The Home Stretch

I took care of a few more odds and ends today. Installed the new radio.

There's the new radio. Just above the gear shift is the Link 10 I've mentioned in other posts. It's reading 160 Volts at the moment. I can cycle it through the current Amps being drawn off the pack, the total number of kWh's drawn since the last charge, and the percentage of charge left. The little green lights across the top are the "fuel gauge". The switch just to the left of the Link 10 is the new switch for the heater.

I also ran all the wires that go from the back of the car to the front, or vice-versa, in a wire loom. Those wires all go under the car in the transmission/drive shaft tunnel. I then anchored it, as well as the battery cables that run up front, to the chassis. That was long tedious work that I'm glad I only had to do once.

To protect all that wire, and to help make the car a bit more slippery through the air, I covered up the tunnel as best I could with some left over sheets of aluminum.

That first seam there looks crooked, but it's not really. The front piece was slightly longer on one side. To get each plate to stand off from the chassis evenly, I used a 1 inch nylon dowel, cut into the proper lengths as stand offs. There were several screws and bolts sticking down from the chassis that had been used to hold either heat shielding for the exhaust or the fuel system. I simply cut a proper length of dowel, drilled a hole in it on one end and then screwed it onto the existing bolt or screw. Once they were all event I screwed the aluminum to them for a nice flush surface. I don't know if it will make any difference in the drag coefficient of the car, but it protects the motor and the wires.

I also finished cutting the carpet and the plastic trim pieces that had been in the trunk and refit them as best I could.

I need to get some Velcro to hold down the back corners of the flooring, but it turned out pretty good. The floor of the trunk is about 1/2" higher than it was and it's a bit wobbly. I'll see if I can't shim it later on sometime. Eventually I'm going to have to figure out some way to keep groceries from falling into the equipment in the back. For now, I'll probably just get a plastic crate or two.

Well, that's just about it. The only thing left is to install the new tachometer when it arrives, and then re-assemble the dashboard. I desperately want to drive it around, but it will be easier to do all that while it's still up on the jack stands. So, for now, it stays put.