Think Big!

admin — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 21:29:30 +0000

Big Think's interview of Felix Kramer, Founder of California Cars Initiative, is a great synopsis of the argument for the electrification of our transit system. At about the 7:40 mark, Felix speaks to the promise of converting or retrofitting our old cars.

Here's the cliff notes version for those in a rush:

And here's the interview in its entirety:

And so the project begins.

admin — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 04:24:31 +0000

It's been a little over a year since I decided to convert a car and things have been slow going. I've been raising money and I am finally starting the preliminary stuff to prep the donor car.

Luckily my brother jumped on board as well as my girlfriend and I am so grateful.

It was a productive weekend. I removed the bed and began working disassembling the rear components and cleaning to some extent. I have a feeling I'll be cleaning for quite a while. It's quite grimy. Here's some pictures of what I removed. The bolts holding on the bed felt like they hadn't been moved in at least 3 decades and took us awhile to loosen. (We were trying to preserve the bolts just in case we decide to continue to use them.)

The gas tank was almost full. The catalytic converter was stuck on so tight, that in the end, we just took a hacksaw to the exhaust pipe, which was somehow very satisfying. I used an angle grinder to buff off grime from the frame and the differential.

We tried to label everything so far, just to keep track of where everything came from.

It was really exciting to start the project. I've got a lot of work ahead of me. Hopefully, I'll have a lot of help. I'm gonna need it.

EV Dream

Think Big!

And so the project begins.