ELECTRIC FIERO REBUILD: HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

Today we traveled to Coshocton to visit my dad for father's day and we were running a little late when we left the house in my wife's car and hurriedly took off on our 60 mile trip. The day was beautiful and the conversation with my son and his fiance on the way, were very enjoyable. About five miles from my parent's house, the car just died and we rolled to a stop on the side of a narrow berm with a very steep bank on the edge of the Muskingum River. I tried to start the car and nothing. Then I looked at the gas gauge and saw it was below empty and realized I had run out of gas. I dialed my parent's phone number and dad answered. After telling him I ran out of gas and where we were, I again tried to start the car and this time it started. We were able to limp up the road about 100 yards where there was a wide area on the berm and proceeded to wait for dad to show up with gas. It is a little ironic that 38 years ago I ran out of gas about 100 yards up the road and my dad had bailed me out by bringing gas. So dear old dad bails me out again. Happy Fathers Day Dad!

After filling up the tank, I proceeded to my parent's house and had a great visit with my family. My dad has been reading the blog and I am dying to get the interior back together so I can take him a ride. If I decide to install the third module, I should be able to drive the Fiero to Coshocton, as long as a charge point is found for the return trip.

Upon returning back home it was time to watch the end of the NAPCAR race and there were about 46 miles to go. They went through their final pitstops and when I woke up, Jimmy Johnson was doing burnouts. Anyway, rejuvenated, I headed out to the garage to do a little work on the Fiero.

Yesterday, the pictures I tried to take of the bulkhead, did not turn out so took another picture. The bulk head turned out great, so once the other one is painted black and the loom put on the wires, will make the wiring blend in and almost become invisible. My objective for the engine compartment is to make it as clean as possible, with all of the components tucked away but painted red so they stand out a little. I left all of the wires long so I can them along the firewall, around the right side of the car and along the back firewall to their destination. When the rear battery module is installed, the black cable you see on the bottom of the picture will be eliminated, as it is only being used for a battery voltage reading from the traction pack to the controller.

NEW FIREWALL BULKHEAD

On to the Dell Venue 8 mounting in the center console. Work is starting to move pretty fast and the heater wiring and tablet wiring are the last items that need to be tied up before it is re-installed. I was surprised to see that the new BMW i3 has a similar placement for the screen as the one I am using in the Fiero. You can watch an i3 test drive on the link below.

evmedia - i3 TEST DRIVE

A hole has to be placed in the console top plate and console rubber to create a channel for the USB cable to run. All of the connections will be made inside the radio opening that will have a cover with the JLD404 mounted in it. I will have a blue tooth mouse somewhere on the center console and may need to rig up a switch to short the USB data wires until the unit starts charging from the power supply. If not I will have to run off of batteries which will cause the back light to keep dimming. I am hoping Dell issues a power supply upgrade that will allow the tablet to charge without having to trick the system but am not hopeful this will happen. Also, I need to pick up some grained vinyl to cover the cover plate before final assembly of the console.