[bennelson]

I went out to "Jack's Auto Ranch" today. They had a Metro, but it was all rusted out.

On the way back from there, I saw a house that had a bunch on cars parked behind it. I stopped and the lady of the house told me to go back to a workshop on the property.

The owner was there along with his father and a couple of snowmobile buddies.

It looked like a strange scene from a movie. They all had beards and were wearing greasy overalls and drinking beer. Engines and transmissions were strewn about. Old license plates covered the walls.

I explained what I was planning on doing, looking for a car to convert to electric. They actually had some pretty good advice about VWs. There were 3 VW vans in back along with a number of other vehicles, none really appropriate for conversion.

I had a beer and hung out with them for a while.

Interesting experience. Bit of a culture shock. These guys were hard-core rural grease-monkeys, nice though.

Still searching for a donor car.

I also saw my brother-in-law tonight. I explained to him what I was planning with the electric car. He has a 1999 Geo Metro with a good body. He gave me the thumbs up to convert his car to electric after I do mine as a prototype.

We will see if he still feels that way after I am done with mine or not.

(EDIT: NOTE FROM THE FUTURE LOOKING BACK ON THIS THREAD - My brother-in-law ended up selling that 2000 Geo Metro to my brother for something like $50. My brother completely rebuilt the engine - he took every darn thing apart - did the whole thing - it's a brand new engine. The car is now running as a stock 1 liter Geo Metro.)