Electric 1977 124 Spider

[peggus]

Greetings

I'm a Swede currently residing in Southern Califorinia. I'm in the process of restoring and converting a 1977 fiat spider to an electric car. I started working on it about a year and a half ago. My initial intention was to convert a VW golf convertible, but, when I spotted a spider on craigslist, I knew I would never be happy with anything less.

I bought a spider that had been sitting behind a dumpster in Newbury Park for the last 6 years, it was in need of a lot of love.


It's been a long journey but the car is slowly coming together. Here are some pics.





I'm close to having it drivable on the streets now. I need to work some on my battery management system and charger. I need to finish painting the doors, hood and trunk and I need to install the seats and interior. Finally I have to upgrade the rear suspension as it is now carrying a little more weight than stock.

Here's my most recent picture of the car with all the batteries in it.


More pictures and info can be found on my blog
http://www.electric-lemon.com

Regards
-Peter

[mbouse]

peter, thanks so much for sharing

swede in america, that's a conversion all its own
internal combustion to electric, we're all interested in that.
salvation from the dumpster, how many Spiders can attest to that?


i am very interested in hearing your kilowatt costs converted into cost per mile

[baltobernie]

Great blog, Peter; I admire your self-sufficiency and perseverance!

144 volts?

What's with the clutch, etc.? I thought EVs were locked in 2nd gear?

Did you have to change suspension, particularly springs?

Bernie
(thinking about a Neon)

[So Cal Mark]

welcome! I hope you have the car driveable for the Best of France and Italy show in early November. It'll generate lots of interest

[peggus]

Thanks for the warm welcome!

Regarding cost per mile. Since the charging system isn't working yet and the car has only been driven around my back yard I don't really know what my cost per mile will be. Your typical EV conversion draws about 500Wh/Mile from the outlet. At $0.10/kWh that translates into 5 cents per mile. We'll see how close to that I actually come.

clutch/gear
An AC motor driven EV can get by with single speed transmission since the motor can rev up to ~10.000 rpm or more and it has a very flat torque curve. DC motors are limited in their RPM range due to commutator exploding from the G forces at high rpms. The motor I'm using blows up around 6000rpm. To use a single gear with a DC motor you have to use a much bigger motor and a much more powerful motor controller in order to get enough torque to make up for what you lack in RPM. Big motor and controller costs big bux so the cheaper option is to keep the transmission and shift. Though with 110ftlbs of torque from 0rpm and up I won't have to shift very often. Surface street driving can be done in one gear and freeway driving in the next.

Upgrading the springs is on my todo list. The front is currently lighter than stock and the rear is heavier.

I certainly hope to have it running in november, but with a 7month old baby it is hard to find the time.

[Zamise]

That is so cool! Looks like a giant starter motor with no engine heh. Wish I could do something like that, gas is getting so expensive and the main reason I got the car to help save me on gas. I don't think I could do it though unless I added solar panels or something because I'd have nowhere to plug it in. Well, unless its possible to carry the batteries inside apartment when I park or do something like that...solar panals might work tho, we get a lot of sun... hmm...

Zam

[kristoj]

Nice blog and beautiful baby (both of them) What a neat project. I think it is pretty cool that you are keeping the gearbox. In my mind, that would make the driving experience much more traditional -- and enjoyable.