A bit of an update.
Garry helped me pick up the car from Southampton docks in exchange for sorting some wiring out on his new towing rig. What a jolly nice chap. Everything went very smoothly and Kingstown are highly recommended and efficient. We were in and out in around 40 minutes I reckon.
After we got back to mine, it was time for the first proper poke about. I must say the car was exactly as described. There is no rot on the car to speak of, just a very cheap silver paint job with no lacquer at all. Weird though, as there is no overspray whatsoever so it must have taken some time to do. Car presents like it is primer grey. Still, I knew all that and it is a fine platform for what I want:
Two days before Christmas, ! received a very nice parcel of Christmassy goodies from the guy I bought it off. What a gent!
I checked the battery voltages and thought I'd reconnect the contactors and give it a whirl. First off, I set the date to 000 BC and armed the trigger for 88 mph. No, wait a minute, that's a film. In actual fact this is the SOC (state of charge) meter:
I pressed the throttle and heard a contactor click in, then a whine and we were moving - it actually works! I dont know why I was surprised as the PO did 3 years of commuting in it before he retired. I went round my driveway a few times, gears work as normal but you can start off in 3rd and off course you don't need to release the clutch when stopped. Silent and weird - the previous owner's Mum called it the 'Silver Ghost' apparently.
Next I did what every fellow before me has done with a working vehicle, that's it, start taking it all to bits. To be fair, I wasn't about to trust the wiring by others and there's 500 Amps kicking about in this thing. I also didn't much care for the way the front battery pack had been placed in the luggage bay:
I want to relocate this pack. Half will go behind the cross brace, half in front. So I set about removing the HV leads. Rubber gloves and concentration. Once the packs are disconnected the voltage is down to ~20 volts per 6 cells so is safe to work on.
Here's one of the packs:
After a bit of a clean in the luggage bay I have this:
As you can see there is no evidence of rust. The coppery colour is some kind of discolouring, perhaps a fuel leak in a previous life?
I also removed the controller and top 2 packs in the engine bay and this revealed a further 2 pack below and the motor:
There was tons of dust in this car, here's the back of the controller prior to removal:
500A on those main HV leads!
I then removed just about all the gubbins and wiring that had been used for the conversion. Eletrically, I will be redoing the entire conversion. The mechanical parts like the motor adapter and battery frames are good though.
So the car is all stripped and I am planning the renovation:
Here's the plan:
1) Make IP44 rated enclosures for battery packs. This will become law at some point.
2) Reconfigure front packs, half to move to the area of old fuel tank, half in front of cross brace. Custom build battery boxes.
3) Upgrade controller to Soliton Jr (have found one secondhand)
4) Install new charging system and J1772 connector for public charge points.
5) Rewire. HV leads must be orange (new law)
6) Paint or perhaps even Vinyl wrap
7) Retrim ('repurpose' original gauges so the interior looks standard).
