Final Removal of the Interior.

Today we finished the removal of all of the dead weight within the Mustang. A total estimate of 100 pounds of sound deadening material was successfully removed from the car. This counts insulation, sticky pad material, excess plastic, and the padding off of the bottom of the new carpet. The new rug was a pain to get into the car, but was worth the fight because of how much better it looks. The old carpet was extremely stained with an oily, black substance, making it extremely slimy and gross. I also re-installed the rear seats, fixed the headliner, re-installed the seatbelts, and started on re-installing the center console. I don’t plan to finish the console or front seats any time soon because of any adjustments we may need to make or if we have to install any new wiring.

This is a pic of the removed sound deadining material.

Notice the chips of black and white. This was some kind of resin coated pad that was used to dampen floor board noises.

Not a very big picture, but this is the installed, new carpet.

The rear seats.

Tommorow, Mike and I plan on fixing the headliner, placing in the front seats, and cleaning the carpet along with the plastic interior.

I'll have pictures of the cleaned interior later on.

Installation of the motor and Pitch.

We’re on a roll! Today, Mr. Butler brought in the motor hoist and we installed the propulsion system in the Mustang. Right now, the electric motor is resting on wooden chocks until we fabricate the motor mounts. The transmission, however, is already bolted onto the cross member and is ready for action. Putting the motor in the car was an easy task due to the help of the hydraulic motor hoist. After positioning the transmission, we installed the driveshaft so that we could make sure that the angle of attack on the “hogs head”, of the rear end, matched the angle of the rear of the transmission. To adjust the angle, an angle finder is placed on the front and rear of the driveshaft and the front of the motor is pitched up and down to adjust the degree. Luckily, we were right on the money with this one, and no adjustments of pitch were needed. The angle is supposed to be equal so that the driveshaft doesn’t become bound up.

A pic of Mike lifting the propulsion system from the table with the cherry picker.

Dropping Low and Slow. Just the way we like to do things around here!

Inserting the motor into the engine compartment.

The moment of truth.

This is a bottom shot of the transmission coming into place.

This is a sight for sore eyes. We've been waiting for this moment for a long time. At this moment the motor is resting on blocks until we finalize the fabrications of the motor mount.

Just another day at the Office.

Success! Mr. Brooks was ahead of planned, and brought in the spacer plate this morning. This has shifted our schedule in a positive direction and has provided us with more time to install the motor. In less than 30 minutes Mike and I, with a little help from Mr. B's 2nd Period, had completed the connection of the motor to the transmission and are now waiting on Mr. Butler to bring in the motor hoist. To make the best of the left over time period, Mike and I finished the removal of the 4-lug front suspension. This was a long and back-breaking process because of the sheer size and weight of the components. Plus, a lot of extra parts had to be removed first in order to be able to get to the bolts holding the suspension in place. With little time to spare, the last objective was to install the freshly painted rear disc brake mounts. These mounts are to hold the brake caliper in place so that while depressing the brake pedal, the caliper will squeeze on the rotor and slow the car.

This is a shot of the stack of spacers lying next to the transmission bell-housing.

Close-up.

This is a pic of Mike and I showing the guys how the spacers came into the picture of connecting the motor to the transmission.

This is a pic of me screwing the adaptor plates to the motor.

A pic of Mike attatching the clutch to the plate.

Precision is the key to success.

Double checking.

Getting a hand from 2nd period in lifting the motor and transmission to bring them closer together.

Inches from glory!

And together it goes!

Mike placing the final bolts in position.

Completion!!! A sucessful conversion!

Dropping down the left control arm. This required un-attatching the sway bar, strut, rack and pinion, and control arm bolts.

Close up of the rack and pinion.

Right side coming down.

A pic of the new rear disc brake mounts.

In order to place the new mounts on, we had to take the face plate back off of the hogs head, and re-remove the axles, then place all of that stuf back onto the rear end. This time sealing the plate for good!

Hopefully the brake parts will be here soon!

The Return of the Adaptors....

Today Mr. Brooks, the machine shop instructor from Rockingham Community College, brought in our new spacers and adaptor plates for the connection of the electric motor to the transmission. Mr. Brooks had students at RCC construct the adaptor plates for us out of solid aluminum stock. He was a huge help in connecting the motor to the transmission and in helping us find the thickness of another needed spacer plate. The machined components connected perfectly but we were still shy of filling a space of about ¾ inches thick. Having the previous adaptor plate from our motor purchase, Mr. Brooks took it to RCC to turn down into another spacer instead of wasting new material to fabricate another plate. Mr. Brooks should have the other spacer completed within the next few days. Hopefully, it is what we are looking for and the project can continue as scheduled.

This is a pic of the new adaptors and clutch. A standard clutch usually has a surrounding rim of friction material around the spline encasement, but with no need of a clutch in our car, we decided to shave off the friction material to reduce the clutch's size. We only needed the splines so that the motor shaft and the transmission shaft could be connected.

This is a shot of me observing Mr. Butler and Mr. Brooks examining the freshly fabricated pieces.

This is a pic of Mr Butler placing the clutch and clutch spacer on the motor.

Tightening up the hex-head bolts.

Putting the motor and transmission together.

Mike and Mr. Butler measuring the gap needed to be filled between the motor and transmission.

Installing the 5-lug, Then off to the scales.

Today, our objective was to clean up and install the 5-lug rear axle into the EV and remove the old carpet. Earlier Michael and I had removed the axle shafts from the rear end so that the old drum brake mounts could be removed. What I had to do was clean up the backing plate and give it a new coat of paint. After doing so, the backing plate was placed back onto the "hogs head" and with Michael’s help we slid the rear end into place beneath the car. With a little time to spare, Mr. Butler and I removed the old carpet from the interior of the car. The removal of the old carpet was not a very complicated process since we weren't going to salvage it. I just cut around the seat belts with a razor knife and voila! No worries!

Later this afternoon, Mr. Butler's plan is to take the car up the road to the Waste Managment Dump and use the scale. This is so that we can tell if the car is over or under weight regulations set by the SMARTT Challenge Competition Guidelines.




This is a shot of me preping the Differential Cover For a fresh paint job.



This is a pic of me removing one side of the old rear drum brake mounts.






This is a shot of Mike removing the other side. Notice that the Differential Cover is off. From this angle you can see inside of the rear end.


This is a shot of the freshly painted cover and the re-installed axles. Our new disc brake mounts were in the finishing room drying after a coat of black paint. We decided to go ahead and install the rear end back into the car anyway so that we could continue with our progress. At this point, brakes are not needed for us to contine what we are doing. We are also going to have to change the fittings on the brake line so that the line will connect to the new brake calipers.


Representin'


Mustang EV! This is a rear shot of the new 5-lug rear end under the car.


Just another step closer to getting this thing on the road!



After cutting the old carpet away from the seatbelts, I gladly removed that dirty, stinking, greasy peice of garbage.


Lookin' like a race car. Nothin' but floor pans.



This is what is left of the rag-tag floor covering that was removed from the EV.


This is a shot of me wenching the car up onto the trailer with a come-along.


Hooking up the tow strap.



Rear shot up on the trailer.


Side view

Our return from CNS.

Our journey to CNS Mustang Graveyard in Walkertown, NC was a trip that was probably not completely worth our time. We did discover a new piece of carpet that was in better condition than the old rug, but it was a job and a half trying to remove it from the car. It was a bitter struggle between us and the bolts holding the seatbelts in. A battle that was later won with a pair of vise grips and alot of strain. Other than the new, old peice of carpet, we didn't recover anything of any value to us on the trip. We were hoping to discover parts to allow us to convert our rear brakes to disc, but we came home empty handed on that search. Here's a few pics of our bitter struggle with the rug.

This is the car that wouldn't go down without a fight. It just has that junkyard appearance, doesn't it?

Mike and Mr. Butler taking a shot at that one stubborn bolt. I had done my share of fighting with the removal of the seats. With the rear of the car sitting on the ground, the bolts corroded, which made it harder to break them loose.

This is a pic of the interior after the removal of the seats and console.

Frustration and anguish.

A good sign. The bolt finally broke loose.