Friday, March 6, 2009

Oh, what the heck...

Removed tail lights, head lights, wiper motor, blower, everything that wasn't part of the body. Got a hammer and chisel and removed the heater controls. Pulled out the heater cables. Then, I started to work on the wire harness in the engine compartment. Don't need any of that, right? Look, another wire *snip* . And another one *snip* . Here, grab this whole harness and pull *yank*. Pretty soon, all the harnesses were out. Nothing left - looks like I'm going to re-wire the whole car. It just doesn't look that complicated, and it will be all new. *My* way. Besides, I hate those dumb little open ceramic fuses. Bought a portable metal saw, and removed what was left of the heater ducts. Lots of sparks, lots of fun. I'm getting a little crazy here.

I want to put the batteries in sealed boxes with plexiglass covers. Same for the big electronics parts - the controller, the DC-DC converter, the charger, the contacters, the relays, etc. I'm wondering how best to do that - one idea is to use thin plywood and then fiberglass it, resin and glass cloth, then paint.

I did some weight distribution calcuations and I think that eight batteries behind the rear seat (stacked sideways, they're going to be AGM's) and four in the front under the hood would be a good plan.