Yet Another EV Project - 1975 EVA Metro (Renault 12) Restomod

[mcmahon.craig]

So tomorrow, I shall be moving my EV project into the garage with the intention of getting into much mischief.

However, I don't have pictures of the Metro yet, so I will start the thread with some pictures of cool stuff in the garage I have finally finished clearing out so I actually can start the fun stuff.

Here's what's in the images:
1) The battery drawer in one of our yet unfinished EVs; holds 8 golf cart batteries. More tomorrow when I can get a decent picture.

2) The GE motor, adapter, and VW aircooled transmission on same. You can also see the heatsink for the Curtis 1231C (pretty sure...).

3) Assorted bits and pieces. On floor, left to right: old gasoline water heater from Metro, a Lister-Petter diesel engine to be used for BD experiments, and a Variac bad-boy EV charger. On table, an ancient vacuum tube power supply (in box) and an armature growler (red).

4) More EV parts storage. In this case, two 48V Lester golf-cartish chargers and enough wiring for a small house.

5) A shelf of EV parts. There is a 13"-ish DC motor on the floor and - I think - a Cableform Pulsomatic MK X under the bottom shelf. I don't know what else there is but there's a lot of it.

[Daox]

Wooo yay, another EV project. It certainly looks like you have enough parts laying around. Let us know how it progresses!

[Johnny Mullet]

Looking forward to the updates!

[mcmahon.craig]

So we got the car home today! Yesterday was just context.

Here's the fleet picture: the 144V Porsche 914 in the foreground, the Elec-Trak E12 somewhere in the middle, and the Metro on the trailer.



This needed to be changed before the car would roll off the trailer . I discovered how much I like Renault's 3-bolt hubs and rims, and now I have ONE sexy alloy and low-rolling resistance tire!



The EV bits under the hood. WW pump and reservoir, SCR controller, brake master cylinder and vacuum pump.



And in conclusion, the Ugliest EV Cheesecake Picture Ever (TM)!



Man, there is a LOT of work to do...

PS. So there was this ice cream truck on my street. And I thought the music was bad until I noticed the plume of smoke off the extra diesel running his refrigerator. (Yup, another diesel JUST for the refrigerator.) He might as well have been coal fired for the size (and colour) of the exhaust plume; I thought he was fogging for mosquitoes as a value-added feature. Whoever decided not to use an electric reefer needs a good smack in the head, for better engineering has been performed by used chewing gum.

</EV rant>

[Christ]

Gimmuh duh Porsche. Do want. DO WANT!

That thing is sexxay.

[mcmahon.craig]

Arrgh. Have not been sufficiently motivated to update this thread...until reading the AWESOME EVVette thread. So here goes.

Have mostly been doing dismantlage. Parts are expensive, taking stuff apart is cheap!



So far I have removed the hood, fresh air intake grille, and both front fenders. Cleaned a prodigious amount of pine needles out of these areas (actually, used beer to sucker a friend into doing this). I must say I'm actually sort of liking the dune buggy look for the R12, but the aero would be not so very good.

The rust holes above the headlights are special. Since the R12 has no fender liners, road gunk from the front wheels gets flung to the front and collects on top of the headlight bucket, causing a pretty little rust hole. I will be adding fender liners to this car.



Found a nice little ceramic heat element in the ventilation system. It's operated by HUGE DPST relay on the inside passenger fender. The funny part is that we had no idea it was there before I pulled this thing apart. Now I only have no idea how to operate it from the actual CAR, but the relay works!

The rest of the 12V accessory system appears to be completely nonfunctional, unfortunately. Bleargh. This will take much careful diagnosis (read hearsay and guesswork) to repair.



Also removed the old vacuum pump for the power brakes. I'll be replacing this, and the switch, and the very broken hose to the brake booster.

Also, I removed about 3cm of water from the rear seat area. I will, within the next few days, get the car onto the driveway (where I can open all 4 doors!) so I can get the interior out and see what I'm dealing with there. I'm *hoping* it just puddled on the vinyl carpeting, but seeing the 6/49 results tonight, I'm probably not that lucky.

I'll also be able to see the extent to which the floorboards still exist. The car seems quite stiff so I don't expect to have a problem, but I've been wrong before.

I've been spending the last 2 weekends working on another project for the local EV club that's giving a course starting Saturday on how to convert your own EV. Mostly I've just been trying to learn by osmosis from the local EV guru though.

Also have been working on another little electronic project (for another local EV guy) to be able to isolate (and pre-divide) oscilloscope inputs so you can measure 2 points *without* respect to the same ground (like, say, a shunt and a pack voltage). Should be reasonably accurate but the most I'm looking for is the basic waveform shape. I should be finished the prototype soon.

[Daox]

Wow, rust! Very nice looking car otherwise though.

[mcmahon.craig]

So I now have a bet going:

I bet that I will have a safetied and running electric Renault before I can buy a Chevy Volt in Ottawa.

I figure my chances are pretty good given the timeline creep so far. And in any case the bet's only $1 so even if I lose it's OK

I also discovered RockAuto.com. Wow, what a cool website. They actually have Renault 12 parts! I actually spent like half an hour just seeing the weird parts they have. Like the spark plug for your 1966 Tatra.

Swapped two new Exide Orbitals into the Porsche battery pack today. Also added switches to the PakTrakr remotes so we shouldn't have to do this again No pictures but it's much prettier than my project, which I do have pictures of but I have to find the camera.

[mcmahon.craig]

So I found the camera

Now, like an idiot, I forgot to take before pictures. So you'll have to assume my work was an improvement.

First pushed the car onto the driveway so I could open all four doors at the same time. Handy.

The seats had to come out, and with much ado, the front seats finally gave. Four screws in each one. Broke 6/8. Eventually thought to drill the heads properly instead of using a sawzall - after dad suggested it. (I have much to learn.)

Turns out pretty much nothing actually holds in the rear seat cushions. Just a couple of wire hooks. Easy peasy. Incidentally, anyone concerned about new car bloat? The rear seats weigh probably like 40lbs all up. The rear bench in our van weighs more like 150. Yikes.

Previously I wanted to know how much floorboard I had left. Turns out: most of it! Under the seats and stuff the floors are PERFECT, paint and everything intact. Yay! But forward of the front seats not so sure yet.




And then, at the end of the day, ya gotta keep the neighbours happy. We pushed the car back into the garage using the Elec-Trak. Dad drove, I took pictures.




That's all for today. Unfortunately I leave for school tomorrow and can't work on the car except when I'm here for weekends and stuff.

[eurostyledacia]

so how is the r12 project going?