Help - Trailer needed for car show!

Help!!! ............................
Just around the corner from us is the Police Citizens Youth Club (PCYC) is holding a car show on July 5th at Logan Central. I want to put the X7 in it to promote electric vehicles but I don't think it will be on the road by then. Does anyone have a car trailer for lend in Brisbane??? Here's the poster for the show, I'd really like to have the X7 there.

It's been awhile since the last post as the family has been busy and I've been slack. I am now back on the mission. We sent the X7 away for a paint job, the wife said green so green is what we got, tree frog green! Our official name for the car is the "X7" but it seems that a pet name has arisen due to the colour - the "Golblin", after the Green Goblin of Spiderman fame. A number plate may reflect this in the future.


I've posted a photo of the X7 arriving back home and a couple sitting in the garage. I actually like the series one bumper arrangement with the black matching the green, I'll try to keep the black when we install the front windscreen surround.

Next we'll look at the brakes as the car being nearly 30 years old and only 108,000kms I suspect that it has spent a great deal of time sitting doing nothing. So we'll pull the wheel hubs apart and check the bearings and brakes, replace if need be. I've already discovered that the brake master cylinder is siezed and will need to source another one.

Trial run - motor in

Okay, so we put the motor -adapterplate-gearbox in the X7, coupled up the driveshaft to the diff. We will now take measurements for the motor mounting bracket in the front.

However, we got to thinking ... should we connect up a 12v battery and see if the rear wheel turns? It became a family event, I think it was in 4th gear and away she went! The rear left wheel turned (quickly!!!) and yes we got very, very excited!

Looking at the photos there seems like a lot of room but being a sporty sort of car the area is quite narrow height wise. I feel that we'll have a bit of fun later when we try to get the extra batteries in the front. I know that the batts height is ok but there are the batt monitors that attach to the top of them that increase their height.

Another thing, the engine hoist is the bloody bees knees, makes it soooo much easier to drop the motor/gearbox in.

We are coming up to Xmas and New Year so we'll put the project aside and make room for family time but come end of January we'll be back in to it again.

I'd like to thank everybody for the comments they have been leaving. I'm not up to protocol and if I'm supposed to reply in the comments section please tell me as I'm a bit of a dunce when it comes to computer savvy. The comments have actually helped in encouraging the project. Thanks!

The Green Machine

When we started this project the family discussed what colour the X7 was going to be. Well, the boys wanted orange with black roof ("Too fast, too furious" ring a bell?) but the boss (wife) came up with apple green (she is either a greenie or likes Kermit the frog ... I suspect the frog) so apple green it is (the boys will get over it ... one day). I have these photos from a while back when I was searching the web so this is what it will look like.


I'm trying to keep it pretty much original but looking at the photos, the larger mag wheels do look good. So, I've done some calculations courtesy of the web and using low profile tyres I can go from 13" to 15" wheels without changing the 13" wheel specs. So we will go with 15" wheels.

Adapter Plate

It's been over a month now since our last blog. We finally have the adapter plate made.

Went and saw a few local engineering firms but everybody was too busy for a small project like mine, I also wanted a small engineering workshop who would be interested in the project, somebody who cares. I was put on to Fastweld Engineering, I believe they are used to fabricating weird one off jobs. They quickly understood what I wanted.


It took a few weeks to manufacture as it was done in between priority jobs. We discussed if it should be made out of steel or aluminium. Steel is easier and cheaper to get but would take longer to mill, aluminium is a bit dearer but lighter and quicker to mill (which means less labour). We went for aluminium.

As you can see by the photos they have done an exceptional job. I was going to have the edges squared off but they have ground it to match the gearbox. Also the openings for the clutch and starter motor have been closed off with inspection plates, handy.

I think I need to go back a couple of weeks to show how the coupling and the plate looked. The coupling I got from Blackwoods and is in 2 pieces, each having a taper lock. I only use one taperlock onto the motor shaft (the rear half) as I can access it from the front when I unbolt the front half, the other I don't use but have had the center turned down and the spline part of a clutch welded into it. The whole process is all about centering everything, anything that is out of wack will show up later down the track as you put all the parts together. All the bloggs and articles I've read keep stressing the need for minimum tolerances when going for a clutchless setup. If we don't get this right I suspect that the spline on the gearbox will go west first. The coupling that I'm using will probably do the job but if I was to do another conversion I may look at other products.

This is a photo of the plate half done and fitted to the gearbox, nice work aye!!

The guys at Fastweld have done a great job and are really easy to work with. Thanks Dave and Chris!

Rear Battery Box

The traction battery pack for the X7 will be LFE 160Ah at 144 volts made in China by Thundersky. As I will be going for 144V and each battery is 3.2V then I will have 45 batteries. Now I cannot fit them all in one place so I will split the pack into three. One of 27 batteries in the rear and two of 9 batteries in the front either side of the motor. To reduce weight I've had the rear battery box made of aluminium so to ensure that my batteries will be safe I've had the box made by local industries and not try to do this myself (that would be a very bad thing).

Not knowing who to see as I am relatively new to Brisbane I looked in the yellow pages and approached Alfab for the job but they said that they do mainly boat windscreens and windows but they could do the welding and suggested Lewden Sheetmetal to cut and fold the box.
So I saw Tony at Lewden Sheetmetal and he said he could do it by cutting the sides but folding the box along the long edges to maintain strength. Which he did very well even keeping to a tight set of diamensions.

Then it was back to Alfab where I spoke to Clyde where the welding was done. I don't know the name of the guy who did the welding but he did a nice job. I decided to put in gussets at the corners which will increase torsional strength, you can see these in the top photo. Eventually I'll have a lid made of plexiglass so the batteries can be shown and carpet over top of the plexiglass for normal commute.

As you can see in this photo the box will have plenty of clearance. You can just see where the body is cut away for an exhaust.

I've promised both Tony and Clyde that when the project is finished I would bring the X7 over to show them. Thanks for your good work guys.

The motor has arrived

The motor has arrived! I was at work and had to wait a few days to get home before I could see it. The family was pretty good and they didn't open the package while I was away. When we did open it (within 2 minutes of me getting home) we were pretty well impressed that the physical size is quite a lot smaller than an internal combustion engine (ICE).



I suppose I should give some specs.

Netgain Motors Inc
WarP 9 motor
Series DC motor
Weight -- 70kg
Length -- 508mm including shafts (Body is 405mm)
Diameter -- 235mm (9.25")
Class H insulation
5500RPM
70HP @ 120 volt 435 amps

This motor is purpose built for electric vehicles (EV's) and has:
Larger commutator than normal
Larger brushes and heavier duty brushgear
Heavier guage wire for windings

Why is it called WarP 9? The '9' is for 9 1/2" diameter. To explain the 'WarP' here's an excerp from the owner's manual:
"We are not 'Trekkies', but we do enjoy Startrek. However, that had nothing to do with the original name selection for our motors. The name was a natural way of differentiating our motor series, and also showed that we intended on incorporating new and advanced thinking in the enhanced design of the motors we planned on building. The War portion of the name comes from Warfield Electric Motor Company. Jerry Warfield was instrumental in our original designs (and subsequent designs, as were John Wayland and numerous others ...). The capital P at the end of the name is also significant. It stands for Phil Brown, a close friend and supporter of our original electric dragster concept vehicle. Unfortunately, Phil was taken by cancer prior to the project gaining momentum. We intend to maintain this method of honoring Phil in the naming of our ImPulse motors as well."

Having been an electrician for over 30 years predominantly in heavy industry I've been exposed to a lot of motors both AC and DC from the tiddlers to having headaches with 2.1MW motors. On first inspection I would say the WarP 9 is of good manufacture and should last many years with proper maintenance (which is minimal).

At present we are taking measurements for the adapter plate but first we are sorting out the coupling between the gearbox and motor. Hopefully we should have this resolved in the next week where we will post our results. Also the rear battery box is being finished, we are putting a few gussets in to increase the strength at the top - not needed but I've opted for extra strength, again we'll post some info on the completed box. Things are starting to come together and once the adapter plate is done, then comes the paint job for the body, then it's time to piece everything together to make a viable vehicle. Bear in mind that this is a restoration as well as an EV conversion but I am looking at a finish date about Easter?

In Startrek they would travel at warp factor 4+ ... I've never had a speeding ticket but can the X7 do warp 9? How fast is warp 1?