With the motor and transmission are in place, we can scratch that big item off the list. Now, it’s time to get working on the two most custom items on the conversion: the battery racks and the motor mount. For these tasks we asked help from two of our most skilled friends in the metal department, fellow EV owner Azul Cadenas, from Blue Chains Design, and Eric Rivero, from Dockside Power.

Today was a pretty rainy day in Miami, so working on the car was a mission. Considering we were not able to work at Nico’s, because of his shop’s lack of roofing, and that we had to get some stuff from Home Depot, we just got to work inside the god forsaken place. We got a cardboard box from the back of the warehouse and laid it out on the floor to start making templates for our batteries. No rain here…

Of course, it was a matter of time before we got yelled at, but the manager allowed us to finish what we were doing under the assumption that we were going to buy the aluminum we needed to build the battery racks from them. Their prices on aluminum are ridiculous, so we went with Eric, to buy some material at Azul’s local metal supplier. We got two different sizes of L pieces: 3 20 feet long 1/8″ x 1 1/2″ for the battery racks and 20 feet of 1/16″ x 1 1/4″ for the clamps that will hold the batteries down. Also we got 20 feet of 1/8″ x 1 1/2″ flat pieces for extra reinforcement.

With Eric’s truck loaded we went back to Nico’s to look how we could design the racks, using the cardboard templates. We decided to do a two level rack for the front with 2 and 2 batteries on them. One rack would go in the very front, where the radiator used to be and the other one a couple of inches behind it, but higher, so it can clear the motor and transmission. How we are going to attach them? we don’t know yet. That’s what we have Eric for….

He also had the motor mount all figured out in no time. He needed to go back home, so we put the car in a tow truck and sent it over to Dockside Power’s shop in Hollywood, where he can work on it over the long weekend.

We went to Azul’s workshop to start working on the battery trays, the part of the battery racks that actually holds the batteries in place. Azul is a seaoned metal worked. He was welding aluminum at the age of 7, and he has done a lot of work on his elctric car, the Lectric Leopard. So, he helped us out to put the trays for the front battery pack together.

Azul rocked these battery trays out in less than a couple hours. We simply designed to hold two batteries side by side, pretty tighly, to eliminate vibration and movement. They came out great. Thanks, Azul!

We’ll be back during the week to work on the back battery rack. That one is more interesting as it needs to be sealed to prevent gases (mainly very explosive hydrogen gas) during charging to go into the passenger compartment…. plus, we got some cool ideas for that box too. Stay tuned!

Finally, on the 3rd day of putting the good stuff in this car is starting to look like something! We had the transmission and motor together from last weekend, so all we had to do was putting it in the car. Well, much easier said than done! Luckily Nico gave us a lift for the car that we could use all day and the motor crane to make the job easier. We were able to lift the motor and car effortlessly.

In about an hour we had the motor in the engine compartment and we tried for about another hour to line it up with the original motor mounts. The transmission went back to its mounts perfectly but, of course, the new motor did not mount to the stock motor mounts (I guess the VW engineer weren’t thinking about us). Nico swore he could make a motor mount in no time, but he was nowhere to be found. This is beginning to be a trend. Busy guy…. at least we had Alberto to help us film. And for the record, ladies, that Ferrari is his… HA!

So, we had to get creative. We put a bridge on the hood and roped the motor in place. We installed the two axles (that were missing from the move from one garage to the other) and finally the car was ready for testing. We hooked the motor to a regular car battery ad saw the motor spin perfectly. No noise or vibrations whatsoever.

With the wheels back on and the motor “secured” with a very home made and very temporary motor mount composed of the handle of a big hammer and a piece of rope, we convinced ourselves this would be a safe way to test drive the car for the first time. Demetrio agreed. So, we jumped S2 and G2 in the motor (series connection) and then attached a pair of regular jumper cables (the ones you use when your battery is dead) and with a battery in between my feet on th passenger side and Nico on the wheel, we took the car for its first electric test ride (see the video!).

It went great! surprisingly only with a 12V battery the car had some power and moved pretty nicely around the parking lot of Nico’s shop twice. Nico wanted to take it to the streets, but the battery was just not powerful enough. We were so happy to see the car move with no gas… now we have to ut together a good motor mount to hold the motor in place. Let’s see how we come up with that and where we are gonna mount the 12 batteries.

At last we were able to find all the bolts and nuts we needed for assembling the motor with the adapter and the transmission. Once again, our friend Azul came to help and we got help from Demetrio, the owner of Nico’s new shop. He is a retired mechanic from Cuba who really knows his stuff. He helped us put the new clutch in right.

Also, for the first time, we tested the electric motor! Azul let us borrow a cable from his Lectric Leopard so we could jump the #2 terminals. We hooked up a regular car battery to the #1 terminals and the motor spun like crazy. No vibration, no noise, nothing; just smooth rolling. We mounted the adapter and the new clutch and old flywheel and tested again and it was perfect. Still no vibration, no noise nothing! We measured the current used with the clamp meter we got from Greenlee and got almost 30Amps at 11.9 V from the battery. We were surprised to see how fast this would spin with only 1/10 of the voltage we are planning on putting in there. Demetrio couldn’t believe it.

So we started installing the transmission and were still missing bolts!!! we went to a very hostile ACE hardware store where the owner yelled at us and cursed in Spanish because somebody had taken a bolt from a sample board he made to check nut sizes. Hilarious. We got the bolts we needed (or that’s what we thought) and came back. We realized that 2 of the holes in the adapter plate (the ones that are threaded) wouldn’t take metric bolts. What’s up with that? this was made for a Volkswagen! once again, what are you thinking, ElectroAutomotive? So, we went back to get those 2 bolts….

So, we tightened all up and and checked if it all worked ok. We turned the motor by hand to see if the clutch would release and the gears worked. We finished putting in all the new bolts and we were done for the day. That took us all day! (we did have to go to the Buggy Doctor in the morning to pick up some parts, because we couldn’t find the half axles! they seem to have gotten lost in the move… great…).

Next Saturday, the motor goes in and we start designing the battery racks. Unless we get blown away by tropical storm Fay.

Well, the lest 2 weeks have been kind of hectic, finding little parts missing all over the place. We were able to locate the key for the motor in ACE Hardware (?). We still don’t know what they would have them for, but here is a picture of it. We needed a 1/4″ square key by 1 1/2″ long. This one is 1 3/4″ long, but we’ll cut it.

Also, we went to Buggy Doctor, a specialty chop shop for VWs in 3400 NW 46th St, in Hialeah. These guys know these cars like the back of their hands. Once we told them about our project they offered all kinds of help. We already know they’ll be a great resource. We got from them all the transmission bolts we needed, the passenger side taillight (beacuse it was cracked and the lock for the glove box that Danny ripped off, all for $90! ha! If you ever go there, ask for Guillermo, cool guy (but bring a cuban coffe for him).

Today, I spent some time surfing through the web looking at other EV blogs and found a contact for custom made springs for the suspension, so it can take the weight of the batteries. This company is called Coil Spring Specialties. They are out of St. Mary, Kansas. I spoke with Israel, who asked for all kinds of info and already put in the order to make the springs! they gave us a killed deal and may be sponsoring the springs… we’ll see. We should have them here by the middle to end of September. We need to send them a sample of the springs so we’ll go back to the Buggy Doctor….

Tomorrow we’ll go to Nico’s to put the motor in, finally!

New chapter in our project. Now in Nico’s new shop, Champion Auto Clinic, we started to assemble the motor and the transmission together. We decided that we needed a new clutch and pressure plate because the originals were worn out and now that the car will have more torque than from factory, we need these to be in good shape. So we picked one up for $150.

Today we had the help of our friend Anthony, who was visiting from Mexico and our new friend, Azul.

The idea today was to bolt on the adaptor ring to the motor, the transmission adapter plate to the motor ring, assemble the hub on the motor shaft, bolt the pressure plate of the clutch on the hub and bolt this whole contraption to the transmission. We had a great plan, but we realized that we were missing a couple of things we needed for this step:
- the key for the shaft hub (not included in adaptor kit!??! what’s up with that ElectroAuto?)
- the bolts for the transmission (lost in the move from one shop too the other)
- the bolts for the flywheel (Nico has some at home from one of his VWs)

We put never seize in the bolts so that in the future we can remove them if we need to. Using a torque wrench, set to 35 ft-lbs, the manufacturer’s recommended torque, we put the bolts on. We stripped 2 bolts anyways! one for the motor ring, and one on the plate… don’t tell anyone. We re gonna ask Electro Automotive about that also.

At least today we were able to see that everything fits together nicely and now know what we need to do. I guess it is a process of discovery.

We’ll be back next week to keep working on this, once we get the parts we need.