Friday, October 26, 2007


In January of 2007 I decided to try my hand at converting an older IC car to an electric one. After researching the subject I decided to work on a Porsche 914. I saw a lot of success with this model and liked the how they turned out. I started looking for a good candidate and after a few weeks found one up in Benecia, about 60 miles from where I live. The seller said it was in very good condition but missing the engine and transmission. So the next weekend I went up there with a car trailer in tow, my come-along and 50' of 3/4" rope. The seller, a police officer, told me his son had bought the car from him several years ago and had started to restore it. He had done all the body work and had it painted. Then he pulled the engine and transmission to get them rebuilt and they were stolen from the shop where he left them. Soon after he moved to the east coast and the car sat in the front yard, behind some bushes for 3 years. It took a few hours of hard work with jacks and the come-along to extricate the car from it's resting place since a truck up on blocks was beside it. We had to skid the rear wheels on some soaped-up boards, using the come-along to get it around the truck. Then I used the come-along to pull the car up the ramp of the trailer. It was a lot easier unloading the car when I got home. I washed off three years of leaf debris that had gotten through the cover and opened all the plugged-up drain holes. A real nice looking car!

2 comments:

Joe said...

What are your conversion plans? AC system or DC?

Bill Ogilvie said...

I plan to use a DC motor.