Some pictures, yo~!

Here's some pics...all before I did any rust work...the after pics coming in a day or two

Here's the big hole in the passenger side floor pan. This is the area between the underside of the back seat, and the passenger seat. Same old story: battery acid leaked out from the area under the back seat, and got under the tar board...sat and sat and sat and sat...no one could really see the rust under the tar board. I ended up cutting out a larger area to rid the old rusted out part of the pan, to get to solid material to weld to. 

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Here's the passenger side rear shocks I put in. Coil overs (it still had the original shocks!) to support the extra 150lbs or so that will be in the car.

Here's one of the front shocks in there - these were quite difficult to get in there. Had to use a 2nd floor jack to compress the shock to get it in there. Is there a better way? Probably, but I did it this way...

Under the bonnet...where the gas tank used to be. Pretty dirty and rusty around the area where the wiper fluid reservoir and brake fluid reservoir sit. I took them out to clean them up. The brake fluid reservoir had a loose cap, (the original) that had just fallen off, so a lot of fluid had leaked all over there. Got a new cap for that, and getting some new flexi line for the fluid. You should see this area now, in the 'after' pics. Really looks great.

The upper part of the bonnet/gas tank area. I sanded it down, and touched it up with some matched Ruby Red paint. Looks great now...check back for the after pics.

I'm gonna put 3 batteries in that area where the tank used to be. 

Hopefully a lot work will get done this weekend. Dad is gonna be here for a while, helping out for a week.

Lot's of work done...on the car that is..

Haven't had 1 minute to update the blog lately. All extra time is on the car. Plus it didn't help that apple took my computer (in order to fix a faulty logic board) and sent it to HOUSTON, yes HOUSTON, during Hurricane Ike, to the service center in HOUSTON during a hurricane. Brilliant work there, apple. Then they tried to tell me that they wouldn't cover the water damage on my latop...WHEN THERE WAS NONE! This especially riled me because they told me exactly the same thing several months ago when I sent in my old machine. Very creepy because I heard almost exactly the same phrases, verbatim, when they tried to claim that there was liquid damage on this machine, JUST LIKE THEY DID BEFORE. I really don't trust apple anymore, so no more extra apple care coverage for me.

okay, excuse that bit of rage. I have the computer back now, and I've done a lot of work on the car. I swear to freaking jesus on a toadstool that I'll get the pics up soon.

Anyhow, I've scraped, scrubbed, and brushed away all of the rusty bits on the entire floor pan of the car. The entire underside of of the floor pan (lots of time on my back. creating a new tonsure on the back of my skull from rubbing it against the bricks under the car while I did the wire brush rust scrub) is clean of rust. Also pulled up all of the tar mats inside the car, scraped with a chisel is more like it, and cleaned up all of the rust under there as well. Found a few rust holes around the passenger side heater channels, and the area under the heater channel on that side. Just small holes, nothing too major, so patched them up with some small bits of sheet metal and JB weld, or used automotive GOOP on some of the smaller holes.

Hired a guy to come weld a patch of sheet metal into the place where the battery acid had rusted away the floor pan under the back seat. Not knowing much about welding, I assume he did a fine job, but I'm a little worried the sheet metal is slightly too thin. Without the punched pattern in the sheet metal, it just feels flimsier. I stepped on it several times, put my weight on it, and no give, so I think it'll be fine. Plus it's largely under the back seat, so should be fine. So I had to seal up the spaces in the underside after the weld job. Used the automotive GOOP again. I like that stuff. Has a self leveling property that I like.

Then the big job of painting POR 15 over the entire patched and scraped away rusty areas. That's a big 3 step process, spraying their degreaser over everything, then cleaning it off with water. Then spraying their "Metal Ready" over everything  and then spraying that off with H2O after 20-30 minutes. Then letting it dry completely and painting the toxic POR 15 over everything. But it not looks FANTASTIC, for anyone who gets under the car. I did the floor pan, underneath and inside the car, did the foot rest, the entire area under the gas tank area (front of the pan, including the beam assembly and some of the rusty bits, like the steering dampener (not the chrome part, just the fat part of the arm) etc.

That POR 15, some great stuff. Stinks to high hell, but once it's on there, it really improves the look of everything, especially where there was rust. I yam pleezzed.

So I finally got started on prepared for electrical components! I installed the brackets for a shelf that will go in the engine bay area (under the deck lid, remember that term!) and I created the primary brackets for the small battery box that will go in the gas tank area under the trunk (trunk in the bug, being the front bonnet area.) I'm biting an idea I saw in this Ghia that was converted (the guy in the Electric Auto Assoc., I think i mentioned him eariler). He used aluminum slats, beams etc you can get at the hardware store and bent them with his vise. I have a big vise, I don't know the first thing about welding, so I'm doing the same. Good results so far.

I'll be going to TAP plastics to pick up a few sheets of polyethelene (that plastic you can get as cutting boards or cutting mats you use in the kitchen) to create the component shelf in the engine bay, and to surround the battery boxes. Hopefully sometime in the next week.

I forgot to mention that ALL of my electric car parts have now arrived. EV of America came thru in a big way so far. So I'm happy to recommend them, so far. I got everything they said I would get, and it came reasonably fast (especially compared to other quotes i was getting...10-12 weeks away from getting parts.) This includes the adaptor plate/coupler created for attaching the motor to the tranny (haha). 

So the next steps are organizing the component board that will sit just above the motor, and then installing that (before wiring, of course) and then building the battery boxes. 

I also got some 1 1/2 inch PVC to run the fat 2/o welding cable thru to attach the front battery pack to the battery pack. It seems kinda too fat to attach to the bottom of the car, so I'm considering 2 smaller3/4 PVC lines, one for each red and black line. 

I have taken a bunch of photos, just haven't got them off of the camera...coming soon.

OH, and this is exciting...

After weighing many options, I finally made a decision on who to order my electric car components from. 

Now I've been weighing, and comparing and weighing options for a lot longer than I've probably let on here in this blog. Basically there are about 5 or 6 main vendors for this stuff in N. America, and I've been comparing prices, judging website graphics, coming to conclusions based on the way their color scheme made me feel. I'm not joking.

So I put those feelings away, deciding that these aren't people who are interested in good design, color matching or web aesthetics. I had been writing, calling etc since then. That seemed a bit smarter, perhaps a bit more prudent. It'll create a larger 'sample size.' 

In writing to KTA Services, they sent back a form to fill out about my project. I filled it out immediately and sent it back (emailed.) I waited a week, and never heard anything. So I called (they're here in CA, so I felt okay about calling...why? I dunno...it's that unreasonable reasoning that seems to happen sometimes.) Turns out they had received the form, but hadn't had time to look it over. Okay, that's fine. We're all busy. But it's been about 2 months and I haven't heard a peep from them since. I finally read that they have a new guy that just took this place over, so maybe there's a new ownership problem. Too bad, I liked their site pretty well.

There was the go-to pros, Electro Automotive, started by the guy who wrote the book (literally, Michael Brown wrote Convert It, the blueprint to these projects) on EV conversions. Anyhow, great response (poor graphics on the site, and not a great layout) from the EA team, and very friendly. Unfortunately it looks like they're pumping up the prices a bit, most likely due to their reputation and location (in Silicon Valley). Hey, that's okay. They deserve the extra dough. From somebody. Just not me. I have a strict budget. Not to mention, they were running 10-12 weeks behind on orders.

There were a few others (folks that make Zilla controllers - pricey - or the Warp9 motors, again pricey), there are Sweater and Hat over at electro motorsports, our homeslice. Their site isn't terrible either. Ultimately I decided that they were more comfortable with setting up EV motorcycles than car conversions. That's fine. Just not my thing right now. 

There was e-volks.com, who had a good response time, and seemed friendly. Obviously this is their specialty (VW conversions). Their site was not so pleasing to my eye. That's an understatement. And after reading Convert It, it seemed that 48 vlt systems were not such a good idea. I know that the book is older, but it seems that the basic physic principles still apply. evolks seemed to think (at least according to the site) that the 48 vlt sys was fine. Plus I wasn't sold on their coupler/adaptor plate solution. 

The worst site, by far, was the mismatched, and patriotic Electric Vehicle of America. Unaligned graphics, poor photos, animated flags. So, of course I went with them. They're not even in California. But I did manage to call them once or twice (working against all natural intuition). 

Anyhow, I sold my biodiesel Mercedes and had the dough from the sale to send to EVA for my kit of electric car stuff. Why'd I pick them?

They always got back to me quick, and with smart answers. They are patient with me. They weren't the cheapest, but they were reasonable, and seemed to be offering a good amount of phone support post-purchase to help me with this thing. They also didn't have a long wait time (we'll see if this is true.) I liked the way they went about the adaptor plate/coupler solution (how the motor attaches to the transmission (tranny!) to make the car go. Plus they had detailed instructions on how to wire it all, install it, and a safety video etc. All sounded good, and they recommended I include a couple more contactors/breakers for safety issues. With kids in the car, I like that idea.

So, I fought off my aesthetic intuition towards decision making in this process. I guess that's progress.

Catching up...2 project realization

Missed some posting days. Done a lot. Pics coming soon.

I realized (did i mention this) that this is actually 2 projects. 

A restoration.

A conversion.

I'll have to make a list in 2 columns to help figure out the priorities for these projects (which is really one project, but, y'know, new realization and all...)

So this last weekend, the parents came to visit and Dad helped with some VW work. We cut out the old rubber window seals, popped out the old windows...cleaned them up and then put the new rubber seals on the old windows. I'm doing the chrome trim look (not Cal-look) so we had to shove that chrome trim in the rubber seals too. That seemed like it was gonna be really hard as we tried it after getting all of the rubber seals on the windows. But, apparently, our hands and fingers must've just been fatigued. 2 days later we used a little silicone lube spray, and got those chrome trims right into the rubber, no problem.

I'll wait to insert the side and back windows until I get the headliner done (that'll be on the Restoration side of the ledger), but we attempted the windshield installation. Maybe we shoulda waited a day or two to do this as well, but we didn't have a day or two. Soon after the trim was in, maybe an hour or so later, we tried to put the windshield in the car. The damn trim kept popping out, the rubber was falling away from the glass...ackkk. We tried to cool the rubber off a bit, to get it to hold it's shape a bit more, but it still wouldn't go. As the trim was popping out of one of the corners, I tried tapping back on it with a rubber mallet, and ended up getting a small window crack. So, lesson learned. Don't tap on the windshield with anything when yer trying to shove it in the windshield space. I've read a few more hints about how to do the string trick - found a good page, Rob and Dave's VW page, had some good info - and when I can get another volunteer to help out, I'll give it a shot.

Also cleaned out the old rubber seal under the "deck lid" (remember that term?) and I have the new rubber seal ready to go. I can't believe how many sites I'm looking up to get info on this (besides the books I have - the original 62 manual from VW, a hardback VW book purchased around 62 sometime, the Muir book, and another repair guide (not the bentley, another one). 

What's more, I can't believe how obsessed I'm getting with all of this. I have never been interested in car repair. What the hell is going on?

My Unfortunate Post to The Samba

Okay, ever since I found out I was getting the beetle delivered to me I started reading thesamba.com, which is an all VW knowledge site. Classifieds, forums, very detailed repair work discussed. I even found a few posts about bug EV conversions. After reading it a while, I thought I had a bit of a feel for the site and decided to post.

This is a decision I don't take lightly. 

Part of my job is running the online store for DailyKos.com, and we've been doing that for several years. I've only posted a handful of times in diaries only referring to items available on the store. I've never put up a diary with an opinion as I feel like there are those there who say things a lot more articulately than I can. I'm a bit post shy.

Anyhow, I put up a post, simply asking for advice on what part of the brake and/or suspension system I may want to investigate before installing the electric gear. Again, aren't these people just constantly refreshing their samba browser, looking for a question to release their abundant and powerful knowledge upon us, less enlightened gearheads?

Turns out that they do refresh their browser pretty often, but mostly to strike fear into those who might be considering altering the mechanical operation of what Volkswagen had intended at it's inception (which, I believe, had something to do with Hitler. Didn't it? No, seriously.)

The very mention that I was removing the smelly, dirty, filthy, unholy emissions burping internal combustion engine to replace it with a clean, much smaller, and quieter electric motor seemed to offend at the highest level of VW sanctity.

This is part of one comment:

"Let me get this straight. You join the Samba today to ask questions devoted to totally destroying the nature of this 62 ragtop....give the VW back to you DAD or another relative that might enjoy the VW with its intended style and function."

I guess I was surprised to get that comment.

One guy just kept asking me if I would sell him the car. Seriously, when did I mention I wanted to sell it?

This one was funny:

"...save the bug from a fate so many have faced-molestation..."

I think he may have wanted a colon there where he put the dash, but you probably get the idea.

I then found another thread that discussed swapping out a Mazda motor for the VW aircooled. Not too many comments like these in that thread. Maybe I got lucky. 

I can't help but think that there's more to these comments than just the traditionalist type of thinking. Are there people that are really so married to the idea of burning gas, that an EV swap is that abhorrent? What could possibly be better about that loud little engine, burning gas all over the atmosphere, costing me nearly $5/gallon (it will be by the fall) than installing my SepEx, or whatever the hell it'll be, quiet, clean burning engine? With the back deck lid (I just learned this term, it's basically the trunk of the VW bug, but since the engine is in there, it's a 'deck lid') closed, it'll just be another VW that avoided the junkyard, and is enjoying a second life after a very long 1st life. 

I can't possibly see their point, but then again, I never understood Jesse Helms either.

Next, my thoughts about the SepEx, battery management systems, and more. (Didn't get to work on the bug this last weekend, apart from buying some books on it - finished redoing my bathroom instead and did a lot of...ughhh....plumbing.)

Oh, here's a link to my unfortunate post to thesamba. Note that thee were a few writers who were trying to be helpful, so don't let my outrage paint the wrong picture. Some of them were pretty cool

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3177775#3177775

My Trip to the Electric Car store

So I had mentioned the nearby outlet for EV conversion parts, Electric Motorsport. I forgot to mention that I stopped by last week. 

So, as I said, I had called ahead to chat a bit about my project, and the person I spoke to was overwhelming willing to speak about it. Unfortunately all of the info he threw out there at me seemed to leave me a bit confused. He spoke of "just using the dif" and "torque" and "horsepower". Okay, I should brush up on some of this before I go in.

"Dif" or "differential", the part that the transmission is attached to. Why would I want to bypass the transmission/clutch. Well, I guess I'm not sure, but it sounds like a bad idea. I can feel it. I don't know why, but this is something I can instinctually understand, once I understand what he was talking about. I truly have no, absolutely no, scientific or reason based on physics for this opinion. So, there you go...some insight into how I'm making my decisions.

I heard one motor described as "torquey", which I guess is good. Turns out that means it can get going quickly, and has a lot of torque. "Horsepower", as you can imagine, has to do with power, and I figured out I'd need around 16 or 17 horsepower from my motor/controller to get the bug moving very well.

Armed with this little bit of knowledge, I hope to go in and get some ideas for my design. Maybe eliminate some of the more unrealistic aspects to my design. I meet with someone there wearing a sweater. It was kinda warm, so I remember sweater guy. Of course I'm always in shorts, so people probably think of me as the 'shorts guy'. Anyhow, sweater says most of the tech guys are outta town working on a E motorcycle. I get the sense that they work on the cycles a bit more than cars. Anyhow, we talk about motors/controllers, my system, what I my need.  He tends to move in the same direction as the guy I spoke to on the phone. We're talking a lot about this SepEx motor from D and D. Dungeons and Dragons made EV motors? 

So we discuss controllers with the SepEx, how the sepEx has "easy reverse", which I guess can be programmed into the controller. "But wait," I say, having done a little homework,"If I'm using my tranny" (I said tranny, and didn't snicker), "why would I need that? Wouldn't I use the reverse in my tranny." (Again, refrained from the snicker. Oh, I was referring to the transmission.) Then, I swear, I said "It's not like I'm hooking up the motor direct to the dif." Like I'd been using that phrase since high school auto shop. (I took woodshop instead, and LOOK how that has impacted my life.)

"Oh" says sweater guy, "You're using the clutch, well I guess you wouldn't need that, but won't the clutch/tranny make your car heavy?" Then walks in a new guy, I'll call him obnoxious hat guy, but he was a very nice and helpful fellow. He just had a sort of obnoxious hat. Really bright, garish, huge type. A type face I didn't care for. If you like type faces that I don't like, I'll find a way to be prejudiced about it. 

So Obnoxious Hat Guy defends me! "But the tranny makes more efficient use of the energy. I f he shifts in the tranny, the motor isn't needlessly spinning." Or something to that effect. 

Sweater guy then starts talking about how he had a bug, (not electric) and had worked on it, and had used a centrifugal clutch disc and that I should look into that. I think he deliberately brought up the centrifugal clutch disc to get us to shut up about the whole thing. How were we gonna argue with a guy who had installed his own centrifugal clutch disc in his own beetle some years ago?

Then Sweater and Hat get into a discussion about battery monitoring systems, how they don't have one now, but are developing one that will be the best on the market. Wow, I need a battery management system on my car? Sounds a bit complicated. Then a guy that looks like he's missing Alice in Chains rehearsal goes by on a forklift, and Sweater points to him "That's our electrical engineer, he's designing the battery monitoring system." I don't want to jump to conclusions about Forklift Alice in Chains Engineer, as I have a lot of friends who make odd fashion decisions, but happen to be brilliant. For some reason I felt like maybe Sweater shoulda kept that piece of knowledge to himself.

By then, Sweater Guy gets a little distracted, and Obnoxious Hat Guy helps me with a few other questions about batteries, my old 6 vlt system (i can get a dc/dc convertor for 6vlt instead of the 12vlt one he showed me.) We discussed getting a charger that would have to be programmed to deal with my battery pack, and how I'd have to balance my batteries before putting them in. I have to say they were both helpful, but I did leave with probably more questions than answers. But maybe I'd decided to go with the SepEx motor and the controller they were discussing (it did regenerative braking! A concept that when you brake, or slow down really, the controller absorbs the energy of the slow down back into the battery pack and you have that energy saved for later. A great idea, but it sounds like every time you remove your foot from the pedal, you stop coasting and start braking. I imagined driving a lot lot Rocky Balboa when he gets his first car, a black TransAm in the first Rocky movie. Does anyone remember that?

Okay, I leave EM, and go back to research some of the concepts we discussed. Then I make an unfortunate post to a Volkswagen forum

I joined a club.

"I would never join a club that would have me as a member" - Groucho Marx. I know everyone thinks it was Woody Allen, but he was quoting Groucho, and gave him credit. I always identified with that, and thusly, have never joined a club. With one exception. In High School, we had a club called the TUNA CLUB whose only  criteria was that you didn't have to do anything, or ever see anyone in that club ever again. We had shirts made, and posed for a yearbook picture, but that was the only time we were ever together. 

So I joined the Electric Auto Assoc, their local chapter. I had read that the bi-monthly newsletters had a lot of good, up to date info (they don't put it online, unfortunately) and I could go to meetings and meet some folks who have done this. I went to my first meeting yesterday. 

Suffice to say, I had a couple pages of questions ready for whoever would listen. It took place at a new business called Green Motors in Berkeley. Nice place, they took over an old toyota dealership or something. Anyhow, I wandered in, there were plenty of coffee and donuts. All sorts of crazy electric bikes, cars, minivans (not what you imagine, truly minivans, about as big as a honda civic) were parked around there. We got started with introductions. "What the hell am I gonna say? "

We had to go around the room and introduce each other and explain your projects, vehicles, etc. I'm totally out of my league to speak about anything. I have a 62 bug. I'm trying to make it electric. That's all I got. I'll get laughed out of the room, or shunned, or worse; ridiculed after I leave. There's a guy there with a button that says "Ask me about my electric car" I won't even look at him when I speak. He has glasses, and most of the people in this room have glasses. And beards. I can't look at anyone with glasses and/or beards as they are sure to be smarter, more experienced and scientific than I will ever be.

They started the introductions. The first guy didn't even have a car. Neither did the second. Third guy had that really small electric van. 4th, 5th and 6th guy...no car, though one had an electric bike once, that someone offered him a lot of dough for. Then me. "I have a 62 bug, and I'm  trying to convert it. This is my first meeting, and I'm just trying to collect some info for the design." Done. Okay, good, no one laughed. we move on.

One guy is just there cuz he has a donor car. One guy lost his car in an accident. Sounded pretty upset about it, but no more car. 2 people just bought new electric cars from this delearship. I am astounded at how many people are here that don't actually have a car, bike or motorcycle. They're just getting info too. 

Okay, we watch a demo on this system you can add to your Prius (none of us have one, except for the guys doing the demo) that turns it into a plug in that allows you to drive all electric and changes your mileage to around 100-150mpg. Pretty interesting stuff for those that have an 04 Prius or newer. For the rest of us, seems a bit too pricey. But I applaud their efforts. The whole product interfaces with the Prius computer, so it was a lot of work.

Anyhow, the best part of the meeting was that 1) I was not shunned, and 2) I got to talk to the guy who brought his 68 ghia. He did his conversion in 86! It's still rockin, and is super clean. I got all sorts of good info from him like 1) use a system that uses the clutch (message loud and clear) and 2) use lead acid flooded batteries. I even saw how I could make some battery box hold-downs from hardward store aluminium and my vice, instead of welding. 

Anyhow, lots of good info there, and I'm glad I joined the club. The next meeting next month is a big electric car show, with all sorts of folks bringing their vehicles. I'll see if I can bring the kids and missus. I'm catching a lot of guff from the Missus about joining a club. I guess since I was in bands before, that's sort of like being in a club, isn't it?