[2fast4u]

This is my first post and thought I would share some info about myself and my newest project.

I am 22 and a Snr at University of Colorado at Denver studying Mechanical Engineering. I was born into a car racing family, and started racing cars when I was 8 yrs. This is my first and hopefully not last EV, so I have a great deal of learning to do.

This project started when a guy on craigslist posted an add for a college to make an electric car for him. He would give his car and 8k, and return we would convert it to electric. I am the team manager and always have had an interest of electronics doing robot competitions and other extra cirricular activities dealing with electronics. The biggest thing of this build was to keep it simple but giving students an opportunity to build and apply their knowledge from the classroom to a real application to further prepare them for the real world. Now the specs...

Car:
-1967 Triumph Spitfire
- Needing some (a lot) of tlc, but the important drive train is solid

Owner Needs:
- approx $8,000
- 20 miles + on a charge
- 50 mph + top speed

The Important parts:
Motor - 120 volt DC Advance 8"
Controller - Curtis 400 amp
Charger - Quick Charge On Board 120V 10A With Select-A-Charge
Batteries - 10x Trojan 12 volt

One of the students is keeping an up to date blog of the build and here's the link.

http://stefanelsener.googlepages.com/ev

Let me know what you think, but hopefully in the next two weeks there is a great deal of progress and hopefully in a month or two the build will be complete.

-Keith

[ClintK]

Gotta love the Spitfire! It's a pleasure to convert.

You can check out my progress on a 1978 Spitfire at http://78electricspitfire.blogspot.com

Or Bottomfeeder's Spitfire at http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums...ild-21355.html

Component selection look good. Just one comment get the 120V Quick Charger, not the 144V Also, I found the Quick Charger pretty cheap from http://02a27d4.netsolstores.com/onbo...-a-charge.aspx before finally going with Lithiums.

Good luck!

[2fast4u]

Oops, put down the specs from the dc/dc converter (120-144 volts) instead of the charger. It is 120 volts and we actually got all of the main parts from Cloud Electric as they were reasonably priced and got everything including the motor shipped within 7 days of the order date.

Thanks for the links and I assume you put all of your batteries in the trunk? We are planning to do 4 in the back + charger, and 6 in the front, along with everything else. Also, do you have the motor on top of the cross member or did you move that forward? I've seen builds done both ways for Spitfires and we were going to wait to see how much the trans angles after getting the motor in this Saturday.

thanks,

-Keith

[ClintK]

Originally Posted by 2fast4u

Oops, put down the specs from the dc/dc converter (120-144 volts) instead of the charger. It is 120 volts and we actually got all of the main parts from Cloud Electric as they were reasonably priced and got everything including the motor shipped within 7 days of the order date.

Thanks for the links and I assume you put all of your batteries in the trunk? We are planning to do 4 in the back + charger, and 6 in the front, along with everything else. Also, do you have the motor on top of the cross member or did you move that forward? I've seen builds done both ways for Spitfires and we were going to wait to see how much the trans angles after getting the motor in this Saturday.

thanks,

-Keith

I purchased quite a few of my components from Cloud Electric as well. Actually I'm thinking I can fit all the Lithiums under the hood forward of the motor (where the radiator used to be). For Lead you can see how Bottomfeeder did his battery layout.

I put my motor on top of the cross member, but it is only a 6.7". Bottomfeeder has a 9" motor and it looks like his motor is mounted above the cross member as well - but I'd ask him to confirm that.

[ClintK]

Bottomfeeder has some excellent pictures of his car here: http://www.diyelectriccar.com/garage/cars/43

[PatricioIN]

you guys should be able to put a bolt in Spitfire kit together at this point! You have your own little subcategory going.

[dtbaker]

Originally Posted by 2fast4u

He would give his car and 8k,

good deal for him.... that budget will be tight, and no pay for labor!
Your basic specs look good, and I'd guess that you will exceed goals for both speed and range with 10 x 12v. You MIGHT want to take a look at the us battery 12v sweeper batteries, which are a little bigger and a little more ahr than most. http://www.usbattery.com/usb_us12vxc.html

I also did not see mention of how you are planning to couple the motor/transmission. You made reference to building your own adaptor plate, but no mention of whether you are going with clutched/clutchless coupling, doing it yourself, or considering buying a plate/adaptor from CanEV.com or one of the other places that pre-fab adaptors.

Only other thing that jumped out at me was that you might want to consider a plastic panel/box for components rather than a massive 1/2 plate of AL. I had great luck with the 1/4" polypro sheeting I used for battery boxes as well. For controller heatsink you'll get much better dissipation with fins than a massive plate... But you know than having survived Heat Transfer class. I found a reasonable source for heatsink stock at http://heatsinkusa.com/asfdas.html

Dan - '83 BSME grad from Cu Boulder, go Buffs

[2fast4u]

Haha yes, a very good deal for him. The budget is most likely going to be around $8500 since we are having to repair a good amount of stuff on the car. The car has been sitting for many years (decade plus), so we are doing a complete brake overhaul and having to redo the wiring since it was so corroded and burnt from the previous owner.

I will definitely take a look at those batteries but will most likely stick with the Trojan's since we can find them local and at pretty fair price. But it never hurts to explore options.

For the motor/trans we aren't going to use the original clutch disc but just stick it in 3rd or 4th and go. We just used the stock clutch plate welded up to a collar to make a quick adapter. Got a large piece (22 x 43 x .5") for a great price ($100) to bolt up the trans to the motor. The aluminum will also be used for the other end of the motor support and the heat sink. For the heat sink we are just going to mill out some fins from a plate, but if that doesn't work out we will just buy a pre-done heat sink from the place you listed.

The aluminum will only be used for the adapter, motor support and heat sink. The the EV components will be in a fully enclosed thin sheet metal box (like a UL power coated box) most likely. The battery trays are being made out of 1/8" thick 1" angled steel, and then just have some square tubing to support them when needed.

Thanks for all the great help and resources. This being my first EV I have a lot to learn so any help is greatly appreciated. Below are some pics of today's work for the motor side of things.

link to build:
http://stefanelsener.googlepages.com/ev

Pics:

[dtbaker]

Originally Posted by 2fast4u

For the motor/trans we aren't going to use the original clutch disc but just stick it in 3rd or 4th and go. We just used the stock clutch plate welded up to a collar to make a quick adapter.

lots of people go clutchless, it just makes it a little slow between gears because there is no compression to slow the motor when upshifting, so you have to wait about 10 seconds between gears for them to sync. You'll be fine starting in 2nd most of the time, but want 1st for the uphill starts or when you're feeling racey! I was glad to see you left one end splined so there will be a little give for non-concentricity. I hope you used two allen bolts per hole with loctite and drilled set points for that coupler to the motor shaft! Did you spin the motor w/ 12v yet? Its good to check for transmission/alignment/vibration issues while you have easy access.

Originally Posted by 2fast4u

For the heat sink we are just going to use mill out some fins from a plate,

that'll work! Most people don't have access to a mill....

Originally Posted by 2fast4u

The the EV components will be in a fully enclosed thin sheet metal box (like a UL power coated box) most likely.

The metal boxes are surprisingly heavy. The fiberglass ones are nice, but not easy to find deep enough to hold the taller components and pretty expensive. Some are here:
http://www.adproductsco.com/productc...p?idCategory=5 But I ended up fabricating my own with left over polypro sheeting I used for battery boxes and added a clear lid for show and tell. The battery racks have edges with 1/8" angle iron, and lined with 1/4" polypro. Take a look at http://envirokarma.org/ev/11.Components.shtml

[2fast4u]

We just used one set screw that was on the key way. The coupler that we used had two, but we ended up having to shorten it and that eliminated one of them. It would probably be good to take it out and add one on the shaft with a set point. We did use loctite all over though, haha.

Now that you mention I'm sure I can find a plastic box at least to save some weight.

No, we didn't have a chance yet to spin the motor with 12 volts and hopefully this Wednesday we can. Since we only meet once a week things go kinda slow and we didn't get the motor in until 11pm last night.

Thanks again for all the help!

-Keith