E-Stang

[Sailfish]

Hello All,

I started a thread in the new members section, but thought I'd post here as well.

I'm converting a '65 Mustang convertible to an electric vehicle (EV). I was going to do the conversion myself, but got deployed (I'm in the Army Reserves), so now I'm paying a guy in Oregon (near where I found the car) to do the conversion for me.

The 'donor' car was one that the previous owner started converting to be a racer. He had significantly modified the car, rendering it worthless as a show car, but perfect for an EV (most racing modifications make the car lighter and stronger, which is also what you want for an EV).

The car also needs restoration. I'll do most of that myself once I and the car get back to Schenectady. Here's a couple 'before' pics:

And here are some more pictures of the conversion.

Building the motor mount.

Motor mount attached to T5 transmission.

Motor mount/tranny installed to test for fit.

I'll keep you all up to date!

 

[MineralGray02K]

I cannot wait to see the final result of this! Keep us updated with pics throughout the conversion!

 

[jared88]

Very interesting. I cant wait to see more pics. Good luck over there and stay safe!!

 

[scotts99snake]

I have to learn how to subscribe to threads. This def has my attention.

 

[Sailfish]

More pics:

Here's a view of the engine, er, motor compartment. Freshly painted, but the painter didn't do a very good job of masking. I'll have to try to fix that once I get back.

Here's the new instrument cluster. I've removed all the original gauges and replaced them with their EV counterparts. The speedo is a new, electronic one; and I added a tach.

Here's the cluster in the old bezel. It fits well and the gauge faces seem in line with the 60's look. I'll replace the bezel though -- this one looks a little ragged.

Here's a shot of the console. It looks pretty beat up too. I'll probably replace it with a humphugger. I'd like to keep the original console (have the humphugger fit over the top), but this one looks so bad that I don't know if that would work. Anyone know if it's possible to restore them?

 

[Sailfish]

We're making progress!

Here's a shot of the motor mounted in the car:

And here's the motor controller mounted on top:

Finally, here's a shot of my new aluminum driveshaft:

You can see more info and stats about the car at its EV website:

http://www.evalbum.com/2056

 

[scotts99snake]

I am impressed to see the top speed is ~100 mph. That is quite a bit faster than I thought it would be. How does this vehicle recharge? If the approx range is 60 miles, how long does it take to recharge? The gauges look good in the stock bezel. They look very similar to the old gauges. Everything looks great to me so far. Keep up the good work.

 

[Sailfish]

Thanks, I was happy with the way the gauges look too. I searched around a LOT to find ones that looked like they belonged in a 60's muscle car.

The 100mph top speed is theoretical, but really it should be able to go even faster than that. Electric motors have some great advantages over their ICE (internal combustion engine) counterparts.

First, their torque is available at a much wider range than with an ICE. That allows for extremely good 0-60 times (assuming you build your motor mount and tranny coupling to handle it )

Second, because of their torque curve, you don't have to shift gears as much. In fact you could even keep them in a single gear if you didn't care much about acceleration (by using third gear) or top speed (by using second gear). I'm going to keep the transmission and use both second and third -- that will give me good acceleration and top speed.

My top speed should be about 100mph in third. I have a T5 tranny, so theoretically I could go faster by shifting to fourth or even fifth -- but I don't think I'll do that very often!

With electric motors it's also possible to eliminate the clutch. You don't have the big rotational mass/inertia of the ICE to worry about, so you can shift gears fairly easily without the clutch. Some EV'ers keep the clutch, just to make things feel more like an ICE car, but I wanted to eliminate it and save the weight.

The 60 mile range represents a mix of city/highway driving. I should get more than that in just city driving and less on all highway. City driving uses less energy for two reasons: first, the motor draws fewer amps at lower speeds; and second, when coasting or breaking the motor becomes a generator and helps recharge the batteries. This is referred to as regenerative braking. Of course until I actually get out there and drive, I won't know for sure how far I can go!

The batteries will take about six hours to fully charge if they are fully discharged. Since I typically only drive about 25-30 miles a day, it will normally only take about three hours to recharge. These batteries can recharge to about 80% in 30-40 min, it's the last 20% that takes time. So I could recharge them enough to go 40-50 miles in less than an hour.

 

[Sailfish]

By the way, I've got an E-Stang build thread going in the Mustang Forums site. So far, there's not much new info, but I'll be adding pictures as the project moves along.

 

[Mike65]

Sailfish,
Yes you can restore your console in your Stang. Check out any of the parts venders like National parts depot, they sell paint to restore them.

 

[dmustang]

Very cool! Probably not going to see anything like this out there!!!

 

[HaggardHatch]

wow, thats some interesting stuff and I must compliment you on your fabrication skills!

 

[Sailfish]

Hi Guys,

Well, after MUCH delay the Mustang is finally here! I drove it around the block once just to make sure it worked (it didn't work great -- I'm going to have to do some work on the EV drive), but now my first priority is getting some body work done. Most of the body panels are attached, but none of the trim and the convert top frame is not attached.

Anyone know a good body shop for classic Mustangs in the Schenectady-Albany area?

Mark