Back from the Blaster

I stopped in at Rainbow this morning, as they have received the car back from the blaster.  It's funny to see it as bare silver metal vs. silver paint - can't see much of a difference from a distance.

Everything went as expected at the blaster, except for one area.  Apparently the driver's side-rear quarter panel had some damage in the past.  They used the drill-a-hole-and-pull-out-with-sliding-weight strategy, which is normally fine.  The thing they didn't do was weld the holes shut after pulling the panel back out.  They just applied the Bondo over everything, leading to what you see below, where about half of the holes have been welded over.  The rest of the panels look great so we have a great body to start the blocking process.

eBay Auctions for Un-needed Parts

I did my first round of eBay auctions for parts I won't be needing.  This included the gas tank and accessories, aftermarket side view mirrors, starter motor, fuel pump, racing harness bar and racing belts.  I wasn't able to sell the ash tray, cigarette lighter, rollbar vinyl trim, engine computer, front brake calipers, spark plugs and an oil filter.  I guess I'll relist that stuff in a while.

Well I sure learned a lot about selling stuff on eBay. 

1. Get accurate weights on the parts, including the boxes and packing material so your shipping estimates are close.  
2. Include extra costs to cover any cardboard boxes you might need to buy to do the shipping.  
3. Beware someone from Spain bidding on your parts because they might win the auction but then back out because of the shipping cost.  You thought it was going to be cheap?
4. Beware people with no bidding history winning an auction then vanishing off the face of the earth when they're supposed to pay.  You don't understand the eBay contract?
5. Understand the maximum box sizes for the Post Office and UPS so they don't try to hit you with a $44 surcharge for being 2 inches over the limit.  Is the Post Office out of their mind?
6. Packing and labeling and taking stuff to the shipping point is a pain in the ass.

In the end I've got around $300 to use for the project which is good, and some people have parts that they can use in their projects.

I have another batch of parts, including high-value chrome trim for the rollbar and the original side-view mirrors.  If you're interested, check out the auctions or contact me for the stuff that didn't sell.

Body is at the Blaster

I stopped in at Rainbow today and heard from Mike that he had completed all of the metal rehabilitation on the body and it had been trailered over to the blasting company.

They will do two kinds of blasting:
- soda blasting: gentler particles used on outside bodywork to avoid rippling the metal
- sand blasting: coarser particles used on surface rust and nooks and crannies deep inside the engine compartment.

I don't know how long it will take, but they had to wait for an available work window to open up before taking it over so I can't see it being more than a few days.  Then they'll bring it back and start the bodywork and painting processes.

Comment Spam

First it was political ads, now it's some clown trying to put links to "little blue pills" in the Comments.  I've had to turn Comment Moderation on to put a stop to it.  If your comment is even loosely on-topic, I will approve it.  Sorry for the hassle.

Political Ads

Well I've been invaded by political ads...  I've gone into the ad customization settings and disabled the Politics category so hopefully they will stop showing up soon.

You might be able to guess my political views based on my job and my electric car efforts here, but this is not meant to be a viewport to the political crap we're getting flooded with on TV, radio and mailings.  This will all go away in November one way or the other, so please bear with me.

My Visit to Electro Automotive

I am getting close to the point where I had to order the electric component kits from ElectroAutomotive, so they'll arrive around the same time the car is done at the body shop.

I had a meeting in Los Gatos in the south part of the Bay Area and EA's workshop is in nearby Felton, so I gave them a call to see if I could stop by to talk about the final details of my project and finalize the order.  Mike agreed, so after my meeting I headed over and found his place in a great hilly forested area a few miles from the ocean.

Mike showed me around his workshop, which was frankly spotless.  Operating room machine shop clean.  Shocking!  As we went through each big item in the kit, he showed me the part if he already had it in stock, and explained its history and pros and cons.  After we came to the decision on the DC kit, with 20 6V batteries targeting range over top speed, we deleted a few components that I already have to save a bit of money.  Mike's wife Shari then hit the spreadsheet and presented me with my grand total.  I agreed to arrange for an electronic check for half of the amount as soon as I got home, with the other half coming in about a month after I sold some stock.

They explained that the parts for the kit should all be ordered and received in about 6 weeks.  I will drive my pickup up to their place on a Saturday afternoon and we'll load up everything for the drive home.

I tried to take a picture to prove how clean the shop is, but the battery on my Droid gave out, sorry!

All in all it was a great visit with Mike and Shari, and now I'm committed to the kit and making the car a reality!