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School holidays are now over and back into the project again! Next stage was to remove the boot floor and centre section from the Petrol vehicle to trial fit the boot floor and for the engineer to inspect prior to modifications of the floor pan and welding.

This looks interesting although Chinese focussed at present...

http://autotalk.com.au/industry-news/el ... nault-year

Hi Terry, having driven the 500e - yes I do think it is worth it. There isn’t another EV available now or in the near future within my means that I would contemplate buying or driving - if my calculations are correct I should have a completed 500e on the road for around half the cost of a Zoe. I kne...

Several hundred spot welds later the boot floor is now removed exposing the additional bracing of the chassis rails which I will also need to remove and swap over into the RHD body.

Unfortunately it looks like Elon has tweeted himself into some serious trouble this time...

https://www.carthrottle.com/post/elon-m ... stigation/

Finally making some progress with removing the centre floor pan section. Next challenge is to remove the boot floor...

Yes, funny how amnesia seems to kick in when a new project comes along. Tonight I thought I was ready to lift off the top section then discovered there are two large reinforcing sections and a crossmember that I need to remove, another 80 welds on top and who knows how many underneath through three ...

The tedious part of the project continues- another 110 spot welds drilled out and not even half way there yet!

Great project- I look forward to following it!

Hi Terry and Chris, Yes, it’s no small task despite their size! I always knew it wasn’t going to be a bolt in conversion although I figured that it would eventually be possible if enough was swapped over.. the frustrating part is that physically converting the LHD shell would have been much more sim...

Last day of progress before the school holidays kick in! Rear wiring and curtain airbags now removed from the 500e along with heater box and dash support frame. Now the tedious task begins of drilling out the individual spot welds on the floor sections to carefully remove them so they can be welded ...

More disassembly today- this time the EV drivetrain so both are now rolling shells and first engineering inspection has been carried out. Lots to do but at least we have an idea of next steps!

I remember now, why I left my Brumby on the road as is, the Suzuki became my paddock basher, and I wimped out and just bought a LEAF. When I used to repair and rebuild things, (before throw away electronics) most of the bits would fit in a shoe box. Even then, if I waited more than 6 weeks for part...

Yes, there has been a lot of research put into the project- it is complicated more by the fact that the US and Euro versions run completely separate online technical manuals and parts catalogues both with very different formats- part numbers are also completely different so can’t be cross referenced...

Thanks Terry- not really, i’m putting In about 2-3 hours each night after work although I was fortunate enough to get a 6 hour block today on my RDO. My VASS engineer is retiring at the end of this year so I have to keep moving. The disassembly is the (relatively) easy part, although it is important...

Busy day today removing the engine and transmission from the ICE vehicle and dashboard assembly so we can take a closer look at the differences in the body structure. Will be interested to see if the heater box requires modification once the EV dash comes out.

This Barina was on display at the EV expo and was nicely done- I had a talk to the gentleman displaying it but I don’t think he was the owner. i’m assuming somebody in the Vic branch of AEVA will know whose it is. It’a really good to see it out and about doing its job!

Tonight’s project was to refit the suspension to the EV to make it mobile and get it off the hoist. A seemingly simple task was impossible due to the inability of compressing the springs to refit the rear axle without the weight of the battery pack! Thankfully I had a spare set of 1960 Fiat 500 wago...

Yes Chris the power train was developed by Bosch and has full thermal management of the packs, two separate radiator systems for cooling motor/inverter and heating or cooling the batteries with heat exchanger out of the AC system.

Latest progress today, rear suspension has now been removed to gain access to the battery pack which I have also removed. Next task is to strip the ICE car also and determine how extensive the modifications to the floorpan and boot floor are.

What makes it confusing is there are two very different Tom Tom navigation systems in the 500, the early model (pre 2016) which has a very basic Blaupunkt radio/CD with no audio streaming and Microsoft Bluetooth system (Blue and Me) plus a free standing plug in Tom Tom which communicates via Bluetoo...

Here’s a reply to some questions in the other thread about the project.. I purchased my 500e as a damaged vehicle which had a fairly minor hit high up on the drivers side and it was still driveable but partially stripped. I didn’t want to buy a ‘complete’ car because it was going to be unregisterabl...

Hi Andrew, I purchased my 500e as a damaged vehicle which had a fairly minor hit high up on the drivers side and it was still driveable but partially stripped. I didn’t want to buy a ‘complete’ car because it was going to be unregisterable here anyway even if converted and I was unsure at the time i...

Getting started...

Hi Terry, your project sounds interesting- I started out with the aim of converting my 1969 Fiat 500 to EV as is being currently carried out by several overseas firms. When I looked into it however, considered the costs and potential usability of the end vehicle I decided that converting a ‘new’ 500...