My DIY electric car project has officially started: I bought a car to convert, a sky blue '67 VW Beetle. I've had my eye on it for awhile. Now that I've got the title in hand, there's no turning back.
So why a Beetle? Easy. They're cheap, they're light and parts are easier to find than sand in the Sahara. They also have the complexity of a screen door, which is a plus because I've got no automotive skills to speak of. EVs are pretty simple machines: A motor, batteries and a controller. You can rig them to run extras like power steering and power brakes, but that adds complexity. The Bug doesn't have such perks. It's perfect for my needs.
I paid $500 for it. That's a great price considering its condition and the number of new parts it's got. The paint is a little dull, but the body is pretty straight without many blemishes. Well, aside from the blackened paint from the engine fire, but that'll buff right out. And on the plus side, I don't have to yank an engine to make room for the motor.
The interior is really sharp -- I love the classic '60s chrome details, and everything's cherry. I bought it from Ralph Finlinson, an EV converter and dealer of sorts in the Salt Lake City area. He says the previous owner was restoring the Bug but threw in the towel after the engine fire. It looks like he'd checked the interior off the to-do list before calling it quits. The car's also got a new front end, new brakes and new tires. The sunroof will come in handy in the summer since I won't have any air conditioning.
But what really got me was the car's lines. A feeling came over me when I saw the Bug for the first time. Its curves are seductive. What an interesting, appealing and classic shape the old Beetles had. Why don't cars come with curves anymore? To me, the Bug's contours will always be reflective of a time when form for form's sake was important.
The Bug is ideal for a conversion because, as I mentioned last week, there are several considerations when choosing a donor car. The biggies are weight, transmission, battery placement and the complexity of auxillary systems like power brakes and power steering. Ideally the car should be light and it should have a manual transmission. This makes things much easier. You also want something with a lot of real estate for the batteries and the ability to haul all that weight. It's no wonder we see a lot of Volkswagen Rabbits, Porsche 914s, Geo Metros and small pickups with extension cords. But people have converted just about anything you can think of, including a VW Passat, an old-school Bug and a Chevrolet El Camino.
Kyle Dansie started converting vehicles a few years ago when gas prices started going crazy. So far he's converted an '86 Kawasaki Ninja ZX 900 motorcycle (pictured at right), a beautiful 1994 VW Golf and, most recently, a 1991 Toyota pickup. He considered starting an EV conversion business, but when gas prices fell back after spiking last year, so to did public interest in electric vehicles.
Dansie's provided a goldmine of info and introduced me to an EV interest group in the Salt Lake area. I've already made several valuable connections -- pardon the pun -- that will prove helpful as I start stuffing an electric motor and a bunch of batteries in my Bug. If you're thinking of trying your hand at a conversion, you'll definitely want to find the EV evangelicals in your area. They're only too eager to talk about their projects and share information. They're usually looking to upgrade the components in their rides and sell the old parts to fund the projects. I've found some good leads on batteries and a motor controller this way.
The converted Bug I drove earlier this month was a lot of fun, but Dansie's torquey Toyota gave me a better taste of what EVs are capable of. Acceleration felt as brisk or brisker than you might expect from a Toyo running on dino juice, and Danize's truck has no problem achieving freeway speeds. Depending on how fast you're going and how hard you're driving, it's got a range of 30 to 50 miles.
Dansie put a NetGain WarP 9 9-inch motor in the truck. I plan to use one in the Bug. It's good for 70 peak horsepower. Juice comes from a 144 volt battery pack comprised of two dozen 6 volt golf cart batteries. Batteries probably have the largest effect of any component on an EV's performance. Higher voltages will equate to better acceleration and higher top speed, but is offset by weight and cost. Danzie's pack weighs more than 1500 pounds and puts the truck only few hundred pounds under its gross vehicle weight. I won't be able to put that kind of weight into my bug.
But there's more than one way to reach 144 volts. Dansie could have installed a dozen 12 volt batteries and saved about half the weight, but he also would have halved his range. What's more, 12 volt batteries tend to wear out faster than 6 volt batteries under EV loads. I must find the right balance between weight, range, and performance. Look for more battery information in future posts.
Small trucks offer definite advantages for conversions -- they're built to carry a load, they have loads of space for batteries and the front engine / rear-wheel-drive layout gives you lots of space to work with under the hood. If I wasn't converting a Beetle, I'd probably look for a truck. But I love my Bug.
Yeah, it's cheap and curvaceous, it's light and parts are plentiful. But the best reason for converting a Bug is the Bug itself. It's an icon, the single most successful automobile ever, with more than 21.5 million built during a 65-year run that ended in 2003. The People's Car brought affordable and effective transportation to the masses.
Somehow electrifying one is just so right.
Got any advice, suggestions or ideas for Matthew? Share ‘em with us! And follow his progress on Twitter @ Wired_EV and here at Wired.com.
Photos: Matthew Redd / Wired.com
See Also:
- We're Building an Electric Car!
- DIY Electric El Camino Is All Kinds of Awesome
- Gallery: VW Shifts Gears, Going from Gas to Electric
Under the hood of Kyle Danzie's 1991 Toyota pickup EV. The black box is the controller. The green box is the charger. And that big white box holds five of the truck's 24 6-volt batteries.
The interior of our Bug is super-clean, and everything's there.
She's straight, and the body's in good shape except for...
... the small matter of an engine fire. But we don't need the engine anyway.
*A little elbow grease, a little paint and an electric motor and we're good to go. Stay tuned.
*
