# What's my 144 Volt Converted S10 Worth



## Bowser330 (Jun 15, 2008)

+1000, This is an EXCELLENT topic for a thread.


----------



## gravelydude (Sep 6, 2008)

Last year, I bought a 1994 S10 with a new paint job. It has a Net Gain 9" motor, 156 V worth of "flooded" lead acid batteries, and a Manzanita 20 amp charger. It had a "blown-up" controller. The previous owner put on new tires, air bags, and stripped the frame down to bare metal and redid it before his controller went south. I bought it from him for $4,000. It has power steering, AC and power brakes with a 12 V vacuum pump. I am putting a Curtis contoller (same as yours) into it. Your truck looks like a nicer truck, but I think having the batteries in the bed may be a negative. You may want to consider putting lithiums in your truck. If you could charge at work, you would have adequate range with 160 - 200 AH cells. Sadly, I think it is very difficult to get 50% of your money out of an EV. 

JACK


----------



## JimDanielson (Oct 19, 2008)

probably worth more parting it out, I wish diy evs were worth more


----------



## PhantomPholly (Aug 20, 2008)

Check your PMs. Location makes a difference. If it's close, I'd at least like to take a peek...


----------



## Dameon (Sep 19, 2011)

His location states Northern Michigan.


----------



## Turbotom (Jul 13, 2008)

Phantom your post says your from Atlanta actually the truck is not far from Atlanta, Michigan.


----------



## dtbaker (Jan 5, 2008)

after all that work.... sounds like you may be best off upgrading to lithium and keep it!


----------



## newenergy (Oct 20, 2010)

Not really the right place for this post, but I don't know where is.

I think the economics of conversion may be a lot like custom cars or motorcycles. People spend a ton of money getting a Harley the way they want it, but I really doubt they get anywhere near their money back if they sell.

If you want to make money at conversion, I think it's like being a custom chopper builder. You have to let someone come to you with the project and do it for them. The main thing is it has to be their vision, not something off the shelf or the classifieds.


----------



## TomA (Mar 26, 2009)

newenergy said:


> I think the economics of conversion may be a lot like custom cars or motorcycles. People spend a ton of money getting a Harley the way they want it, but I really doubt they get anywhere near their money back if they sell.


So true. That's been the problem (or opportunity) in the car hobby since the beginning. The only way it works out profitably is to get someone to pay you to DO the conversion, not buy the completed conversion, which will ALWAYS be at a discount from the total cost of the new components, and the labor is practically unrecoverable.

The problem with doing conversions for profit is that you are putting $10k-$25k worth of new parts into a used car, which is depreciating so fast that it overwhelms the components, and sets the stage for them to be worth 50% of their cost as soon as they are installed. Labor "invested" in a used car has no value, unless it is RESTORATION labor done to a very high standard, and even then it sells at less than half what it costs in the completed car. Far, far less in an unfinished car, too. That's just how the money works in used cars, hobby or otherwise, and I haven't seen anyone beat the numbers, except "celebrity" builders with super high-end collector cars on TV. 

Duane Ball came the closest of anyone to getting his money out of the Porsche 550 Spyder he built two years ago, but how many Jack Rickards are there out there who participate in the build, know the car and what its worth intimately, and then willingly write a big check for the completed car? The few times Jack has tried to sell any of his own equally nicely prepared cars, the bids have been about half what he had in them for components, and nothing for labor. The used EV numbers are no different from the collector or hobby car numbers generally, which isn't such a bad thing. It makes used EVs reallly cheap, guys, and a great value if you find one that suits you well.

Also, the cheaper the glider, the worse these economics work out for the seller.

There's just no more money to be made in the EV part of the car hobby as there is anywhere else in the car hobby; actually much less overall, because of the tiny market share. Stripping this particular truck for its parts will net some more money, but not much more. Used EV components are only apparently holding their value better than complete cars, but this exact sad "truth" has been around the car hobby forever, too. Most guys only tear a car apart one time to "make back more" from it in parts. Its hard work, parts are very hard to sell, and the actual prices aren't anywhere close to what people are asking for them online or initially, so that particular game is rarely worth the effort.

That is why in the EV hobby, as in the car hobby generally, its really important to pick a nice car THAT YOU WANT TO KEEP to pour all that time and money into...

Just my $.02


----------



## PhantomPholly (Aug 20, 2008)

Turbotom said:


> Phantom your post says your from Atlanta actually the truck is not far from Atlanta, Michigan.


Nice...


----------

