# Ford Aspire Conversion - and so it begins...



## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Well, my mechanic checked out the car, and other then needing a timing belt , tires, and exhaust repairs, I did pretty well for the price. Been having fun puttering around in a stick shift again too 

Anyway, as part of my baseline measurements, I drove over to a self-serve scale, and got the following measurements (with me in the car at 165lbs and a bunch of stuff inside):

Front wheels - 440kg
Rear wheels - 560kg
All car - 1030kg

Scale was not inspiringly consistant, but it was free, so 
that works for me. Will try again later with less stuff (and fuel) in the car.

Also broke out my DC current clamp, and checked out the electrical system. I got these measurements with the alternator off (ie 12V in from the batt only):

No keys, headlights only: 13.0A
Key in accessory position: 0.1A / negligable (only clock on).
Key in "Run", no daytime running lights (DRLs): 4.3A
Run with DRLs: 11.0A
Accessory with radio at normal volume (stock speakers + Ford Cassette radio): 1.0A
Accessory with radio at crazy volume: 1.5A
Run + headlights (low beam): 16.6A
Run + headlights (high beam): 17.2A
Run + rear defogger: 9.8A
Run + fan speed 1 (temp on cold): 6.8A
Run + fan speed 2 (temp on cold): 8.8A
Run + fan speed 3 (temp on cold): 14.0A
Run + fan speed 1 (temp on hot): 6.6A
Run + fan speed 2 (temp on hot): 8.6A
Run + fan speed 3 (temp on hot): 12.8A
Run + left indicator: alternated between ~4.3A - 8.3A
Run + right indicator: alternated between ~4.3A - 8.5A
Run + hazards: ~4.3-12A
Run + brake lights: 9.4A
Run + Dome light: 4.8A
Run + cigarette lighter: 9.4A
Run + wipers (low speed): 5.0-8.5A
Run + wipers (high speed): 6.5-11.1A

Not sure if those are interesting to anyone but me, but who knows (this provides a nice reference thread for me for later, at the min).


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## joseph3354 (Apr 2, 2008)

good to hear you are getting started! will watch your posts with interest,it'll be one less car burning dinosaur droppings!


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Well, after much procrastination and too many hours at work, I've started on my project. Car before:










Inspiration:










First weekend: pulled everything out of the inside while still leaving the car drivable for a few weeks. Coupled with the blown muffler, I now I have some awareness of what a fly trapped inside a kettle drum at a concert might feel like.

Last weekend: tired, but wanted to make a start. Lashed hood latch to ceiling beam, and tried to remove hood bolts. Tiredness resulted in a failure to heed the "lefty-loosy" rule, and I stripped out a bolt. 

After admiring the captive spinning bolt for about 45 mins, I gave up and pulled out a dremel tool. Much cursing and grinding later (and adding 2 mins to correctly loosen the other 3 bolts), and I was down one hood.

Thus before:










...became after:


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Forgot...removed battery last weekend. Little wary of the airbags, so did this well in advance.

This weekend so far: Started with the air intake system. Straightforward enough, though I got an appreciation for how "interesting" it's going to be to locate all the appropriate sections in my shop manuals.

Air system removed:










Next, removed the cooling system. Got almost 95% of the coolant into the drain pan, so figured it could have gone worse. Here's a tip: on an Aspire, you get very little warning between "drain open" and "drain plug falls out".










And finally, removed the lights and grill. Kept inadvertently leaning on the lights, and didn't want to bend something.










So, as I now sit in our sales office wondering why ALL the sales staff got to take the long weekend off together, I think things are nicely underway. If I can figure out where the engine oil drain point is, I think that's the next step.


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## TelnetManta (Jun 5, 2008)

Nice looking car, will make a FINE EV!!! What size main pack are you planning to propel that little car?


Ben in SC


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## ragee (May 25, 2008)

Congrats on your decision to get going. Looks like a clean little donor car. Gonna be a nice project. Keep us informed.


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## TX_Dj (Jul 25, 2008)

Lookin' good! Keep us posted!

Another side-effect of removing the grille and lights... you can reach all that metal that's coated in years of dirt and clean it all up so it looks nice once you put it back together.


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

TelnetManta said:


> Nice looking car, will make a FINE EV!!! What size main pack are you planning to propel that little car?
> Ben in SC


Hey Ben,

A 120 or 144V pack of something like Trojan T875 8V batteries is my fallback position, but in an ideal world, I'd find a 144V 80-100Ah lithium setup with BMS for around $10K. Just have to find something that's proven...not big on being a test case 

Range wise, I can live with just getting to work and back (12 mi round trip). Ideally, I'd like to go to work, then to the stable where I keep my horse, then home...all with no real chance of recharging. That breaks down as:

Ideal daily commute:
Leg 1: House to Office: 6.1 mi, speed 30-40mph, minimal lights 
Leg 2: Office to stable: 14.5 mi, speed 30-40mph for 5 mi, then balance at highway speed (60mph). Gradiant gains ~500ft over 10km 
Leg 3: Stable to Home: 11.2mi All highway, no lights. 
Total: 31.8 mi 

Could go home from work and charge while having supper before heading to stable, but during the fall months it's nice to head straight out to the stable to make use of declining daylight hours. No charge possibility at office. 

Possibility of charging at stable from 110V, though no guarantees. Normal stay at stable 2-3 hrs/night. 

Other issue: Being Canada, gets quite cold (-40C), and the car might have to live outside. I realize that major battery insulation would be required, or if winter range becomes and issue I could use the car for the work run, then the gas truck for the barn run. 

Quite like stats from: http://www.evalbum.com/418 

Any thoughts?


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

ragee said:


> Congrats on your decision to get going. Looks like a clean little donor car. Gonna be a nice project. Keep us informed.


Thanks...no time like the present. I bought a year-old Aspire in '98 during university as my first major purchase without parental help, so they hold a certain nostalgic charm for me.

I'll keep updating things as they progress.


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

TX_Dj said:


> Lookin' good! Keep us posted!
> 
> Another side-effect of removing the grille and lights... you can reach all that metal that's coated in years of dirt and clean it all up so it looks nice once you put it back together.


Isn't that the truth...I thought I'd done a decent job with the pressure washer before starting, but I barely scratched the surface!

I'm toying with the idea of molding a new grill and bumper out of fibreglass to improve the water-tightness and aerodynamics of the front end as well, but I think I'll get the car rolling first!


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Anyway, update for tonight. Spent this morning draining various previously-vital fluids from the car, starting with the engine oil. Despite my best effort, I still managed to get my hand coated in used motor oil - haven't managed to find my box of vinyl gloves in my shop supplies yet (still unpacking after a move).

Next, figured it wouldn't hurt to drain the gas tank. Guess what...managed to get my hand coated in gasoline as well. I don't work in the petrochemical industry anymore, but despite much scrubbing with soaps, I still smell like I do.

Finally, with the tail of the car up in the air, I decided to get rid of the exhaust system. Though the shop manuals show how to use a pry bar to get all the rubber hangers off their respective posts, I had no bar, no space to swing said bar, and no intention of reusing any of the exhaust hangers. So, I snipped them all with a set of shears.

Next, I took off the exhaust header. After finding every single joint and bolt on the system hopelessly seized, I burned through 2 and a half dremel cutoff wheels grinding the exhaust in half at the midpoint. Jacking up the tail freed the muffler, and jacking up the nose freed the header. Net result...one more useless system down.










Yeah...no more tailpipe!










I was thinking about going for the petrochemical trifecta by draining the tranny fluid as well, but I ran out of suitable containers. That, and I already stank like an oil refinery.

So, all in all, not a bad weekend. Looking forward to getting the engine loose so I can get my order in for the tranny adaptor, but that may have to wait a week or two.


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Well, this weekend I got to remove the fuel system. At no point was this ever anything remotely resembling fun, but I'm happy it's over.

Tried to free the tank bolts on Monday, but no joy - 13 yrs of rust weren't going to give up any time soon. 










Even daily doses of WD40 weren't enough to loosen them, so on Friday I had to grind the straps free. Not wanting to blow sky-high, I filled the empty tank with water first. 

Armed with many tank supports and a fire extinguisher, all went well:










...and the blinking thing was finally free. With a bit more room to work, and a tire iron-sized wrench, I finally got the bolts free, and the reminants of the straps removed.


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Next up was the fuel filler pipe, which at first glance seemed simple enough. At second glance, it required removing a wheel. And the final glance resulted in a rusted-out backing bolt popping loose...visions of the stupid hood bolt dancing in my head. Much grinding and banging of hammers on the stupid support finally resulted in victory:










After that was out, I attacked the fuel lines. Turns out that to do it properly, you need to remove the entire front suspension and front engine mounts. That not being an option, I instead opted for the "3 hours of frustrating contortion" method. Details aside, the stupid tubes are out, and the entire fuel system is now history.










Finally, after draining the transmission fluid, I loaded up everything unneccessary into the truck. $5 later, and I dropped the lot off at the local landfill/recycling center.










One more weekend of unhooking and labelling, and I should be ready to rent an engine hoist. Making progress!


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## TX_Dj (Jul 25, 2008)

Coming along nicely. 

When I was removing the exhaust in the S10, I used a copious amount of elbow grease and hacksawing to get the pieces to come loose as best I could while still retaining the cat-back in tact so I could sell it to someone in need of cheap parts to pass inspections.

One of the manifold to downtube bolts was seized beyond belief, and at an angle that there was no way I could get "the right tool" in there to get leverage on it. Lacking air tools, i just had to jimmy and shimmy and curse and swear and finally got it to come out.

The fuel system was already drained (minus about 1/4" in the bottom of the tank) on my truck, as they parked it on dead empty before "tackling" the warped head that never got fixed... so I used metal snips and hacksaws to bust down most of the fuel lines and such. Made that job a bit easier, imho.

Keep up the good work, and keep us posted on the progress!


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Well, it's been a while, but between a lousy fall for business and not having a heated garage, the car took a bit of a back seat for a while. All is well now though, thankfully, and I even got a good break in the weather to get a bit more work done. I think the wait has even done good things for my prospects of using lithium, since there seems to be a few good conversions out there now using TS cells. I'm watching them intently 

Last weekend was spent getting the car to the point where the engine was removable, which actually entailed quite a bit more work then I'd thought. The half-shafts were especially frustrating, since they didn't want to come free, and I didn't have much in the way of leverage to work with.

Still, on Monday I found a nice fat bladed cold chisel to use as a pry bar where the manual said to pry, and finally got them loose. Getting the front sway bar and wheel knuckle back together was problematic though, since it seemed to be a job requiring three hands and a LONG pry bar, and I had of course chosen to do this after work where I was racing the sun a bit. Amazing how motivated one can become when ones realizes that the car can't go back into the garage without rolling there, and the wheels can't be bolted to the knuckles without the front sway bar in place (and it might snow overnight). I eventually found a way to do the job that involved lying on the ground, hooking the pry bar under the backs of my knees, and heaving my whole weight onto the bar while frantically trying to align the knuckle and the ball joint pin for the steering arm at the same time. I'm sure the neigbours thought I was a bit touched in the head, but I got things done before I ran out of light. 

I also discovered that removing the boots on the half shafts isn't a smart move, since it tends to release a torrent of thick grease.

While I'd intended to wait until this long weekend to pull the engine, the forecast was for the weather to turn bad pretty quickly, so I took a chance and rented an engine hoist after work today. 










It was actually a pretty straightforward job, though I had to inevitably underestimate one thing, and this time it was the garage door clearance (oops...)










I was using my truck tow chains, which were a bit long for the job, but they worked. Since the engine wasn't brutally heavy I ended up heaving it the last inch over the front support by hand, and rolling the car out of the way.










Since surprisingly I had a bit of light left over, I stipped off the starter, and unbolted the gearbox. The gearbox looks to be in decent shape, though the mechanic I had check the car six months ago had mentioned a tiny leak in the case. I won't know where that is until I degrease the thing, but he had said it would be an easy fix. I can send that to the shop after I order my adaptor, and getting a pattern was the whole point of pulling the engine ASAP.










So, does anyone have any cautions on cleaning transmissions? If I use an engine degreasing spray, is there any risk of getting the cleaner into a bearing or something nasty?

I've also been inspired by a few builds that are really stripping the cars down and doing complete restorations. I really like this little car, so I think I'm going to do the same. I figure it'll be worth the effort to have the car around for a long time, so the whole suspension is getting removed, de-rusted and painted. Since the car itself is also so badly faded I'm halfway tempted to try repainting the whole thing as well (maybe black to match my truck) Fun, fun, so much to do...


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## PatricioIN (Jun 13, 2008)

a spray bottle of degreaser and a toothbrush.. does wonders

I'd be tempted to cut the whole top part of that bellhousing off and welding in a flat piece to cover the leftover hole... would give you more room to work with in the motor bay.


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

PatricioIN said:


> a spray bottle of degreaser and a toothbrush.. does wonders
> 
> I'd be tempted to cut the whole top part of that bellhousing off and welding in a flat piece to cover the leftover hole... would give you more room to work with in the motor bay.


I was tempted to alter the transmission when I saw it too, but I'm holding off until I know what the ElectroAuto adaptor looks like. Apparently they already have a pattern done up, and I'm not sure what it look like.


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## favguy (May 2, 2008)

Hi Aktill,
Coming along nicely! Regarding your paintwork. From the looks of your pics. Apart from the fading, it's in quite good shape. You might find if it's just faded and nothing else you don't need to repaint it. My car had faded from red to pink all over when I got it! But having cut back the paint with a medium and then fine professional polish, looks brand new again, reds in particular do suffer this. 

What motor/controller are you going with?

Regards,

Paul


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

favguy said:


> Hi Aktill,
> Coming along nicely! Regarding your paintwork. From the looks of your pics. Apart from the fading, it's in quite good shape. You might find if it's just faded and nothing else you don't need to repaint it. My car had faded from red to pink all over when I got it! But having cut back the paint with a medium and then fine professional polish, looks brand new again, reds in particular do suffer this.
> 
> What motor/controller are you going with?
> ...


Hi Paul,

That was actually my first thought too, so I played with a polisher and a bunch of different compounds to try to get some shine back. Didn't do much to help. It's very cheap, single pack Kia paint, never had much shine even when new (I had one of these back when they were new), and would come off even when I polished a wax coat on it. 

There are a couple of other complications that make the paint annoying to fix. First off, this car has a ton of little rock chips that would require fixing properly to avoid looking like it has the measles, and I'm not sure that would be worth doing. Secondly, after I get it certified I'd like to swap out the front and rear bumper covers with a custom fibrelass set that are a bit more aerodynamic, and possibly add side skirts and an underbody smoothing plate as well. I don't think it would be illegal to do that right away, but I thought it might complicate the certification process, and insurance checks with my insurance co. Those would need to be painted, and I don't want to think about matching this stuff.

Fundamentally I'm not really big on red, too, when it comes down to it. My black Nissan truck was the first purchase I was able to make where I chose the colour, and I really like it. The other cars I bought were good
deals that I couldn't pass up, and they've almost all been red despite my attempts otherwise  The new Knight rider remake is a bit cheasy, but Kitt looks great in that black paint with white racing stripes. Would make for a cool looking EV, I think.

Regarding the motor and controller, I've almost settled on an 8" ADC and Curtis 144V controller. Would love to be able to wait until Zillas are back in production, but I'm not holding my breath. I'll hold off a bit to see if that happens, since the car isn't likely to be ready anytime soon given that my garage and car are currently -15C (way too cold to be touching anything metal).

Cheers,
Adam


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Hey look, a Gem car! (I kid). Bit more progress because of a bit more good weather. Took all four doors off, and the hatch as well. Little trickles of rust were coming from the hinges, and it turns out that was from the door bolts. Grr...must fix.

Thought I was going to be able to turn it around using just manpower to get access to the hatch (and garage roofbeams), but couldn't muscle it back up onto the driveway. Truck had no such problem 










Should be able to start dealing with rust soon enough. Any particular paints or treatments that anyone has found useful?


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## Voltswagen (Nov 13, 2008)

Adam
I've been restoring show winning vehicles for over 40 years. The best rust preventative paint I have found is POR 15. Not cheap $38.00 qt. But it can be brushed right over existing rust (assuming you have removed the loose scales and any grease).
This is an epoxy paint which kicks over and totally seals the metal.
Comes in colors! Black, Red, Gray. 
Can says it can be sprayed on but since nothing removes it how would you clean your spray gun? I'm not up for tossing out any of my guns.
Brush is fine.
One note of caution: Do not get this paint on your skin. As the can clearly states: Only one thing will remove POR 15 from skin....Time.
Good Luck - Roy


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Voltswagen said:


> Adam
> I've been restoring show winning vehicles for over 40 years. The best rust preventative paint I have found is POR 15. Not cheap $38.00 qt. But it can be brushed right over existing rust (assuming you have removed the loose scales and any grease).
> This is an epoxy paint which kicks over and totally seals the metal.
> Comes in colors! Black, Red, Gray.
> ...


Hi Roy,

That was the paint that I had been hearing good things about, and I've found a place that sells it locally. Does it harden to the point where another paint could go over top of it? I wouldn't mind being able to do touchups here and there before going to the final coats, and I'd do a test swatch, but I'm curious what your experiences might be.

If you don't mind a few questions, what do you do with rusty bolt holes? Dab the POR in and follow with a tap to clear the threads?

Is it worth trying to restore fasteners with surface rust? Is there any way to treat them to prevent them rusting later on?

Thanks!
Adam


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Today was supposed to be a fun day - just remove the airbags, then work on the dash. After all, according to my Ford shop manual each airbag was supposed to be held in by only four easily accessible bolts - easy, right?

The steering wheel airbag was easy enough to remove. The passenger airbag required dropping out the glovebox (2 screws), then removing 4 more bolts. Should have been simple enough, but it wouldn't push out. The manual warned against pulling on the cover, but pushing from the back didn't free it. Hmm...

Anyway, proceeded with the dash. MANY wiring hold downs weren't mentioned, and the dash had a bizarre holddown arrangement. The fasteners weren't symmetrically laid out, and that was messing with my head. Most required pulling ominously on some part of the dash, hoping nothing broke before enough clearance was reached, then contorting a tool into the gap to try to get a screw or bolt out. 

For example, the defogger vents were clamped to the dash, and also bolted to the plastic dash and steel dash frame. Someone must have bolted them in place, then reached in and connected the hoses (which of course were one-way sacrifical connections. Others were just generally weird, like this screw up tight to the glass which was ONLY on the right side, and requred either removing the glass or inching the screw out 1/8 of a turn at a time with vice grips.










Here's a view looking from the passenger side between the firewall and the dash, which has been pulled forward. The defroggers vent the whole length of the windshield, and have two hose connections to side defoggers using flex hose (you can see one on the far side). Somehow this whole system was installed after the dash was hooked in, since the hose has sacrifical connections, and the fasteners are VERY difficult to get at. Very odd, like I said. I ended up having to pry the near side hose off, and I'll have to repair it when I put things back together.










I honestly have no idea how this thing was put together in the first place. The manual describes how to remove bits of the dash individually, but the sequence they provide just doesn't work. They miss connectors and fasteners, and mention nothing about needing to disconnect hoses. Needless to say, I'm going to rerouting some wires, lengthening others, and just plain moving other components. Very strange.

Anyway, when the dash was eventually out, I looked at the airbag. Some wonderful engineer had decided to put a one-way clip on the airbag, which wasn't mentioned in the manual of course. It was tough to bend forward when the dash was lying on my basement floor, and there was no way I could have done that in the car. Seems very poor judgement to have to remove the whole dash just to get the airbag off, and all I can think of is that this is some form of anti-theft, but the steering wheel bag didn't have anything.










And a final shot, all done for the evening. Think I'll tackle the heater core tomorrow, to see what will work best there. It'll need to be powerful, but I'm not wild about the thought of having to wait the normal 4-5 mins for heat from a liquid system.


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## Voltswagen (Nov 13, 2008)

Adam
I've never used POR 15 as an undercoat for finish paint.
Exterior rusted body parts should have the rusted metal cut out and new metal welded in. I use POR 15 for my frames, interior wheel wells, bumper backs, trunk & engine compartments etc. - anywhere a finish coat is not applied.
Roy


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Okay, thanks again, good to know. The spot I'm thinking of in particular can be seen in this shot, up on the bottom seam. It looks like the support or jacking point that's been used by auto shops to put the car up on a hoist.










I'm thinking of painting the car black anyway, so I could do up to the bottom sill in POR15 to get all the underbody rust, and then go to normal paint above that.

Do you think that undercoating would stick to the POR? Would it be overkill to roll undercoat over top of this paint for the underside? I think that some of the reason that the car has held up so well so far is that most of the underside and wheel wells were undercoated quite well.

Thanks again!
Adam


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## Voltswagen (Nov 13, 2008)

Once POR 15 is applied to cleaned metal there is no reason to apply undercoating over it. Undercoating by itself is porous and sometimes
permits oxidation to begin under it. POR 15 if applied generously totally seals the metal (encapsulates it thereby starving it of oxygen & moistutre - the necessary ingredients for rust).


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## favguy (May 2, 2008)

I quite agree with the advice given for using Por15, it is good stuff, you can paint over it, but you need to sand down the surface of it first or paint just won't take to it.

However... to be honest with you the best way to deal with rust is to completely remove it if at all possible, then you can use a good acid etch primer and on to whatever paint system you choose. The rust you show on the sill for example appears to only be heavy surface rust, if this is the case, you should be able to completely remove such corrosion with hand or machine wire brushes, abrasive sanding disks and/or hand held production (abrasive body shop) sandpaper, if rust in pitting remains use an acid based rust remover such as Jenolite liquid a few times worked in with wire wool to disolve this out prior to final cleaning and painting.

I would add that if you do have any pitted rust that you can't practically get to or remove, do use Por15, normal rust resistive primers won't permanently stop its return 

Paul


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Okay, thanks for that advice as well. I think I can probably remove most of the rust mechanically without taking away too much material. I wasn't sure what I'd find under the fenders, but it turns out that the car is actually pleasantly rust free (esp for 12 yrs old in Calgary). Probably worth the bit of effort to keep it that way.

The worst areas seem to be the thinly painted bumper (rear is probably the same):










...and the suspension components (shot of rear beam):










The front suspension is just as bad (and all the rubber bushings are shot), but quite salvable. Probably tough to get ALL the rust there though.

The other areas needing attention seem to be things like between panels and under hinges, since the car was obviously painted after it was assembled, and water has seeped into the unpainted gaps.










Door hinges:










And finally a shot as it sits now. Looks like I'm out of good weather (highs are supposed to be in the -15 to -20C range now), so this will be it for a while. I'll do what I can with the bits I've removed, since they're now dominating my basement.

Thanks again gents,
Adam


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Well, got another good round of weather...I'm re-evaluating electric if global warming gives winters like this! 

Got most of the rest of the interior and wiring harness out on Friday after work. Turns out there was 16lbs of wiring in there...more then I thought! I think I'll redo the insulating/dampening fabric with something a bit more weight effective, and do a round of sound isolation to reduce road noise and stereo buzz a bit.










Bumpers off...TONS of rust in those puppies. I probably don't care appearance wise much, but given they have a safety function I guess a round of rust paint is in order at the minimum. Rear bumper was odd...had to remove the steel bumper itself to get the cover off.

On another note, WHY do auto engineers think that phillips screws are a good idea? May as well just use rivets - just about every one of the exterior body moldings that used steel phillips screws required grinding those heads off, and plastic ones are even more useless. I'm replacing every one of the things with either a robertson screw, or something that can be turned with a spanner. 



















Pretty much down to the brakes, suspension, and glass that's non-removable easily. Can't wait for spring now - can't paint at these temps.


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Blinking cold weekend, so didn't get much done except for getting the details that ElectroAuto wanted for the adaptor plate. Did get some POR-15 paint, and found the funds for a welder (near-term purchase).

Here are some details in case anyone else does one of these:


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Started yesterday by taking some advice that I found in another thread, and clamping my front wheel bearings together using some bolts and big washers. That's supposed to keep the races from falling out, which makes sense (thanks, whoever that was).

Next pleasant thing was that my sound dampening material arrived. Not strictly required, but I like a nice sounding stereo, and just about everyone remarks at road noise in their conversions it seems. I'd like to remove as much of that as possible, and Aspires have always been tinny, so there's lots to do.

I started removing suspension afterwards, starting with the rear beam. Annoyingly, whoever replaced the struts last really chewed up the mounting threads, and I couldn't remove the right one at all (the inner rod would just spin. Since I'll be replacing both anyway (they weren't even the same type), I ended up having to cut the nut, then split it with a cold chisel.

Had some fun removing brake lines, but for the most part they came apart okay. I'll have to rebuild one line, but that's not the end of the world.

Just before removing the beam, I tried to loosen the strut bolts, and annoyingly the head of one sheared off. Arg. 

After removing the beam itself, I removed the parking brake cable, and went after the errant strut. I ended up having to grind the shock base off, and next time I'll have to come up with some way of removing the bolt remnant (penetrating oil can work away in the mean time).

After that, I removed the drums, and set them aside for later rebuilding.

Two weeks from now I should be able to get back at things, and I'll remove the front suspension. That will let me get to all the underbody rust, and seal things up before moving too much further on. I'll order all the replacement bushings and parts in the mean time, and hopefully they won't take too long to come in.


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## bblocher (Jul 30, 2008)

Any progress lately or is it still too damn cold?


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Hi Brian,

Nope, finally warm enough to make me happy now!  I haven't actually had a chance to start assembling your kits, btw, but I plan to get to them in the near(ish ) future. So much to do, and I'm enjoying the good weather out with my horse right now.

Don't actually have too much progress to report, but have been getting parts in. Got my 8" AC motor and Curtis controller from Thunderstruck, and that's dominating my family room at the moment. Also received a bunch of front suspension parts (complete front suspension rebuild kit + a complete set of all bushings front and rear), new front and rear struts, stainless brake lines, and pot box and contactors. ElectroAuto confirmed that they've started on my adaptor as well, since the pattern they had fit. So, gettting there.

The big problem so far has been that work on the car itself is at the stage where I need to paint things, and the temp overnight still drops below zero. That doesn't do go things to paint. Still, I think that it shouldn't be too long.

I've actually been amusing myself lately by building custom fibreglass dash speaker pods for my truck, and redoing the sound system. Good fun, though the sanding side of that is getting old. Should be good practice for the fbreglass work to come on the car, which might end up being considerable.


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Okay, minor update. The adaptor finally arrived for my motor, and it didn't come close to fitting the motor as it was. Somewhere I had read that it "uses the same bolt pattern as an ADC 8 motor", which either isn't true, or it was made wrong. At that point, I didn't care much.

So, $288 worth of local remachining later, and the adaptor now fits. 

Haven't bolted everything together yet, but it's easier to move about in 
two pieces, and I'm not at the point where mounting the motor is an option yet.

In the mean time, I've ground the rust scale off everything I could see, and applied a quart of POR-15 liberally around said bits. That includes the rear beam, front and rear bumpers, rear suspension mounts, underframe rust, and a few small bits. Bought another quart, since the front suspension bits will need some attention.

Turns out I don't have the required rear beam bushings, and they aren't available just yet. AUGH. If I was in a rush, I'd be going nuts right now. Hopefully they show up soon enough so I can put the new rear suspension in, and get the car rollable again.

In the mean time, I'm painting body components. The 2 part water based poly seems quite good so far, and I'm interested to see how well the visible bits turn out.

Small edits:
Freed the broken rear suspension bolt, which was a rear PIA. I was able to loosen it with a screw extractor and a manual drill, but it turns out the bolt was frozen to the metal bushing from the old shock. So, had to use a dremel to cut the bolt in half (2 composite wheels required...access too limited to use a grinder), then unthread the final part.

Also found that all the brake fittings are 10mm, and finding a proper brake wrench in that size locally is next to impossible. Will be replacing many said fittings due to rust when the stainless lines goes in...more new skills to learn.


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## nheistand (Jun 2, 2009)

My Toyota Tercel is similar size but a two-door. I have 5 8v batteries in the front and 7 in the rear hatch area for a total of 12 x 8 for 96v.
My performance seems about the same as with the gas engine. I usually cruise at 50mph but it will go faster. I have made a 25mi trip and had plenty of power left, I think it might go 40mi.

I was lazy and just bought a large plastic marine battery box and set it in the rear with 6 batteries in it. When I could not easily fit 6 batteries in the front, I put one more in the rear in a separate plastic bucket. I also was lazy and just ran the battery and charger cables along one side on the floor from rear to front through an existing firewall hole. Flexible plastic tubing is availabe that can be used to run these under the car, I just kept is as simple as possible.


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Congrats on your conversion. What were the capacity ratings on the batteries you used?

I'll be using a similar voltage (108V), so it'd be a good set of numbers to know!

Been doing more painting, as of late...should probably grab a few more photos.

Just REALLY need those rear beam bushings, and I'm feeling like this isn't a huge priority for my supplier right now.

Not that I need to tell anyone around here, but this isn't exactly a pass-time for the impatient, is it?


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## nheistand (Jun 2, 2009)

I am using the Interstate U8VGC which are essentially an 8 volt golf cart battery. 170 Amp Hour, 65 lbs. Since 96v is the minimum for a fully capable electric car to go 60mph, the 8v works out the best for my small/light car. If I was using 6v x 16 I would need to 1) find a place to put 4 more batteries, and 2) beef up the rear springs. The longer range would be great though. Always a trade-off between weight and range. 

Another guideline is the total battery pack weight should be about 30% of the total car weight. My car is about 2775 lbs total, batteries are about 12 x 65 for 780 lbs, so 780/2775 is 0.28. I did not plan this in advance, I just wanted 96v and did not want to beef up my suspension. I would like to do a Ford Ranger or Chevy S10 pickup with 6v x 20 batteries. The pickup can handle the weight and all those batteries give a lot of range, and the 120v gives plenty of power.

First you have to be patient about receiving the electric parts, mine took several months, and several more months to get the charger. Then I did not have time to work on it until I got laid off. Then I got the gas engine parts off and mounted the new motor. Then I built the front battery boxes and did the wiring. Then I got hired to work again so left it sit all winter. Then I got laid off again and ordered the batteries and finished the car. My type of project though, I want to do another one soon.


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Thanks again for the information - that will be most helpful!

Anyways, few photo updates. I've been busy this weekend, and it's been great!

I ended up being told, after the 5th phone call, that my new beam bearings wouldn't be ready until the end of August...nuts to that. So, I visited the scrap yard near my house this weekend. Treasure....everywhere!

Came home with:
- two beam bearings (remove the beams off an Aspire and Festiva...same rear suspension)
- two mirrors with manual adjust from inside the car...mine didn't have that bit of modern tech 
- a spare rear spring to leave/send away if I need special ones made up
- the gauge cluster and steering wheel swtiches from a newish Hyundai Accent. I quite liked the guages, though don't know if I can get them to interface. The stalk will be handy though - intermittent wiper speeds!
- a few spare trim panels
- spare switches, 40+ of the sacrificial plastic fasteners that I inevitably broke, and a bunch of spare nuts and bolts (like shock nuts etc)

...all for $90. I can't argue too much about that!

So, the progress shots I was promising:

New drive system and adaptor (that fits...yeah!)










Bits of formerly rusty car now painted with POR-15:











Underbelly of rear of car now painted with POR-15 in rusty areas, and 4 coats of black 2-part poly elsewhere. It's gloss black...the flash washes out the paint:


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Here's a BIGGIE:









Big deal, you say...a suspension mount. However, it's officially the first part I've put BACK ON since the start of this. That felt really good 

Pressing in the new bushings:










Beam put back together, waiting for shocks. Have to go buy some new shock bolts, since all the ones at the yard were hopelessly seized and Ford/local parts guys don't carry them. Have to go to a specialist bolt house, I guess:










Finally, started on the interior. I'm going to be laying down new sound dampening, and the first layer will get rolled over the main areas. Time consuming, but makes a HUGE difference in the road noise and NVH of the car. Stereo sounds much better too!


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## tomofreno (Mar 3, 2009)

Wow! You are doing a restoration and conversion! Looks really nice! What is the soundproofing material and where do you purchase it? I'm converting a Suzuki Swift which had a lot of road noise as an ICE vehicle. Would be very nice to decrease it.

Tom


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Thanks! Didn't start out with that intention, but it's turned out that way. Good way to spread out the purchases, and given my hatred of rust, a nice way to keep me sane  I'd rather not have the heartbreak that Gav went through after the Tredia rusted out after a single year.

That said, I'm also learning tons. I'd never even changed oil before this  

The deadening material is B-Quiet material out of Alberta here. I'm using V-Comp and Ultimate, V-comp being foam and vinyl (I think) that gets glued on with 3M-77 spray glue, and Ulimate having it's own adhesive (that's the shiny stuff). I'll lay a base of Ultimate, then add V-comp and/or a second layer of Ulimate over the floor, wells, doors, vacuum pump chamber and firewall. I'm going for that Lexus feel 

Big day today! Back on 4 wheels, and squeaky clean after a good power washing. This weekend I hope to start on the front end rebuild, do some painting, and maybe do some more deadening. It's a long weekend after all (yeah!).

New rear shocks/boots:









Back on all 4 for the first time since March:








All clean


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## tomofreno (Mar 3, 2009)

Hi Adam,

I saw your post on evdl regarding heating split packs. I made a similar post a while ago and got no response. I think most ev owners are in warmer climates where this isn't an issue. 

I have no experience, but am in the process of a conversion similar to yours: a 2001 Suzuki Swift with 36 Sky Energy cells. I'm pushing the 130V limit of the 1238-75 controller with 36 cells but hope it will work since I've been told the cells "relax" to about 3.5V within a few minutes after charging to 3.6V. I am using the new AC50 motor from HPGC with the same controller as you. 

I have three battery boxes made of 16 Gauge steel, one with 8 cells up front under the hood latch, one with 20 cells where the back seat was, and one with 8 cells in the spare tire well. The back two are bolted together with a 2.5" hole between them for wires and air circulation. They will all have sealed lids.

So here is my plan for what it's worth: I'm using Farnum heaters and controller from KTA-ev. The boxes are lined with 0.5" polyurethane foam. The heaters will simply lay on top of the foam (it has about 40 lb/in2 compressive strength). I'll place sheet metal over these to give some stiffness to support the ribbed cells, and to help distribute heat. The controller has only one temperature sensor, so I'll likely put that in the front box since it will be the coolest. 

I only plan to heat at night, as day time temperatures here in Reno in winter typically get above 0 C. I've been told by evcomponents that the cells only take about a 60% charge at around 0 C, that is why I am heating. I figure if I keep them at 15 C or above at night while charging, they will remain above 5 C on most days here (I have it much easier than you in this regard). The front box will cool off much faster during vehicle operation of course since it has air flow on it. I'm hoping that the cells in it will still remain above 5 C, and give acceptable performance even though they limit the performance of the pack. If not, I'll likely add additional heating for this box.

In summer I plan to leave the insulation in place, remove the lid from the front box, and pull air through the back two with a blower mounted on the rearmost box and venting out a hole through the back of the car behind the bumper. I may use a thermostat, or just have the fan turn on with the ignition. The air intake is through 2" pvc conduit used to route the battery wires to the front of the car (I'll stuff a rag in it in winter). Not a huge airflow, but I'm hoping enough since the cells don't generate much heat. I've been told they stay at room temperature in open racks.

With your much colder conditions you might consider using some of those battery blankets by Kats or similar, wrapped around the cells in each box, and thicker insulation. This would give more uniform heating and are higher power. I think the Farnum heater controller from KTA is overpriced and the blankets would give more effective heating. I suppose you have already researched ev groups in Canada and northern U.S. I would think that would be the best source of info. A Minnesota group I checked uses the standard silicone rubber heater pads, but they are using lead acid batteries. 

Tom


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Hi Tom,

Thanks very much for your post - very appreciated. I do get the impression that insulation isn't really a well explored topic, or at least I've not been able to find too many examples of "northern climate" EV's. Your thoughts are most appreciated!

Right now I'm hoping to split the cells front and back, which would be ideal to keep the 50/50 balance that I had before. That said, there's more room in the rear of the car, especially with the 4" or so of insulation that I'm planning. That will be soon enough...next big project is probably the motor/transmission install, whereafter I'll know how much room is available under the hood.

I'm still a little confused about the voltage rating of this controller too. I'm not sure just how high the limit really is...has anyone gone to Curtis to ask? I'd like to use as high a voltage as possible, but don't want to endanger the controller in any way.

Weekend update - good progress, since it was a long weekend!

The first big job was to remove the entire front suspension, including the sway bar. I didn't fancy trying to unload the front shocks/springs myself, so I took them over to my local mechanic, who did that for me gratis (most appreciated - any Calgary folks, go to Midnapore Certigard!).

Got to try out my new screw separator (gotta love Princess Auto), worked very well:










And after a couple of hours work:


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Big task number two was more sound deadening, which I did between rounds of painting. The trick was to do just enough deadening so that I had about a half-hour of energy left, then paint. I was using the nasty POR-15 paint, so couldn't be anywhere near the garage when it was gassing-off.

So, with about 5 hours of effort, I finished the front end (bit of a pain working around the dash):









...and did one side of the rear. Looks like I'm going to run out of material, which isn't surprising since I did the doors of my truck as a test. Oh well, guess more will need to be ordered at some point.










The last big task was painting. First task:











I was going to have almost a full tin of POR-15 left, which seemed a waste, so I decided to see what painting the front clip of the car would be like with this. My reasoning was that the front end takes more of a beating, and was more likely to rust first.

Verdict - eh. It covers well, but doesn't like sticking to anything but metal. Despite lots of cleaning, scrubbing, acetoning etc, the seam caulking and such sort of "glowed" though red, which was a bit annoying. I probably would stick to doing the rusty bits with the POR-15 paint, and using the poly primer/paint on the other areas. MUCH cheaper too.

Still, it turned out nicely. Oooh, shiny (flash at night doesn't do the gloss justice):










Next task - front suspension reassemble with new shocks. Soonafter task - get motor/transmission mounted.


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## tomofreno (Mar 3, 2009)

Man! I can't believe the amount of work you are putting in to this car! I'm ashamed how little I am doing in comparison. Think you will get it all back together? 

Do you think the sound dampening material makes that large a difference? Is that the B-quiet Extreme you have on in the photo?



> I'm still a little confused about the voltage rating of this controller too. I'm not sure just how high the limit really is...has anyone gone to Curtis to ask?


 Yes, I called them and asked. The guy I spoke to knew far less about their controllers than I did. He said they didn't make a 1238-75. I said yes you do. You have it on your website. He asked where, I gave him the path. After searching a bit he found it, and read me the voltage given there, something like 72 - 96V! 

HPGC told me people are running the AC31 at 108V nominal with Thundersky cells (34 cells).


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## JRP3 (Mar 7, 2008)

HPG has told me the Curtis cuts off somewhere around 130 volts, maybe 135 or so. I'll be using 34 cells, 108 volts nominal, 125 or so fully charged with some room for regen. You could probably go to 36 cells charged to 3.6 each if you didn't regen as soon as you take off fully charged.


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

>Man! I can't believe the amount of work you are putting in to this car! I'm ashamed how little I am doing in comparison.

Don't be. It's not really very easy to justify doing this much work to a 13 yr old Kia/pseudo Ford except to say that I wanted to learn how each and every system on the car worked given that I'll be maintaining them later, and wanted to end up with as new of a vehicle as possible when I was done. The car fills a nice little neiche in the auto world given that it's new enough to have airbags, and old enough to be light, so in my mind it's worth keeping around.

The base weight on this car is ~2100 lbs with a 3000lb GVW, where for example a new Nissan Versa (roughly the same size) is 2800 lbs with about the same load capacity. I know it's safety gear making up the difference in weight, but it's still an extra half car to lug around for about the same usable space.

>Think you will get it all back together?

The thought has crossed my mind that it will be somewhat of a challenge  That said, I have all the factory service manuals, I think I've bagged like parts together, and have over a GB of photos of the dissasembly process. If I CAN'T do it, I won't be worthy of calling myself a mechanical engineer any longer

The toughest bit will be getting the dash and interior trim back in, I think. A lot of it was tough to remove, and the extra thickness that the sound deadening adds won't help that. Still, with patience it should be doable.

>Do you think the sound dampening material makes that large a difference? Is that the B-quiet Extreme you have on in the photo?

HUGE difference. I did just the front doors in my truck with combo of Ultimate (which is what you're seeing) and V-Comp, and added response from just the midbass drivers in the doors was enough for me to not realize for a week that I had forgotten to hook up the subwoofer again (oops). Just doing the doors wasn't enough to make a big difference in road noise, but folks that have done firewalls, wheel wells, pillars, and floor pans say it makes an enormous difference in interior volume.

The roof was a luxury here, I'll admit, since it will really only help with rain noise and some odd resonances here and there. That said, since the original roof liner was cheap and nasty suspended vinyl and HAD TO GO, this and some thin polystyrene insulation will make a nice base for a proper new roof liner. Should be a little better insulated too, I hope.

I didn't use Extreme since it's asphalt based, and even the best of those materials have a smell when warm and don't deal well with hot temperatures (ie, they can let go). Since I'm repainting the car black, it seemed like a good idea to spring for the non-asphalt version. There's a good website that does a comparison of the various materials on the market right now - something like "Sound Deadener Showdown".

Thanks to both of you gents for the additional info on the Curtis. I think I'll stick with 32-34 cells (probably the latter now), since I don't want to have to "think" while driving, so to speak. Combining having to remember to not regen early on in the cycle with a 6:30 AM commute doesn't seem to be a good idea, plus I'd like to be able to lend it to family members without a bunch of caveats and a huge pre-flight speach. Basically, it just needs to be a stress-free, turn-key, "normal" car. 

Cheers,
Adam


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Weekend update.

Started out by painting the new suspension components, and mounting the front sway bar and lower arms. Was just seating the bolt here prior to swapping out for a torque wrench, when the threads in the nut welded to the frame let go. ARGH! Now I can't back the bolt out, and I'll see to use a helicoil when I do to replace the thread. I was sorely tempted to just tack weld the head of the bolt to the frame and say screw it since the load on the bolt is purely in shear, but that wouldn't be the proper way to do things. So, went on Ebay and ordered a 10x1.25 PermaCoil set. I think I have enough room to go in and whack the bolt free with a punch and mini sledge, but it'll hold for the next while.










Next up was sending the new shocks out to have the springs reloaded. I had waited too long on Friday and my normal shop was closed, so I took it to Crappy Tire. I go there for work about every 5 years, and then remember WHY I DON'T GO THERE MORE OFTEN. The teenage criminals there charged a full hour of shop time ($105) just to load the springs! Grr...stupid impatience on my part.










So, bolting things together, the next part I realized was going to be an issue was the rod ends off the steering rack. I had new ones, but taking the rack boots off revealed this little spring pin which I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to remove...even with the shop manual. It's not threaded, and it doesn't punch all the way through. Must be sacrificial? Who knows...couldn't figure it out.


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

In the end, I settled for just replacing the end pieces. Check out the cool bent wrench that I found at Princess Auto - how genius is that? I've often leaned on the narrow edge of a wrench cursing the pain that inflicted.










So after those battles, the new bits bolted right up. The front sway bar and shock tower bushings were replaced with higher durometer versions, which apparently handle better. Don't know if that's true, but they are new, so that worked for me.










All that was left was to do some of the last bits of phase one of the sound deadening, then roll it out into the sunshine to blast the underside clean. Hope to do the last underbody painting this week, depending on the weather.


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## tomofreno (Mar 3, 2009)

Do you know of a source for carpeting to match the original in cars?

Tom


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

tomofreno said:


> Do you know of a source for carpeting to match the original in cars?
> 
> Tom


Fitted carpet or just bulk carpet? 

Fitted replacement carpets are available from some internet suppliers, though I know none are available for mine so I don't have any examples offhand.

Bulk carpet should be available from any good auto upholstery store in your yellow pages. Failing that, go to a car audio install place and ask there. They may sell materials, or will be able to tell you where they buy their material.

Cheers,
Adam


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Painting weekend. Saturday was the third coat of paint on the underside of the car, which was done with the catalyst added. You need to recoat within 7 hours after a coat with catalyst added, so I figured that would let me do two coats if there was a problem. 

Didn't need the fourth coat, so I moved on to the main upper body sheel and fenders. Much scrubbing and spraying on Saturday, then a wipe-down with acetone this morning.

Next, primer on fenders. Excuse the runs on the far fender...got those afterwards.










Next, brushed and rolled primer on the main body shell.


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Painting, painting, painting.

Friday, had to move a sales trailer, so nothing got done. Darn thing was like towing a drogue chute down the highway! Didn't manage better then 80kph and 7 mpg the whole way.










Saturday was sanding. MUCH sanding. Went through 6 sheets of 400 grit wet sandpaper, but got the body shell nicely prepped. ~ 5 hours of work.










Sunday was comparatively easy. Primered one door, and the underside of the hood. Then went back to the garage and did the first coat of black on the chassis, which was very different to laying down the primer.

Primer is a 4:1 mix, and dries quite slowly. The black paint, on other hand, dries amazingly quickly on a hot day! I tended to do a frame or something inaccessible by the roller, then I would come back to tip the paint about 5 mins later. Worked great on the primer, but the black was already drying by that point! Had to work quicker, it turned out.

I was a little concerned how the frames and such would turn out in areas that it would be tough to sand, but I figured out how to the use a very small roller to make a sort of textured pattern by keeping it on the dry side. That nicely hides all the little imperfections that would otherwise creep up, and looks quite nice.

This is lots of work, but I'm very chuffed at how it's turning out so far.

'scuze the runnoff from the primer - didn't clean the engine bay as well as I could have, since it was already painted.


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Been a while since last update, since I got a little discouraged, then very busy. Namely, I discovered that this paint (catalyzed) LAUGHS at 400 grit sandpaper wet.

Given how easy it was to sand the primer, I got a little lazy with tipping the first two black coats. I wasn't thinning them enough, and the brush strokes from tipping didn't settle well, so I figured that it would just amount to a little more sanding to remove the bubbles. HAH.

Well, after the catalyzed top coat dried, I tried sanding with the 400 grit that had been working so well before. On the stock paint two swipes with 400 wet went through the paint, and the primer was about double that per coat (typically they sand well). With the poly paint, I SCRUBBED a small area with 400 for about 5 mins and it barely left a dent. An hour of work finished off an area about the size of a saucer, and left me exhausted. I was just a *little* terrified at the prospect of how much work laid ahead.

So, I tried Home Depot. Nope...400 wet was as low as they went (dry paper would clog WAY too quickly). Bought some drywall sanding sponges in 100 grit. They worked great...for about 5 mins, and then went dull.

Fearing the worst, I went back to the place I bought the paint, and they had no real suggestions to help. They did have 220 grit wet paper, however...whew.

Even with the 220 grit wet (which goes through the stock paint in ONE SWIPE), it was a tough chore. Spread out over two weeks, I figure it was about 10 hours of work to sand these coats smooth. That's WAY too much work to not tip the paint properly!

After finishing the sanding today and washing the car, I did another colour coat with much thinner paint, and tipped with a brush. Worked much better - just a couple of small brush lines which will sand out very quickly. So, word to the wise - this paint is tough as nails, but don't get lazy on the application.

Dreaded demon spots...these were bubbles:









Wet sanding the roof until my perfectionistic streak was satisfied:









Hosed off after sanding complete:









Black again:


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## Voltswagen (Nov 13, 2008)

Adam
Are you using a roller to apply the finish coat and then sanding it?
What is the base of the paint? Enamel, Urethene, Laquer?


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Voltswagen said:


> Adam
> Are you using a roller to apply the finish coat and then sanding it?


Correct. Brushes to tip the paint as well, but most is done with the roller.



Voltswagen said:


> What is the base of the paint? Enamel, Urethene, Laquer?


The rust paint (POR-15) is SUPER toxic moisture-curing something-or-another.

The main paint is water-based System 3 2-part catalyzed polyurathane:
http://www.systemthree.com/p_wr_lpu.asp

More expensive then most are using in the roll-on world, but so much easier and less toxic to work with. Apparently car makers in Europe are switching to this style of paint due to the low VOC.


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## tomofreno (Mar 3, 2009)

Hey Aktill, 

How is the conversion going?


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

It's not anymore...not much will happen until spring. Frankly I need a bit of a break too, since I spent a LOT of time on bodywork and paint leading up to the weather turning.

Got the last coats of paint on the car shell, then the weather went from 35C 3 weeks ago to being -15C for the last two. I'm pretty much done for the year. I'll do what I can on smaller parts indoors, but when it's this cold, working in the garage isn't very appealing.


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## mk4gti (May 6, 2011)

Hey fellow canuck! Nice job so far! 
I am doing a festiva conversion, which has the same transmission layout. I am planning on making my own adapter plate (unless you would sell yours ?)

Can you tell me the thickness used? Thanks!



aktill said:


> New drive system and adaptor (that fits...yeah!)


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

I've got a crazy week coming up, but I'll check for you. I'd happily sell this one though, since I'm not working on the project anyway. I'll look up the price I paid, but I'd let it go for 50% of what I paid for it.

I'd you want the whole drive I'd let it go for about $3k too (motor/ controller/ contactors/ plate / li-cell monitors) + shipping to wherever you are.

Feel free to prod me if you don't see a response...I don't have a chance to come by here much anymore.


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## JRP3 (Mar 7, 2008)

Giving up on the whole project?


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

Yep, 'fraid so. I've actually put 40k km's on a Smart car since doing so too. I got about to the point where I needed to think about buying batteries, and life just got too busy to rationalize the outlay. $300/mo for the Smart seemed more sensible then $8k+ for batteries and the monitoring system.

Sill will own an electric at some point, but it may be from one of the big mfgrs instead.


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## JRP3 (Mar 7, 2008)

That's too bad, especially after all the work you did stripping it down and painting it. Are you going to reassemble the roller, or sell it as is? You could offer the whole thing as an EV kit


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## TigerNut (Dec 18, 2009)

Is that an AC31 or an AC50? My daily commute involves the Cochrane hill...


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## aktill (Jun 18, 2008)

It never got quite that far, unfortunately. I only paid $1500 for the car two years beforehand, and I consider that a good investment merely for what I learned about working on cars in general. I now do much of the service work on my Frontier and Smart, and I've saved a bunch of money by being comfortable with the process.

I ended up donating the Aspire to one of those charity places that haul for free, because it wasn't worth my time to reassemble it. My Grandma was having trouble getting into my truck, so I needed something relatively quickly. Having only the single car garage and the pad in front meant the project car had to go. Even the hauling guy said it was a shame to have to turf it, but family comes first.

The motor is an 31, not a 50 I'm afraid. It's a great motor, but I think you'll find commuting into Calgary a challenge over that distance since you're all highway after that. Cochrane hill is a doozy, so that's going to be a challenge with all but a pretty light car. I haul my horse trailer up and down that a few times a year, and it's a good grade.

I have half a mind to keep the drive in case I ever get the urge to convert my Smart, but if someone offers what I'm looking for, my girlfriend and I will enjoy spending the money


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## mk4gti (May 6, 2011)

aktill said:


> I've got a crazy week coming up, but I'll check for you. I'd happily sell this one though, since I'm not working on the project anyway. I'll look up the price I paid, but I'd let it go for 50% of what I paid for it.
> 
> Feel free to prod me if you don't see a response...I don't have a chance to come by here much anymore.


I'm still interested in the adapter plate and coupler. I know you're busy; let me know if these items are still for sale.


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