Holy cow! I suck! I have done so little in the past two years!

I just wanted to update everyone. Last weekend I worked on the susupension and steering. I pressed apart the bearings and disk so parts could be painted. I painted the lower brace and other parts, but that's about it. I'm focusing on the front end so I can get the car back on the ground. I'd love to do a 4x100 conversion, but I need to be realistic... I just don't have the time so I'm keeping it stock.

By Darrell--Arizona-- (206.149.192.135) on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 01:01 pm:

It'll be a long time before I'll be finished, but here's my electric car conversion progress. I've been cleaning the motor, motor mount, and yesterday I took off the lights, bumper and various engine stuff. I feel more confident that my engine bay will look nice. I'm going to sand blast the motor and motor mount. I also have to replace the bearings on the motor.

By Darrell--Arizona-- (206.149.192.135) on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 02:35 pm:

How do I calculate speed...

if my motor were spinning 7000RPM and I was in 2nd gear(1.789:1 ratio) with stock 12 inch rims?

I got an answer of 222 MPH, but that doesn't sound right.

Do axles have a final drive ratio?

Here's a helpful website...
http://www.car-videos.com/tools/speedrpm.asp?Car=Select&Num1=195&Num2=50&Num3=16&AxleRatio=3.94&Ratio1=3.50&Ratio2=1.789&Ratio3=1.36&Ratio4=0.97&Ratio5=0.81&Ratio6=&Ratio7=&Redline=6500&Increment=500&B1=Recalculate

By Darrell--Arizona-- (206.149.192.135) on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 02:42 pm:

Just a guess from the other cars, but I think I'll be going about 60MPH if my motor is spinning abut 7000RPM.

I'm considering not using a clutch and having the motor go straight to the tranny. I'll just leave it in 2nd geaar. Many electric cars are converted this way. It'll cut down weight.

By Darrell--Arizona-- (206.149.193.33) on Tuesday, April 01, 2003 - 04:19 pm:

Today I was at the (Air Force) base hobby shop to check out their facilities. They have a full size paint booth just like my last base so I decided to take Justin's advice... I'm going to strip my car until it's just a shell. Then I'll paint it at the hobby shop.

Everytime I work on my car, I want to make it perfect. So it's like an addiction. The better I make it, the better I have to have it.

I'm going to cut window rubber, remove the interior and start from the ground up.

PS I'll be at the Suns/Nuggets game tonight. Yeee-hawww!

By Darrell--Arizona-- (206.149.192.46) on Tuesday, April 01, 2003 - 09:47 pm:

Justin, is it hard to remove the windshield without cracking it? Any advice for this big job?

By Twyla (24.69.255.236) on Tuesday, April 01, 2003 - 10:55 pm:

the guaranteed way not to crack it is by cutting the seal, but this is only a good method if you have another seal around.

By Jonathan (Jjorda215) (66.252.173.251) on Wednesday, April 02, 2003 - 05:12 am:

Darrel, are you adding the final drive ratio in there? A 4:1 or so final drive would give you about 55 Mph. Otherwise, take the circumference of the tire in inches, multiply by rpm, you get inches per minute, then convert inches to miles, and then minutes to hours, and you should be good.

By Darrell--Arizona-- (206.149.192.124) on Wednesday, April 02, 2003 - 05:40 am:

Thanks!

I'll start stripping the car tonight. I know that's the easy part. Then I'll continue with the body work. I'm going to look around to find replacement rubber in the local area like Dennis did.

Kinda sad hu? Custom Honda Civic going 55 Max! I knew I was figuring the gears wrong so I starting looking at other car examples and that got me in the ballpark of 60 mph. Hopefully I won't get rearended.

By Jonathan (Jjorda215) (66.252.173.251) on Wednesday, April 02, 2003 - 06:02 am:

Darrell, scrounge around some junkyards for a different transmission if you want a different final drive ratio. Maybe you'll find something with a deeper final drive, but third gear on that trans would be better. Someone a while back posted a list of all the trans ratios and final drives of all the different years. If someone still has it, maybe they'll post it again, or can point you towards the thread it was it. And if you're really needing more speed, I guess you can always try shifting without a clutch.

By Darrell--Arizona-- (206.149.192.121) on Wednesday, April 02, 2003 - 04:25 pm:

Yeah your right. They say that shifting with an electric motor is different, and that a clutch isn't needed as much. Because a motor will instantly release the torque and begin to spin free, but an engine won't. Plus I will keep the gear shifter so I can shift on the road (if possible) or at a stop sign.

I'm going to try to keep my transmission. Years from now, I want to buy an AC motor which will produce more power and be more efficient. I'm doing this conversion on a budget.

Check out the specs on this car...
http://www.acpropulsion.com/tzero_pages/tzero_home.htm

By dennis (63.230.204.124) on Wednesday, April 02, 2003 - 08:37 pm:

Hey Darrell, stay off loop 101 on the east side. Even after the recent speeder crackdown, traffic still goes 75-90mph. I was going 85mph the other day & I think John passed me!

By Darrell--Arizona-- (206.149.192.148) on Thursday, April 03, 2003 - 05:49 am:

Ha Ha! Yeah I know about speeders. Sometimes I'm one of them