Door Moldings, Weather Strip, and Side Mirrors

Our team recently completed the install of new door moldings, weatherstrip, and side mirrors provided by Late Model Restoration. The previous weather strip and moldings have become extremely worn, and were in need of being replaced. The side mirrors were also worn and in need of replacement. Late Model Restoration supplied moldings and weatherstrip for both doors, all windows, the trunk, and windshield. Late Model Restoration also supplied new side mirrors and a new rear-view mirror for our project.

Our Mustang's previous window molding (top) compared to the new molding (bottom) supplied by Late Model Restoration.

Clinton finishing up on installing new window moldings onto the passenger-side door.

The diver's-side door complete with new window moldings supplied by Late Model Restoration.

Chase works on installing the driver's-side side mirror.

New driver's side mirror after being installed.

Driver's side mirror installed.

The next big step in our project is installing the controller, DC/DC Converter, and auxiliary battery before the EV Challenge next week.

Trunk and Battery Racks Painted

The team decided to paint the sheet metal around the metal battery racks to make the trunk look sleeker and more professional since many people will be seeing the batteries and the inside of the trunk during exhibitions. The team removed the battery racks and removed the factory paint from the hole which the battery rack fits into. The team also painted the battery racks black to match the paint job inside of the trunk. Now the trunk and the racks inside of it have a fresh coast of paint and are looking sharp.

The trunk of our Mustang after the factory paint was removed.

A closer shot of the inside of the trunk before it was painted.

Hunter paints the inside of the trunk. That stuff doesn't come off either!

Quentin paints the other side of the trunk interior.

The finished product.

The inside of trunk after a fresh coat of paint.

Rear Seat Delete Install

One of the key challenges of the EV Challenge is to make sure your team's vehicle looks as stock as possible, basically to make the car look like nothing was changed on it. In order to meet this requirement, our team has removed the rear seat that was in our Mustang, but installed a rear-seat delete kit supplied by Late Model Restoration. The rear seat delete consists of three pieces of thin plywood covered with carpet to simulate the rear seats and provides some extra cargo space under the "seat". The install was pretty easy and went very well. The Mustang's interior should look great now going into the EV Challenge this weekend.

Clinton and Tyler installing the rear seat delete kit.

Clinton secures the lip piece of the rear-seat delete kit to the bench part.

The rear seat delete after being installed into the car.

The car is in the final stages of its conversion as our team races to finish before the competition. The next step includes rigging a kill switch onto the main batteries, installing new tires and wheels onto the Mustang, and completing the interior.

Controller, DC/DC Converter, and Aux. Battery Install

With the EV Challenge coming up this weekend, the team is starting to feel the time crunch, but is still making great progress. Just last week, we installed our Soliton 1 controller, Curtis DC/DC Converter, and our 12-volt Auxiliary battery supplied by Interstate Battery Company. The controller and one extra 8-volt battery are fitted on a plate produced by GP Fabrications that is positioned just above the electric motor.

Our car's engine compartment before we installed all of the hardware.

Hunter Foulks deciding on which way to install the plate with the controller and battery.

The controller and battery after being installed into the car.

Eli Strickland examines the electric motor before the plate is installed.

Under the hood after the controller and extra battery after being installed.

DC/DC Converter (Small black box to the left) and auxiliary battery(to the right) after being installed.

Our car's 12-volt auxiliary battery supplied by Interstate Battery Company.

Our car's Curtis DC/DC Converter.

As of Sunday, May 15, the wheels on our Mustang turned under the power of the motor. This is a great sign that our vehicle is almost complete and ready to compete this weekend.

2/0 Cable and crimping

The last few days we've been working on running our 2/0 cable between the batteries, controller, and motor. The lugs we use are Magnalugs from Quickcable. These are heavy duty lugs that allow the amperage to flow from the batteries to the controller then to the motor. We crimp these with an awesome "made in the USA" crimp too.


Check out this vid to learn about QuickCable connectors

Mr. Butler demonstrating the "hold tight and push tight" crimp method.

No matter how hard you pull... as Mr. Butler says "That joker's on there!!"

Now its time for Jesse to become the cable expert and cut, crimp, and heat shrink all the cable connections.

Always be careful of HIGH VOLTAGE! When batteries are strung in series their voltage INCREASES.

Quintin getting removing the old clear tube sheath from old cable. This will be cleaned and installed in our EV.


Spencer loving it!

Tails and Carpet

Our electric vehicle project was equipped with stock '87-93 LX tail lights. Although the stock lights are nice the lens was both faded and cracked. The lenses provided from Latemodel Restoration are of the older SVO style. We love the black stripes and the retro look!!! We removed the stock lens from the housing by simply prying them off. Next Tyler Haney scraped out the adhesive and Clinton cleaned the housings.

The housing was cleaned...some Mothers' Back to Black was added on top of the housing to provide the rich black look.

Clinton adding the adhesive so the new lens can be glued into place.

As expected the interior carpet from 2 decades of use was extremely pitiful. Again Latemodel helped us out by supplying a new titanium gray carpet. The pics below show how the install went.

This is the interior before cleaning. We also removed the console bracket behind the parking brake since we are doing a console delete.

Clinton helping to layout the new titanium gray carpet

Holes have to be cut for the shifter, parking brake, seat. The carpet is easy to cut but hard not to cut too much.

Spencer and Eli check out a job well done.

Door Moldings and Weather Strip

Our team recently completed the install of new door moldings and weatherstrip provided by Late Model Restoration. The previous weather strip and moldings have become extremely worn, and were in need of being replaced. Late Model Restoration supplied moldings and weatherstrip for both doors, all windows, the trunk, and windshield.

Previous window molding (top) compared to new molding (bottom).

Clinton finishing up on replacing the door moldings.

Brand-new door molding supplied by Late Model Restoration after being installed.

The next step in our vehicle's progress is installing the controller, DC/DC Converter and auxiliary battery before the EV Challenge next week.