The Beginning

I like to build electronic stuff as a hobby. I’ve been doing it since High School, mainly Analog music synthesizers so far. I’m an engineer in data communications so I get a lot of exposure to big networking machines. I watch them chug away blasting huge amounts of electricity into hot air that big power-hungry air conditioners suck away so that we all can watch YouTube and surf eBay (and write blogs!). I’m also interested in Alternative Energy, since there’s a lot of waste going on energy-wise and we as a society should start doing something about it.

Me and two other guys built an electric Honda 600 in High School electric shop (and welding shop, and wood shop, and plastics shop…) which worked pretty good but was not practical for street use. Got a good grade however…

Which brings me to the present. My wife is also an engineer and she told me one day "you should build an electric car, me and the kids can help". So I said "sure". Like a good husband, I didn’t do anything about it and some time later, like a good wife, she said "so when are you going to start building that electric car?". At that point I realized that she *wanted* me to build an electric car. I realized that it’s a rare guy who has a wife that is 100% behind his expensive and time-consuming screwball hobby projects, and got to work. My first thought was "hey, join an email list" so I found the EVDL (electric vehicle discussion list) and started to lurk. I posted my intentions and the reply was "welcome, please read the archives" which makes total sense and heck, I should have known that. With the help of the list and google, I was able to zero in to some semblance of knowing how to go about this. And I bought the book "Convert It" by Michael Brown - good book. First step – buy a car. Which one? I picked a VW Beetle for several reasons:

Easy to find cheap
Easy to work on
I have experience with them (what guy doesn’t?)
Light weight
Manual Steering
Manual Brakes
Replacement parts are everywhere
Four seats (we have kids, remember)
Lots of EV project parts sources for them
No pesky computers or black boxes to figure out

Here we go...

September 25, 2008

Saw a nice ’74 Super Beetle for cheap on thesamba.com. Called the owner and asked if I could come by on the weekend to take a look at it.

September 27, 2008

10:00am:

Went to see the bug. Not bad! Very little rust, rubber body seals in good shape, interior in good shape, no dents, no accidents. and it runs fine. I wrote a check and told the seller I would be going on a business trip for a week, so I would come back the next weekend to let the check clear and pick it up.

1:00pm:

Packed up the wife and kids and drove down to the Alternative Energy Vehicle Expo in Santa Monica. My enthusiasm is getting serious. We looked at conversions, the Volt, original design EVs, even a compressed air car, and talked to a bunch of people. We drove the AC Propulsion eBox around the streets of Santa Monica. That's one serious EV, pretty expensive though. We left inspired. The kids didn't really want to go to the show in the first place, but I think they really enjoyed it. Good, they might actually want to help with the project! Went out and bought a Haynes manual to read on the plane.

October 5, 2008

Got a friend to drive me to the bug, and I picked it up and started down the hill. Spongey brakes, just like a bug should have. That old familiar rattling engine. The faint stink of internal combustion. Perfect! My friend following me, I got on the freeway and drove the 30 miles home, no problem. When I got home, the kids were crawling all over it. I told them I would give them a ride as soon as it was registered to me. Me and my wife inspected the bug inside and out to get a feel of what kind on work we would have to do on it.

October 6, 2008

Went online and bought disk brake conversion kits for front and rear. An EV conversion is heavier than the original car, so the spongey drum brakes aren't going to cut it. I remember how drum brakes work in the rain (when you press the brake pedal, you speed up!) and I didn't want to worry about stopping with all that battery weight. Also bought a shaped dashboard cover veneer to cover the cracks in the dashboard, and a factory service manual to fill in the gaps in the Haynes manual.

October 7, 2008

One of the tail light lenses is new and the other one is old and faded. Found a new replacement lens on eBay and bought it.