Slacy's 914 EV build

I finally made it up to the body shop today to sign the work estimates and gave the wonderfully patient Scott a check so that he won’t feel so bad about keeping my car in his shop for like a year while nothing happens…

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You can see some pictures of the butchered pre-body shop 914 here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/smlacy/Porsche914

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Well, big changes in the non-914 department at my place.  Big news is that we’ve had our first kid!  He’s now 5 weeks old, and is somewhat more interesting than working in the garage on the 914! 

But, in real 914 news:  I was previously working on repairing some rust damage, and today I dropped the car off at a highly recommended body shop to complete the structural repairs.  Hopefully, in a few weeks I’ll get back a car thats “ready to go” for the conversion.  I know that I could have been working on other things before the rust repair was complete, but for some reason it was just a mental block for me.  Hopefully when the car comes back, I’ll be able to speed up the conversion process, which is now somewhat like a giant erector set!  I’ve got all the parts, I just need to bolt them together and get the car back on its wheels again!

If I’m lucky, I’ll be back in the garage in a couple weeks! (well, at least in the garage for an hour or two a week…)

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…every part I think I need to build this thing, other than the batteries themselves. What does this mean? I’ve got:

• An ADC 9″ Motor.
• A PFC-20 Charger and 12 Rudman Mk2 battery regulators.
• A Zilla 1k controller and hairball interface.
• A bunch of 4/0 wire.
• Transmission adapter plate, and other misc, mounting hardware.
• Misc electrical, like the throttle sensor, fuses, etc.

So, you may be asking yourself: Why isn’t it done yet?!? Well, the answer lies in the crazy world of rust repair. I was making some reasonable progress cutting things out, but each cut uncovered more rust, and that meant more cutting. When I got to the point where I’d need to start slicing the exterior body, I took pause, and decided to have the car towed to a body shop. Rich at High Performance House recommended Yeaman Auto Body for the repairs, said they knew lots about 914’s, which I’m sure most places don’t. So, I’m corresponding with Scott at Yeaman, scheduling a time where I can have my car flat bedded up to his place to finish the structural rust repairs. Thats the next big step, and thankfully, I’m not the one who has to do anything other than call the tow truck!

In other news, we’ve signed up with SolarCity to have a PV Solar system installed on our house. The mounting rails are installed, but it’ll be another week before the panels go on due to some other electrical work that needs to be completed first. But, we’re only a week away from being solar powered! For the geeks in the house, its a 3kW grid tied system that should more than make up for our electricity usage, until I start charging the car…

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Sadly, I still haven’t had much time to work on the 914, but I’ll provide a nice status update anyway:

• Ordered a replacement body panel from High Performance house. Should be here “any day now” but has not arrived for a couple weeks.
• Ordered a replacement body panel from Restoration Designs, and it arrived yesterday. I don’t think I’m going to do any cutting until I have all the panels ready.
• Still waiting on adapter plate and motor mount from electro automotive. Its been a couple months since my order, and I haven’t heard anything from them. I’ll ping them for status soon.
• Got a new clutch and pressure plate, had flywheel resurfaced and slightly lightened.
• My welding skills are fairly good, and I’m fairly confident that I can make repairs that are reasonable, but we’ll see when I start cutting.
• Still haven’t decided if I’m going to reinforce my car while I cut things out. I probably should, but it would require removing the doors, which I don’t really want to do.
• Zilla 1K order is coming along, and supposedly I’ll have the controller by the end of the year, if I’m lucky. The way all the other manufacturers are going, I don’t expect this to come true.
• PFC-20 charger order has been placed, and I haven’t heard from them about the status of the order. Its been about a month since I placed the order.

Man, this is taking a lot longer than I thought. I thought that I could easily get all the parts collected in a month or so, but its been 3+ months already, and the major components are nowhere to be seen.

Is there no such thing as a reliable EV parts supplier?

Body repair is still a daunting task, but I think I understand the scope of it, I just need to get up the guts to start cutting and welding. Maybe if/when I ever have a free weekend, I can dive into this with some gusto and get working.

Momentum on the project is harder to maintain than I had previously thought it would be. There always seems to be something else thats slightly (or hugely) higher priority in my life. The EV build process gets somewhat pushed to the bottom of the pile in this respect. Doing things in the evenings has gotten even harder now that its getting dark earlier.

Sorry to sound so down, but there’s just so much to do, and so little time.

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I haven’t had too much time to work on the 914 for the last week or so, but I hope to be getting back to work soon, at least with my welding practice.

Last night, I removed the driver’s side side skirt panel (is that the right name?). There was a big pile of dirt behind there, and thankfully, absolutely no rust at all. Thats very good news, since I was a bit afraid that the trapped moisture may have eroded through the laterals. I’m a bit more nervous about the passenger side, since thats where my acid-eroded hole is. I started to remove that one, but its being a bit more difficult. Whoever replaced the panels last used regular flat head screws to hold them on (from the bottom), and they’re totally rusted and extremely difficult to remove. They used aluminum pop-rivets on the top part, which are easy to drill out, and a pretty nice solution. I’ll probably pop-rivet them back on, and use a galvanized hex-head screws on the bottom when I replace them. I may have them painted as well, so replacement may be a ways off, but the car will drive just fine without them in place. They’re just cosmetic.

Here’s a link to a 914club post about this same topic…

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I know, its probably a bit premature, but I got an evalbum page for my conversion…

http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/877

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Hi!

I’ve created a Google Group for 914 EV talk. Join up!

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/914ev

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Well, not a big EV day, other than the fact that I got to ride in one of the very few Tango’s in existence. Pretty sweet. It was extremely fast, to say the least, and all 6′4″ of me fit in the back seat, which was pretty amazing as well. Awesome tech. I want my EV!

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I decided to take a break from Welding 101 and spent some of this weekend tinkering, I mean uh… disassembling the Internal Combustion Engine from my car. I wanted to remove the exhaust system so I could fit the thing more easily in my car (for disposal). This was a surprisingly difficult task, involving dozens of inaccessible bolts. Anyway, its off, and so is my clutch and flywheel, another surprisingly stubborn part. I also removed the engine support bar. If I’m lucky, thats all I’ll need from the ICE.

Andrea also graciously helped me clean up my transmission a bit! My goal is to have this thing shiny and sparkling before I put it in the car. Its almost there! Thanks!

We also went to the Silicon Valley Electric Car Rally this Saturday in Palo Alto. I’ve got some photos on my gallery…

It was really inspiring to see so many people interested in EV’s, and it was totally awesome to see the Tesla Roadster in person. That thing is gorgeous, and the tester car that was there looked “well worn” which I thought was really great. I’m glad they’re actually driving them and not just “showing” them.

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