Yesterday, I cleaned up one thing that was bothering me for a long time on the car.
I tucked the umbilical cord.
On the back of the car, there has always been a loop of flexible conduit that hangs down in back, and is easily visible. This is one of the few things that makes the car look "weird". The lack of radiator is hardly noticeable, and nobody even misses the tailpipe, unless you tell them to look for it.
(Note the loop of grey "hose" directly under the license plate.)
The "umbilical cord" is a section of flexible conduit with household AC wiring running inside it. Even though you can't see most of it, this conduit is on the OUTSIDE of the car. It runs from the gas cap charging connection to inside the spare tire wheel well, where it connects to both the 72V battery charger, and power to the front to run the 12V car battery charger.
The reason why the conduit pokes down in back is because it goes straight up through an existing drain plug in the bottom of the spare tire well. That means that I didn't have to drill any holes, and even if water got in there, it would just drain back out. However, the conduit does not have enough flex to make the right angle. Even if it did, that would make it very difficult to fish the power cabling through.
I unwired the charger, power cabling from the rear, and power cabling to the front. It's amazing how physics change when it's cold out. Instead of peeling off, the electric tape just about shatters instead.
Once I had the wires all sorted out, I yanked out the hose.
I grabbed a 7/8th spade bit and my drill, and drilled SIDEWAYS into the wheel well as high as I could.
Wrestling with the cold-stiffened conduit, I was able to manage it through the new hole and pull the wiring through.
I yanked the wiring up and put it all together.
Then I tested the wiring and plugged the main charger in. No sparks, no explosions. Just started charging right up.
In this photo, you can see how tight the conduit goes through the hole. It still should get a bead of caulk around it, but I didn't think any would stick in the salt and cold right now. I will try to do it once temps get above freezing again.
Down and to the left of the conduit, you can see the drain hole where the conduit had gone through. I have the rubber plug that needs to go back into it, but I need to pull the batteries out to be able to get to it.
In this view:
you can see how nicely the conduit is now hidden from view. You also have a nice view of where there ISNT a tailpipe.