Geo Metro XFI Convertible Project Finished

[Coyote X]

I haven't really looked into the electric drive part of it that carefully. If I build it I would like it to be able to drive the car up to 60mph on just electric. Range would be no real concern since I would have the gas motor to recharge the batteries when needed.

So if it would go for 5-10 minutes at 60mph on electric before the motor would need to start and run for 5 minutes or so to recharge the batteries that would work out fine for me. An alternator running full field can put out 70V or more so even if I run 60V batteries I can still recharge them.

I was thinking this way if I wanted fast acceleration I could use gas and electric to accelerate. Should make the car pretty fast that way. And if I am just driving slow and staying local I won't even need the gas motor and can recharge when I get home.

I need to look into motors and see what kind of motor it will take to do it. I figure it will be one speed, hooking a transmission to it would be hard to do so I will just have to use sprockets and chain drive to pick the right gear for the motor to give me the speed I want.

if I use the 175/70TR14 tires I was planning they turn 866 revs per mile. The first motor I see on ebay has these specs:
* Torque constant = 1.2 in-lbs/amp
* Voltage constant = 70 RPM/volt
* 100A continuous, 200A/1 minute, 300A/30 seconds
* 24-36V design voltage, 48V absolute max
* 88% efficient
So if I ran 36V that gives me a max rpm of around 2500 so I would need about 3:1 gearing to get the desired speed. I don't plan on using that motor it looks really cheap and probably unreliable. But it gives me some numbers to play with to see what it takes to make what I want work.

But this is all stuff that won't happen anytime soon. I still need to get a working car before I put any serious effort into this idea.

[Coyote X]

Didn't have a lot of time today but I did manage to get some of the things done that were needing done. So it wasn't a total waste of a day for working on the car. The front suspension is nice and solid now with an extra brace added to help with side loads on the front suspension mount. I also had to redo the back of the floor slightly because it was interfering with how the air would flow through the duct.



So the plan this weekend is to seal up all the joints with liquid nails or some other sealer and move the wiring harness over. I don't think there are any big things needing changed on the stock harness so it should just swap over without issue. I might also put the motor back in since there is nothing left needing done under the hood. It would be one less thing sitting around the garage.

[Ryland]

I glue stuff together all the time with polyurethane caulk, it wears well, holds up to heat and light, has some flex so it will not crack, or you might think about the glue that they use to glue cars together, although appears to be really similar to the caulk.

[hackjob]

awesome project!

[Coyote X]

here is a pretty good layout for the dashboard I think



Now I just need to take it apart and paint it up good.

Also forgot to put the pics on here from this weekend. I know they are crappy but I only had my cell phone with me and I was stiff enough to not feel like walking back and getting the good camera since I dropped the car on my leg when picking it up to put on jackstands

[Coyote X]

More stuff done. This detail stuff isn't quite as much fun as welding a car together

here is my heater box that has been cut up and made as compact as possible. A chainsaw is way faster to cut it up with than a dremel. Took me 15 minutes to cut a section of the box away with the dremel. Probably 1 minute to finish it up with a chainsaw.


And here is what the dash is more or less going to look like in the car.



I have all the holes and seams glued up. I have a few minor things to do like cut the holes for the parking brake cables and the shifter then the interior should be ready to assemble. The front end is ready to do the final assembly on. I just need to make the back inner fenders and the exhaust and it will soon be on the road.

[Coyote X]

Garbage cans make great inner fenders




Cruise, megasquirt, heater box, ignition/signal levers, fuse box, and cleaning up the wiring harness done on the dash.



And the start of the rear grille for the back.


That is the filler panel that goes between the tail lights. It is going to be part of the strange looking back of the car.

[Johnny Mullet]

I have been reading this from the first day I registered here. I am planning to do similar work to my 1998 Metro, but not that extreme.

Great job on that project!

[Coyote X]

woohoo carpet makes everything look better



If I get time to work on it tomorrow I should have the interior basically ready. Then it is time to start putting the body panels on and trying to get the body straight and ready for paint.

[Coyote X]

Car is starting to look like it might possibly get done by June