Electric car conversion: Project ForkenSwift

[MetroMPG]

well, my friend and i looked over our spreadsheet yesterday and we agreed it would be tough to do a conversion for our original budget of $1500. $2k is a much safer bet. we decided to go ahead - and strive to keep costs somewhere in between the two figures.

so today i made a couple of calls and agreed to buy the $500 forklift and the rusted suspension suzuki swift 2-dr for $75.

we'll use the swift for parts when we find a better metro/swift/sprint/firefly host car. while we're looking, we can use its tranny to fabricate the motor/tranny adapter plate.

also, i can use its 13 in rims for my snow tires. and i may end up with a spare (taller) tranny i can try in my blackfly. so i'm getting a lot of value for $75. plus the engine works. may be able to sell it (and various other parts) on the teamswift site...

no money has actually changed hands yet. at what point do i say that we're actually building an electric car and not just buying junk?

[MetroMPG]

picked up the $75 red swift today. driving it back to the house was an experience. because of the badly rusted/welded right front control arm mount, that wheel is angled out about 10 degrees when the left wheel is pointing straight ahead. can you say "unstable"?

so out in the country, i drove with the right wheel on the dirt shoulder where it had less traction. when i got into town, i kept it over to the right side of the lane so that tire tracked in the gravel by the curb. that made steering easier. when i had to have both tires on dry pavement, they actually squealed as i drove along (30 mph). probably not good for mileage

so, we'll have a look to see if the floor/suspension is repairable, but i kind of doubt it. it appears it has already been patched up once. and now the patches are rusting off.

if we can't fix it, this car will serve as a parts source. and we can use its tranny to make the adapter plate for the car we ultimately end up using as the host. this tranny fits all metros 89 - 01.

i can hopefully sell the engine (seems to run & drive strong, though it prob hasn't had a tune-up in years). plus it's got an OEM remote alarm/immobilizer system. may be able to sell that too.

[MetroMPG]

had a better look under the swift today, and repairing it may not be out of the question. it's not as bad as i thought.

did an eyeball wheel alignment in the driveway and now the car drives pretty much normally: tracks pretty straight, no tire squealing. the reason it was so far off before is because whoever did the control arm mount repair didn't line it up properly before welding the patch in place.

everything in the car works. there's a bit of a gas smell around the tank area, and a leak in the exhaust. and the front tires are shot, of course.

i'll have to get my mechanic's opinion on whether it would pass safety with the floor/suspension mount area properly aligned, welded & reinforced. i've always wanted to try welding...

[MetroMPG]

my brother knows how to weld, so he'll probably show me. and my partner in crime's brother has a welder. not sure what type though.

i've been buzzing around my neighbourhood in the swift. i actually like driving it more than my pontiac. even though in every objective sense the pontiac is a better car, the swift just feels more nimble. probably it's just the novelty of it.

[MetroMPG]

for anyone reading this thread, got any ideas where i could go look for used batteries?

i'm thinking of putting together a small pack of 36 or 48v that i can use to test things and move the forklift around in the garage if i need to when it arrives.

i already called a golf cart service company, but they don't keep used ones around. who else might have some large amp-hour capacity 6 or 12volt batts lying around? any ideas?

[MetroMPG]

junkyard is a good idea. someone on another ev list suggested regular 12v starting batteries from a junkyard will also work.

on another note, stopped by my mechanic at lunch time and he gave me the green light: if the control arm mount is properly welded, it's OK for the safety certificate (other issues notwithstanding).

then i swung by the local dump and drove onto the scale. they guy said the car's weight is 782 kg / 1724 lbs.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

Damn, that's pretty heavy for that little thing. Got some bodies in the back or something?

might be the weight of the gigantic FOUR cylinder engine in the front. four ostentatious cylinders! shameless excess.

maybe that's why i'm liking driving it. it's practically a ferrari compared to the fireflea.

[MetroMPG]

notice anything strange about the wheel placement in the wheel well?





shows the shoddy patch welded on the control arm mount point. the forward control arm bolt is about 1/2 inch further outboard than it should be. that's why the wheel's off center in the wheel well.

look familiar jangeo?

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by someone

you should just part it out and take the profit

yes, that IS tempting. we could also probably make 50-100% on the forklift if we parted it out too. (maybe more under the right circumstances - the technician said the motor is worth "thousands" if you have to replace one.)

but i look at it this way: i were to part out these vehicles, the money i would make as "profit" would really just be covering my time for doing it (dismantling, ebaying, packing, running to the post office). unless i hit the jackpot with some special part (sounds like you did ).

and someone contacted me yesterday to tell me they've got an engineless metro, electric motor and adapter plate ready to go in ottawa (just over an hour from here.) a conversion project that was started but ran out of steam.

[MetroMPG]

so, apparently i'm getting a 16,000 lb forklift delivered to the house sometime tomorrow. kind of exciting!

i hope the ground under the driveway's interlocking bricks is frozen enough to hold it up until i can move it inside the garage onto the concrete floor.

we have to cut or remove the lift boom first (it's about 1.5 feet taller than the garage door), which probably won't happen until the weekend.