120V and 12V together

Now I've got the traction pack charging in the car and the DC/DC Converter connected and the Acc. Battery tied in. Still a bit surprised that I haven't popped a fuse or smelled something funny yet. A little contactor buzzing had me searching for a problem but all seems good so far. Paktrakr says I've got one Battery a bit high and one a bit low on voltage. I think I'll wait a bit before I isolate the low battery and juice it up by itself. Of course it is in the rear pack which is a bit trickier to disconnect.
I installed one headlight assembly and tied it into the 12V Bus to see what a little load would do to the system, no trouble. Starting to look like something that might drive down the road someday!
I need to make 3 more battery jumpers, ran out of lugs so I'm using some 10ga. jumpers for testing. I also made the final shock adjustment. All the way up in the rear and all the way down in the front. Still a bit low in the rear but overall riding pretty high for carrying almost 800 pounds of batteries.

Big Day, Big Day

Batteries are in! The "big" part was getting the rear pack in and bolted down. It is an incredible tight squeeze, tighter than I had anticipated. I almost couldn't squeeze the bracket which holds them down into place. All I need to do is wire up the Positive sides which are "easily" accessible.
I dropped the front pack in place which was a breeze by comparison. I noticed the rear is riding a bit low now but I guess that is a classic old VW stance. I have one notch of adjustment on the shocks left so I can get the rear up a bit more.
Now and am very close to having the traction pack wired together and charging in the car.

Back at it

After 4 or more months I finally got back to work on the car today. I want to get the traction pack installed so I can get it charged. I'm not sure what damage I've done to the batteries by having them sit around for two years with minimal maintenance charging. Before I get the batteries in I have to get the rear seat belt retractors in which meant removing the rear fenders hopefully for the last time. I got the rear fender beading started and also painted the area behind the louvers in the rear fenders which had become hazed with primer and red paint from the paint shop.

New Chrome Wheels

These pictures are a few weeks old, just wanted to put up something fresh.

Ahhh, progress

Check out this before and after.

Wire it up

Since I have the week off from my real job I making some good progress this week. I spent the day under the bonnet installing the onboard GFI, 120VAC inlet, 120VAC branches, and the main contactor junction box.

Back to it

After an extended break I got back to work today. I pulled the motor once again because I was worried that I hadn't ever torqued the clutch to spec. Two hours later I confirmed that I had in fact torqued the clutch exactly as it should have been. Well at least I won't have that in the back of my mind any more and I had a chance to touch up the motor mount which was hazed in red paint.
I installed the main 120VDC front to back conduit (1 1/2 sealtite) which connects the split pack. I had previously built and installed it but removed it for paint. The 2/0 welding wire was already inside it and cut to length so that was a snap and rewarding after my semi-pointless motor in and out.
I put the new wiring harness in place and mounted the motor controller. I spent some time scratching my head and looking at my notebook trying to remember how all of this gets wired up. I have been doing body work since March so I am going to need to spend some time refreshing my memory on the electrical side.

Painted!

Primed!

Here she is ready for a final walk through. Ali and I decided we would spend another $250 to fix 15 or so remaining imperfections. We picked a color called "Salsa Red" which is a color used on 2006-2010 New VW Beetles. I put a picture of that color at the bottom of the post. She should be ready to pick up at the end of this week.

Off to the Paint Shop

With Roy's help we moved the car down to Lakewood where the body work will be detailed and the car will be primed and painted.

Sandblast Finale

I decided to sandblast the louvers on the rear fenders since they are very hard to sand and the paint was peeling already. So I do believe that is the last that I will be using the sandblaster.

Movin' along

I'm really feeling some progress here. I got the gas flap mounted and working with the new latch and installed the 120 volt receptacle, now it is really an EV! More filler work, got the hood latching and the trunk (boot) latching as well. I can almost smell the fresh paint job already!