Restoring an old conversion, Finally back to work |
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Restoring an old conversion, Finally back to work |
914e |
Mar 17 2020, 02:31 AM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 496 Joined: 21-February 20 From: Arizona Member No.: 23,951 Region Association: Southwest Region |
When the kids turned 14 my son and daughter for some reason decided they needed to build a car. I still suspect somehow my brothers stuck this idea in their heads. After months of failing to get them to drop the idea. I was able to convince them the $500 muscle cars that I grew up with are long gone. So I convinced them a bug was a perfect first car. Cheap and easy to get parts for. They found a 74 super with a blown engine for about $700. The owner claimed it was daily driver till the engine blew. The body looked pretty solid.
My plan was to have them rebuild the engine, do the body work, and get it back on the road. We dissembled it and started on the body work. After a few months we had a machine shop examine the engine parts, it was in worse shape then I expected but workable. Meanwhile my daughter started suggesting we should make it electric. Looking at the motor and controller cost it seemed to be in the range of the engine rebuild, then I looked up the batteries.... No way batteries are 20K. They sanded and soda blasted for months. Found some rust areas, being in Arizona a quarter size rust area is a disaster. After looking at what everyone in the world considers rust, I got over it and bought a welder. My daughter kept on me about making it electric, after I figured out the smart way was to use batteries from a wreaked car for pennies on the dollar, I agreed. Of course teenagers can't finish the body work in April when it is below 90F. They wait August weeks before school to try to finish when it is still110F. Anyway after many days of painting at 4 am we finish. Back in the 90's and 2000's the local utility sponsored electric car races. Often a 914 was converted to electric and raced. As we built the bug I ran across a few of the old 914 conversions. After the bug was on the road, I enjoyed driving it so much I started looking for making something of my own. I started looking a Ghia's, Buses, 911's and then one day a 914 pops up on Craigslist. Old DC motor, converted by a high school or college 20 years ago. Even had a battery module. The body looked good, the price cheap. |
914e |
Mar 18 2020, 11:45 PM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 496 Joined: 21-February 20 From: Arizona Member No.: 23,951 Region Association: Southwest Region |
Since a rare rain in Phoenix is keeping me from working on the car. I can get some more posts in. I have not been able the track down the full history. I believe it was a high school team that did the conversion.
I think it was done around 98. I have a some drawings of the original battery layout and cabling, along with a few changes over the years. The original conversion had 20 six volt deep cycle lead acid batteries. I estimate that added around 1500 pounds to a car. With lithium batteries I expect it to be about the the weight of a 914/6. After having it towed back to Phoenix we starting at what we had. One ugly green interior and a few boxes of parts. Since the paint was flaking off in a few areas and looked to be only one layer. I thought it was original paint. A few minutes with the sander and we find the rear deck lid is not the original. After doing the bug the kids make short work of removing the paint off the 914 Being in Arizona I knew I didn't want to repaint it black, and when driving something small I like it to be bright, so if someone hits you that can't claim they didn't see it. After printing out pictures of 914s in most of the factory colors and looking at them for weeks. I decided on orange, though yellow looks great we already have one yellow car. The next problem was which orange. Signal or Nepal? |
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