Geo Metro XFI Convertible Project Finished

[Coyote X]

Man the detail work sure is slow....

Lots of little stuff done that doesn't photograph well today. Tomorrow I should be able to finish installing the body and getting it aligned and all the mounting brackets finished. Just about 10 more brackets left to do.

[H4MM3R]

Nice progress.

[Coyote X]

It actually looks like a car in those pictures The body has been aligned and everything was fit together perfectly. I figured the best way to do it was to adjust the panels to the center of their adjustment then adjust the whole assembly to get it aligned. That way when I am building the car the final time I should have enough adjustment range to ensure a perfect fit on everything.

Once that was done I tore it back down to actually weld all the brackets in place. I just spot welded everything when making it up. Most brackets were nearly impossible to get to just to spot weld with the body on.



Now all the brackets are done, all the welding is done, the base painting is done. Time to build a car

[MetroMPG]

It's moving along nicely. I guess this is stating the obvious, but I take it the car will be blue, instead of yellow or white?

[Coyote X]

Yep I used the blue off a bag of potato chips to scan for the color

There are 3 million yellow convertibles and white is prob #2 for the colors so I figured I might as well go with something different.

Also the dash is coming along nicely. I have it cleaned up and probably by the end of the week it will be time to find an old bathtub and try to dye it charcoal gray I will make a show car out of this thing yet...

pics of it will be coming as soon as there is something worth taking a pic of.

[Coyote X]

It is starting to turn into a car. Got the front suspension, pedals, master cylinder, gas tank, gas lines, and steering installed.



Tomorrow if nothing comes up I will get the brakes done and maybe get the parking brake made up.

And for anyone curious here is basically what the dash is going to look like



The 3 circles under the lcd bezel are for an oil pressure, vacuum, and EGT Gauge. There is no point in a radio so I am not installing one, I have enough room under the gauges so later on if I want I can put a dvdrw drive but I don't think I really need one. The only thing left to make is to mount the small lcd panels on the sides for the rear view mirrors then I can smooth out all the work I have done and paint it with vinyl dye.

[Arminius]

Man, you've got skill. I would have to walk away from that project.

[Coyote X]

No pics today, nothing worth looking at

Ended up fighting with the front brakes all day to get a good set of wheel bearings, rotors and calipers on the car. Apparently a vert has a different hub than any other metro Got it all together though and put some fluid in the master cylinder but it has lost prime so I was not able to bleed the brakes. I aml priming it the easy way and just left the bleed valves open slightly tonight. Should be able to get working brakes tomorrow before work without a lot more effort.

[Coyote X]

I finally rounded up someone to help me bleed the brakes today. So the car can steer and stop now So this project is mostly winding down now and it is just a matter of bolting parts on that will fit without major fabrication. The fun part is over and now the tedious part begins.

...

But a long term thing I was thinking of was to fit a front suspension on the back so I could get some cv joints connected to the back wheels and hook a pair of electric motors up for a combination electric/gas driven car. But, I was lurking around teamswift and found a pic of a 4wd swift conversion. Apparently the euro 95+ Justy is just a 4wd suzuki swift. The rear suspension and hubs are a bolt on to the rear suspension on a metro but the diff would not fit with the metro rear floor. and gas tank Not a problem for my car anymore So now I need to find a junkyard in europe that is willing to ship parts a long way away.

I am now thinking finding the rear hubs, brakes, and cv joints out of a awd justy. Shorten the shafts enough to give me room to work with between them. I can use a set of wheel bearings on the inner side of the cv joint to mount the inner axle stub. Then I can put a sprocket on each side and run to something like a pair of motors 10-20hp or so. I could run a bank of optima batteries to it. I could also put a modified alternator on the 3 cyl that puts out 48v or whatever to charge the battery bank when needed. With the airflow through the car I would have plenty of cooling air for the electric motors. And with the frame as it is built now adding the drive stuff to the rear would be a weekend job really.

All of this is just wild ideas I have floating around in my head and I have no idea if it would work or even how I would actually control it, but in theory it seems like it could work.

[MetroMPG]

No shortage of people mulling over the idea of making an all wheel drive hybrid from a fwd car with that technique. (Not that there's anything wrong with that).

But would it suit your typical driving patterns is the big question (ie. electric for low-speed use).