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I hav some friends here in the Austin area that have a company doing this. And yes, it’s all custom one-off work for each car. My most vivid memory is climbing
by bradknowles 7y ago
I hav some friends here in the Austin area that have a company doing this. And yes, it’s all custom one-off work for each car.
My most vivid memory is climbing into the “frunk” of a Porsche that was owned by a famous cardiologist, and measuring the heater core slot so that we could make our own heater core enclosure to fit for an electric unit we bought. And I took very careful and accurate measurements and very carefully applied them to sheet metal on the hand brake press. Only to discover that I had not accounted for the thickness of the metal or the enforced bend radius, and so the finished unit was off by about a millimeter and wouldn’t fit.
I tried to convince them that they should partner with certain kit car companies, buying only the non-BEV components from them, much the way Tesla started out with Lotus. But that never went anywhere, and I haven’t heard from them since. I need to get back in touch with them....
- bradknowles 7y agoBTW, the biggest issue they found in doing conversions is doing the electrical wiring work according to code. When there is a crash and the emergency rescue team has to use the “jaws of life” to cut the car open, you want to make damn sure they won’t be cutting through any of your high-amperage cabling. And if you are converting an ICE car to BEV, you don’t want to surprise them by routing your power cables through unexpected places. When they see a certain model of car, they are going to expect to be able to cut through in certain manufacturer-approved locations. You don’t want to risk killing the guys who are trying to save your life.