This was the story of a budget conversion of a VW rabbit to electric drive. It has now snowballed into the restoration and conversion of a 1977 Fiat Spider, the design and construction of a motor controller and the restoration of an old forklift motor for EV use. Phew...

What happened?

Ooops, it has been quite a while since I last updated this blog. This post is intended to summarize what been going on with the lemon.

Time consumersTime consumers

Change you can drive to work in!

On tuesday, inauguration day, I drove the car to the DMV to get it inspected and have the registration changed to show that it's an electric car. I was quite nervous since I've never driven it further than up and down the street and I wasn't sure I would make it there and back.

Well I made it, unfortunatly I don't have any pictures so you'll have to make do with this beautiful graph of my journey
Drive to DMVDrive to DMV

EV Grin!!!

BeforeBefore

AfterAfter

My father in law before and after the EV grin was applied :D

Finally running

Between work, chores, baby, relatives visiting etc, I have not had much time for the car and even less time for this blog. Somehow I managed to get the car done, or close enough to done to take it for a real test drive.

My Dad & Brother visiting from Sweden/England helped me push the Camry out of the way, the last obstacle on the road to an EV grin.

Looking for the gearLooking for the gear

So Close

I'm so close now I can almost taste the EV grin!

What a Beauty!What a Beauty!

Vacuum brakes etc

I've been meaning to document the vacuum brake circuit for a while now, one of those roundtuit things. Well, someone just asked me to, so here it is.

Vacuum reservoirVacuum reservoir

Fathers Day

Fathers Day was a good day for the lemon! My wife took the kiddo and headed off to the in-laws, leaving me alone to work on the car all day.

I invited Daniel Busby over to help. Daniel is another EV nutc... uhm, enthusiast, who's just starting out on his own conversion. Here's a picture of his intended victim, a 65 Triumph Spitfire.

65 Triumph Spitfire65 Triumph Spitfire

Controller Wiring Board

Cutting Edge (get it?)Cutting Edge (get it?)

This is the wiring board for the controller. It takes care of pre-charge, main contactor driver, key switch and fault latching.

My Partially Electric Car

So my birthday came and went and there was no electric car test drive, or at least not a fully electric one. My Camry, affectionately know as the Peter beater, finally had the good sense to die. As you may have guessed by now, I'm a bit of a greenie so this was the last excuse I needed to go buy a Prius!!
It's Partially Electric!It's Partially Electric!

Monthly Update

The good news is that I've been making far more progress on the car than this website.
My goal is to take the car on a controlled test drive before my birthday, April 25th. Before I test drive it, there are a few things I absolutely need to get working. Brakes are obviously the most important part.

Rebuilt Rear BrakeRebuilt Rear Brake