WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

In May of 2009, while searching the internet for alternate fuel vehicles, I came across a video done by Jack Rickard of Cape Girardeau, MO,  that featured a 1957 Porsche 356 Speedster replica, electric conversion. At the bidding of Jack's then partner, Brian Noto, weekly EVTV Shows started being produced by June of that year. Needless to say, I was hooked and started attending the yearly Electric Vehicle Conversion Convention (EVCCON)  from that year until now. This year the weather cooperated and  a barbecue was finally held at Jack Rickard's home, overlooking the Mississippi, River; The location of the original weekly video productions.

The ORIGINAL EVTV GARAGE

So when when I walked into the driveway from the fire pit and saw the door of the garage open, it took me back to the the beginning of the EVTV weekly show , the source of the many great memories I have of past EVCCONS and of most of the knowledge I have gained about electric cars, over the last 6 years.

THE ORIGINAL EVTV GARAGE

INSIDE THE ORIGINAL EVTV GARAGE

JACK'S STILL

There were many absent from EVCCON, renamed The EVTV Open House this year but for me and a group of die hards, we got a real trip down memory lane!

My dream was always to be able to bring a car to the show and life is short, so you never really know if you will ever be in Cape Girardeau again, but this year my dream came true!

Long live your dreams,

Randy

SOME COOL PORSCHE CONVERSIONS IN PROGRESS

Since the Fiero Conversion was started, I have been following other builds and recently found a couple of really cool Porsche projects in progress.

The newest one is the conversion of a Porsche 912 by EV4U Conversions:





The other one I have been following is being a 1988 Porsche 924 S being done by Fred Behning.

1988 Porsche 924 S

Check out these cool builds and if you post, let them know that CZ-EV turned you on to their conversions.

Although I am working on painting the kitchen and dining room, I still made a trip to Ace Hardware in Baltimore to pick up some fasteners for my John Deere 110 and to find boxes to mount the ABB 220 Volt contactor and the JLD5740 meter. After finishing up the trimming on the paint job, I am going to start getting the charging system back in the car.

Last night I drove the car down the road to the Marathon Convenience Store to get some Elevator Brewing Company "BIG VIC" IPA and some subs from Subway across the street. This morning I went to Ace Hardware in Baltimore, OH, for a total of 24 miles. When I stopped on the road in front of my house to put the car in reverse to back into the garage, the main contactors kicked out from low 12 volt system voltage but was able to back the car into the driveway after resetting the contactors. This is good news, as I put 24 miles on a charge and this should relate to a 72 mile range when the other two modules are installed. With gas prices on the rise, this should give me plenty of range to drive the 45 miles round trip back and forth to work.

Until next post,

Randy

SPRING!!

Work pretty much halted during February, as the weather turned bitterly cold, with temperatures in the low single digits and below zero many day. The garage was just too cold to spend much time in but it did present the opportunity for me to order a new center console radio and heater control cover and a couple of different mounting brackets for the Dell Venue 8.

The weather is  finally breaking and I can see the grass changing from brown to green, every morning when I look out the window. Finally I was able to spend some time out in the garage, working on fabricating a plate to mount the JLD404 and a bracket to mount the Dell Venue 8. My Son's fiance offered me the stereo out of her old Jeep that is fairly thin, so with any luck, there will be enough room in the radio opening, to get both the radio and the JLD404 mounted. Up to this point, I have not worried about a radio but now is a good time to address the issue.

The new Dell Venue 8 mounting looks like it is going to work out well.

DELL VENUE 8 MOUNTING (FRONT)

DELL VENUE 8 MOUNTING (REAR)

The bracket was made from aluminum sheet and may not be stiff enough but if that proves to be the case, a bracket out of sheet steel should fix the problem, so I am close to getting the tablet mounting problem solved and finally have a solution that ends up looking real clean.

It's still early Sunday morning, so hopefully I will be able to continue working today and post an update this evening.

Until Then,

Randy