Battery Support Part IV

I know what you're saying, "Enough with the steel, and the welding and support and what not!" Well, I feel your pain. Trust me when I say that I'd much rather move on to sexier things, but I have a few remaining things to do to try and make the supports as road ready as I can.

Today I spent several hours cutting, fitting and shaping some steel tubing for cross bracing on the existing mounts we've already welded into place. Once they are welded to the existing supports, they should offer the extra bracing needed to support the batteries in the event of hard stops or accelerations.

I also spent some time cleaning up the hole I cut in the trunk's bulkhead yesterday. Took a lot of careful measurements and then went down and ordered the plastic box that's going to fit in the cavity. That should take a week to build. In the mean time I need to cut some more steel to support and hold that box in place. Ideally, I'd like to build yet another frame to mount in the area the fuel tank was in, to hold the accessory battery. I'm thinking I'm going to use an Optima battery for that because I can mount it anyway I want, even upside down!

More Cutting in the Trunk

Today was spent cutting out the bulk head in back of the trunk, that separated the trunk from the fuel tank area. Here's what it looked like before:


And after:


I have a bit grinding to do to get the opening nice and even, but that won't take too long. I'm going to have a plastic box built, just like the battery boxes, to fit in that space. I built another mock up out of cardboard to make sure it all fits.

This new box won't hold batteries (not enough room). Instead I'll be mounting the charger and the DC to DC converters. After giving it lots of thought, I decided to go with two DC to DC converters. Each one can put out about 40 amps at 12 Volts DC. The power steering pump alone can pull up to 75, so clearly one just wouldn't be enough.

I had thought that I'd put in an auxiliary 12 battery to handle the extra load, but realized the battery alone wouldn't be a good plan. Instead I'm going with two converters AND the battery. It just keeps getting more complicated. But that's ok, I'm trying to build this so that I have as few compromises as possible.

By the way, thanks to my good friend Len in Malta for the great suggestion of using the back of the trunk and fuel tank cavity in such a productive way. Hope you're well Len!

Battery Support Part III

Well, we're back from vacation and I'm ready to start tackling the car where I left off. We welded up more bracing for the battery trays today. Today we worked on the tray that will hold three batteries in the back of the engine compartment, near the firewall. We got a lot done, but had to quit because it was getting late. We have some cross bracing to sort out, and then I just need to mount them up to the supports we've put in.

There are not too many mechanical things left to tackle. Need to mount the power steering pump, the A/C compressor, the vacuum pump, the radiator for the Zilla, and finally, the cooling fan for the motor. After all that, it's on to the electrical stuff.

Off on Vacation

No work on the car for a week. Man that's going to be painful. We will be having some fun though!

Battery Support Part II

Tim (no relation) and I finished cutting and welding the steel for the frame I'll be using to hold the middle battery tray to the frame of the car. Admittedly it's not very pretty, but it's as strong as a really... big... strong... thing... Huh, can't think of a good simile. It's really sturdy, that's the point I'm trying to make.

Odds & Ends Part IV

1. Finished the duct work for the forced air cooling on the motor. You can see the gray striped tubing heading toward the firewall. The fan itself will sit back in that area.

2. My first attempt at building a cable with 2/0 copper. It wasn't too bad really, but you can see that it takes a bit of a strange route. Why didn't I go in a straight line from one terminal to the other? Well, to do that, the lug under the rubber boot stuck up from the motor a full 1/4" more than routing it the way I did. Believe it or not, I need that 1/4" to help the batteries that will be sitting on top of that to clear the hood above.


3. On both sides of the motor, you can see the brace I made running down from the motor to the motor mounts. Those are strictly to hold the motor in place when it tries to spin from the torque it generates when accelerating. I still need to drill the hole at the top to allow the 1/2" diameter bolt to go through it, but I don't have a drill bit that size yet.

Battery Support Part I

Spent the day with my friend Tim (no relation) working on getting some supports for the battery racks welded to the frame. They turned out very well. Once they are sanded down a bit and painted, they'll look even better. Most importantly, they are really solid. They'll easily hold the batteries and be able to take the abuse of any bumps along the road.

Yesterday I built the shroud that goes around the front of the motor. There had been a metal screen like you can see in the picture below on the back end of the motor. While the impeller in the motor would pull air in to cool it, I'll get much better cooling if I force air into it. So, in that shroud, on the upper part of the left side, I'll be fitting an attachment that will accept a 2" hose, which will be fitted to a squirrel cage fan. That should keep things nice and cool.