days of back breaking work; being two mornings of back breaking labor (with a lot of joking between shots of Gatorade).

T-minus 10,9,8... PAINT!!!

2008-07-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

Here's what a 914 looks like in the buff:

And the trunk:

Even the 'rust' in he trunk looks good like this:

Very good idea of the rust in the engine compartment:

I even found out the front left panel had been replaced at some point. But they did a nice enough job that the seam never showed. I always wondered why the paint was lighter.

Up next:

A quick primer job so nothing rusts.
Then metal work for what rust needs to be fixed.
Then body work to get out dinks and bends.
Another coat of primer.
Under carage paint job (JBL or such).
Paint the car (color number BF1F1).
Spray the trunks with bed liner. (Maybe later I'm going to be painted out after this)

I will then have a car ready for batery racks, motor and inverter.

There's a hole....

2008-06-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

I meant to post yesterday, but I was working from home; and didn't have the time.

The reason I was working from home was the car was being transported over to Cal-Blasters. And it went. Now the garage is an empty nest. Just a lone transmission. It looks so pitiful.

But soon there will be a painted car in there.

Ohh Ahh.

Idle hands do the devil's work.

2008-05-31T15:11:00.000-07:00

After making a huge mess in the garage, and pitting new types of grease and grim againest my wife. Now that the cars is finished. At least till the middle of next month anyways. It's time to pay the piper. 1 gallon of grease cutter (the bio friendly type), a scrub brush, and two hours of labor gives you this!

This also required a couple of 'Aleve' that evening.

Last time it will be yellow.

2008-05-31T15:02:00.000-07:00

I've got the date; June 12th. I'll send the car up north, and it will come back minus any paint. But here it is: for the last time, in yellow!

Front end completly torn down.

All the door trim and dashboard removed.

Engine compartment all bare and wraped for transport.

And the final indignity. No doors or wheel.

Next shots will be of the naked cars. At last dirty pictures. Ironically they actually will be very clean...

A Man, a plan, a Sears gift card, and a Memorial Day sale...

2008-05-31T14:54:00.000-07:00

My MIL has a great sense for gifts. For Christmas she sent a Sears gift card. Well I needed a jack and stands a couple of months ago. So part of it went there...

But I've been biding my time; wait for the moment to exact my revenge from Sears for the 'Tuffins' pants my mom used to buy us.

At last the three day weekend was upon us; %50 off plus %15 with coupon. It was time to strike!

Revenge is sweet my friends, revenge is sweet (and metric).

I think the bolt is giving way...

2008-05-31T14:38:00.000-07:00

Say what you want about my K-Mart tools; at least they don't break.

Gotta lay off that spinach.

Well there’s your problem

2008-05-22T13:32:00.001-07:00

Having dropped the engine; there remained one major system to remove.

All the wires. Rick came by and we got medieval on the wiring harness. And the gas lines, clutch cable, gas and speed-o-meter cables.

Oh, yeah:

All the internal (and external) trim.

Two weeks of work

2008-05-22T13:21:00.001-07:00

I've been getting a lot of support, both from friends and my wife. My friends getting greasy and my wife freeing up my time.

Well maybe the brakes still need a little work…

But major props to Alberto at club NARP for spending a day here at Ground Zero Labs.

Something seems to be missing….

Look ma, no engine (and transmission (and exhaust)).

A couple of years to go

2008-05-22T13:08:00.001-07:00

I'm working to make sure this car gets another 30+ year, just with no gasoline. So maybe I might pass it along. But jeez wait till it's done!

Nice 10 – 2 style.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the she has already told me the car has to stay yellow. "For Bumble-Bee Tranformer Dad!"

Not. Going. To. Happen.

Hey is that rust, or are you just happy to see me?

2008-05-22T12:56:00.001-07:00

Pulled off the side runners and finally saw what was (and wasn't) left of the car side. I have no frame flex or distortion so there's something holding the car together. It's just not the right side of the car

You know you might need that part of the car for later….. The sad part is when I removing the side panel, the jack point was interfering. So I put a screwdriver in the bend it out of the way… by hand.

The left side runner has a surprise for me as well…

I didn't know people took 914's off road. But how, that much mud get's into a side panel; I'll never know.

Taking things apart

2008-05-22T12:42:00.001-07:00

As you may recall I'm going to send the 914 off to be Soda Blasted. This is a greatly improved version of sand blasting. This will take the car down to bear metal. Having never done this before the fine people over at Cal-Blaster have advised me to remove everything from that car.

"The less on the car, the better our access." So I'm removing everything.

Here's the front of the car, sans headlights and bumper. The fog-lamps and headlight frames were removed next.

The rear getting the same treatment.

Oh how those wheels turn.

2008-05-22T12:36:00.001-07:00

It's not that I haven't been working on the car; it's just that I have been so busy, I haven't been able to update much. But after two people have mentioned that updating the blog might be a good idea I'm taking the hint. And hopefully be able to use a new tool to write the post (allowing me to post more often).

Where's Huston when you need them.

2008-02-20T17:24:00.000-08:00

I've known about the rust on the passenger side engine, since buying the car. It's bad. But as I break the car further and further down, I'm getting a clearer picture of just what I'm up againest. And I see more dollars going into that part of the car than I had planed. "But it seems the plans are to be changed!" (And so are the sheets).

This should be a stright line. That strange fold is not suppose to be there....

It seems that it is so bad, that at one point the previous owner tried to jack the car up using one of the jack points, and it gave way. When I tried the back-up jack point, under that car; I found that it was gone as well. Well not gone, but someone had also tried to jack the car up there as well, and the whole section had folded up and retreated further up into the car.

At this point I'm not even too sure where to put the jacks to remove the engine... It could be the only thing holding the right side of the car together.

It's not, and I've been told to use the rear suspension points when removing the engine.

But, dang, that's a lot of rust.

Missing in action

2008-02-20T17:20:00.000-08:00

There are more and more thing missing from the car every day. Which is a good thing… For now.

Gas tank and front hood; missing! Also worth note: all brake fluid is missing as well.

Rear trunk and engine cover: missing....

The engine's going walk-about next, but I'm taking a couple of weeks off for a walk-about myself. So soon.

Harry Houdini

2008-02-20T17:11:00.000-08:00

What do you do with all the parts as you remove them and they’re waiting for media blasting? Well since I’m not going to kick a car out of the garage, I’ll raise them up.

Watch as they hover in mid air (and please god don’t let them fall!). The original plan was to pulleys on all corners; so one person (me) could raise and lower that parts as needed. In case more stuff had to be added.

Come on... smile!

2007-12-21T21:49:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite jokes about electric cars is "There are more Tuckers on the road then EV1's." So you can imagine how interested I was when I saw that there are not one, but two restored EV1's out there.

The first belongs to WWU; and they have been very faithful in restoring this car.

The other belongs to UW Madison. They have changed out the inverter and charger, but kept (and were able to get) the original batteries.

While there are still more Tuckers on the road (49); there are now 200% more EV1's (2) than I thought. And Jay Leno still can't get one.

Now this is new.

2007-12-07T11:58:00.000-08:00

One of my plans has always been to sand blast the car, and put on a new color. Nothing wrong with canary yellow; but it's a tad to 70's. Last night I saw this : http://www.calblast.com/ on TV.

Who knew? Use baking soda instead of sand. Unless they charge way more than a sand blaster, I am so going to do this. It's just too cool.

BTW the new color I'm thinking about is Audi's "Deep Sea Blue Pearl Effect". I think getting the running boards power coated black and the chrome trim should really look nice.

Silver lining on the gray clouds.

2007-12-01T17:21:00.000-08:00

First the grey clouds:
Well Murphy had his way with me. I was planning to get the car into the garage as fast as possible. No reason to contribute to more rust. So I had to clear up floor space to move the car in. The soonest the new cabinets could be installed was yesterday.

Sure enough with the new storage space; I was able to move that car into the garage today…. of course it rained yesterday. Hard.

I live in So-Cal so we only get like five day of rain a year. And Murphy insisted the car get rained on one last time.

Well if that’s the only time Murphy shows up, I’ll count my blessings.

Now the silver lining:
Since the car got soaked I took some time today to further disassemble the interior and pull more carpet and linings out. And it really does appear that the rust is only on the passenger side engine compartment.

Oh, I found out what the technical term for the ‘shape’ of the trunk hood is; it’s “sprung”. There are two coasters the are suppose to provide a three point hinge. But the restrainers can rust away (or just get broken off). But that’s where the trunk rust I have came from.

No rust in the drivers side (just rain water) controls.

Front trunk has a light dusting of it; but most of the grim brushed clean.

Here's the rust that I'll have to fix. But it will really keep me busy.

Glamor shot with the hood off. Nice! BTW the spot of rust on the finder is really where the radio antenna used to be. That will be filled in; I'll be going iPod or maybe satellite radio.

I've been to the mountain top.

2007-12-01T17:18:00.000-08:00

My Dad had a dream and he imparted that dream onto his sons. I now live that dream. May I present to you:

Two cars in a two car garage!

I would like to thank my wife and daughters (who graciously allowed me to park their vehicles behind the Porsche).

Already late?

2007-11-27T09:20:00.000-08:00

Dag-nab-it. I figured with 4 days I could get the electrical pulled; heck I was thinking of even getting the dash-board pulled. But no.

In defense I will state that other electrical work got in the way:

Our street got a little carried away this year. Which for the kids isn't a bad thing. (And I must admit for the kid in me as well)

But now it will be two weeks before I get to work on the car. This weekend I'll be working like a mad man to get the garage prepped to move that car inside. I have to move some stuff into cabinet, that have to be built, that need old ones torn down to build the new ones. So I have room for the car. But I'll get to put an epoxy floor down, so that's a bonus.

I just have to get this before we have rain (we have 5 days of rain coming up soon).

Dusk before the dawn

2007-11-24T08:36:00.000-08:00

Today's goal is the complete removal of the electrical system. Now obviously I'll need to put this back it, so this will be a removal, not deconstruction.

Fortunately I'll be taking a lot of pictures; so I'll know how to put it back in. Always a plus.

Wish me luck.

Where the rust is.

2007-11-17T15:26:00.001-08:00

I knew that there was going to be some restoration. So without further ado; I present to you, The Rust.

The trunk. But just the back potion. This should be a quick job with a plasma cutter and a replacement plate.

Engine compartment, passenger side. Normally you can't see daylight. So this is through two sheets of metal. We're talking some serious restoration here.

Engine compartment, driver's side; fortunately there is no rust here. Just some ex-plant life. Gonna have to look at shop-vac.

Passenger compartment. Sweet, the rust never made it out of the engine compartment. This is completely solid.

Front storage. Other then being filthy, no rust to speak of.

Bonus! I found that the spare (in addition to being shredded) was a 5th matching rim, so the wheels are going to be far better than I'd hoped. Also; all four wheels on the car have disk brakes (I seem to recall the back brakes were drums as stock).

It all seems so easy

2007-11-17T09:02:00.001-08:00

Tasks:
1) Disassembly (pull interior and misc external)
2) Assess body and rust repair requirements.
3) Drop engine and transmission.
4) Remove hoods
5) Remove doors
6) Sand blast
7) Metal work to repair rust (and there is some)
8) Prime frame and body parts
9) ** Install conversion parts **
10) ** Remove conversion parts **
11) Final paint
12) Install conversion parts
13) Wire conversion
14) Install batteries
15) Change batteries
16) Drive car.

Steps 9 and 10 are the deluxe build steps. It really should be done this way. But If I skip those steps I can get the car restored much faster. And once the car looks awesome; I should be re-invigorated to complete the conversion.

Get organized.

2007-11-17T08:45:00.000-08:00

First and foremost I have fallen victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but the third one slightly less well-known is this: Never try to convert a car to electric when you have to restore it as well!

So I have two jobs to schedule out; restore the car and convert to electric. Aside from the work there is only one area where this posses a problem. After getting the restoration done I have to hack some of the newly restored car up to convert it.

Most notably the controller installation: I have to cut the bottom of the trunk open. The best way to do this, is before final body work and paint. But that would mean con-current work paths. And that my friend might be an issue.

Old busted and new hotness

2007-11-17T08:28:00.000-08:00

It’s plan A time!

I’ve purchased a Porsche 914 and now it’s time to make it electric! The details are 144 volt AC system from EletroAutomotive.

I present Old and Busted:

(The car I bought)

Now I present New Hotness:

(The car I own)

They may seem to be the same car. But there is a subtle difrerence.

It’s all about the Benjamin’s

2007-09-27T15:02:00.000-07:00

This site is going to be used for my plan to convert a car into an electric car. Or, as those in the know put it: from ICE to EV.

However the job I had when I started making my plans has changed, and the huge sums of free cash that I planed to drop when away. But not the drive to make an EV (pun intended).

The plan is get a downer car, pull the engine, adapt a electric motor and mount a ton (ok one thousand pounds so only ½ a ton) of batteries. I had planed to do this to a Porsche 914; then a Mazda Miata.

I had planed to do an AC conversion; but now and thinking of starting with a DC conversion first. Just to get my feet wet as it were.

Maybe time for plan C….

Test post.

2006-12-17T10:56:00.000-08:00