DASHING AROUND!

Sunday morning I started work around 7 am and continued getting the wires run through the dash. There were quite a few connectors that had to be attached to the wires and I made good progress.

Around 11:30, I got cleaned up and drove the Miata to my parents in Coshocton, Ohio, a little over an hour away. It was a great day and I was able to ride with the top down. We had chicken and hot dogs on the grill and had a very enjoyable time.

My dad has been reading my blog and has taken an interest in the build in the last couple of months. I really want to get the interior done and the seats back in so I can take him a ride. Who knows, maybe I can talk him into coming to EVCCON with me.

Sunday it was back out to the garage and I tried to solder wires on the JLD404 where the circuit board had evaporated. I got 3 of the 4 connections made back up and the meter did power up but would not allow me to enter the set up menu. It would bring up the zeros for me to enter the code but before I could get the 0036 entered, would go back to the hours display. I thought it would be nice to have a second JLD404 to bottom balance with but I guess it is not to be until I buy another one.

Monday morning began with watching the EVTV weekly show. I had watched a little on Sunday but I like to wait for the Youtube version so I can watch it with Chrome Cast on the TV. For some reason, the Chrome Cast streams much better that my computer so when watching it from Youtube, there are no lags or delays.

Then out to finish the wiring on the Fiero. About 9 am, I was putting the dash back in the car and was also working on getting the warranty transferred and updating the bios on the Dell Venue 8 tablet. I think between emailing the EBAY seller, calling Dell and getting on the Dell support site, I got the warranty transferred. After flashing the BIOS, the screen would not change orientation to landscape view, so I will need to work on that also.

By 4pm I had the instrument pod mounted and all of the wires hooked up.

DASH BACK IN THE CAR

INSTRUMENT POD INSTALLED

VOLT AND AMP METER WIRING HOOKED UP

In the afternoon, my wife and I rode over to Buckeye Lake and had dinner at the Smoke House, on the lake. It was still warm but slightly overcast so the ride with the top down was very enjoyable. When we returned home, there was still time to mow the grass, so I had a very productive day.

Until next time,

Randy

INTERIOR PROGRESS

The ozite carpet arrived last week, so Saturday, I put it on the inner firewall panel and installed the finished panel in the Fiero. The installation went well except it was windy outside where I put the carpet on the panel and I had to use clips to keep it from blowing around until it was glued to the bare panel.

FIREWALL INNER PANEL INSTALLED

Next I removed the passenger side seat belt to clean the fabric and give it a coat of fabric dye. The seat belt mechanize cover was painted and all of the hardware was cleaned.

 

SEAT BELT CLEANED AND DYED

After a trip to Advance Auto Parts to pick up some more paint and some carpet spot remover,  the bottom of the dash was given a new coat of medium gray interior paint.

DASH BOTTOM PAINTED MEDIUM GRAY

Before going any further with installing the interior, I wanted to test the rear defroster. I checked continuity from the connector going to the defroster to ground and got continuity, so checked the lead going to the switch and also got continuity. Then the fuse and circuit breaker were checked, with both testing  good. I will need to check the switch next to make sure it is ok also and will need to check the schematic to see if there is a relay or timer that needs checked.

With the headliner and firewall interior panel installed and passenger side seat belts refinished, it was time to start putting the molding back in. I started with the piece along the bottom of the door and after finally locating to bolts, got it installed, then put the rear panel but realized wen I started to put in the windshield column piece, that it should have gone in first. Additionally, the clips that were ordered were not the ones I needed, so ordered some from EBAY. I will need to remove the rear panel that is installed when the clips arrive to make it easier to install the wind shield molding. The driver's side bottom door opening molding was installed and things are moving along pretty good now. 

To celebrate a productive Saturday, I went to Buckeye Lake Brewery and got a growler of their IPA.

The expenditure on the car is now over $11,000 and my goal is to build the EV for under $10,000, so I have been trying to sell one of my Better Place battery pack modules. Two modules should be between 14- 16 KW and should be enough to drive the 44 miles back and forth to work, so I have had several inquiries on the third module. I actually offered to sell all three to one of the inquirers, if the price is right. I can add 10 more 100 AH cells to the existing pack and be just fine but really had my heart set on putting 2 of the Better Place modules in the car. When the packs were first delivered, there was quite a bit of buzz but I have not heard of anyone putting them a conversion yet to report on how they are performing. With each cell have to be bottom balanced twice, there will be a whole lot of time needed to get them all to the 2.6 or 2.6 volts needed before hooking the packs in series and testing the EV with them.