More nose rack fun

Today I focused on finishing up the nose rack. I added brackets to the left and right front of the rack to attach it to bolts coming down from the cross member just behind the bumper. These had to be narrow enough to allow the rack to be slid in place but wide enough to hold a 3/8" nut and secure the rack.
The rear of the rack almost lined up with two holes in the frame rail. I angled two 6" long "L" scrap to the rear corners of the rack. It's a little tricky to get it in place as these brackets hit the headlight mechanism as the rack is slid into place. After a lot of wiggling and "finessing" it goes in.

Fired Up!

In shopping for lugs I came across a conversion check list at www.EVParts.com. It says one ought to test the motor and driveline on 12volts before you get too far. Makes sense - If things don't mate up correctly and you wait until the car is done before you try it out, you'll be doing a lot of disassembly.
I jacked up the rear end, double checked the bricks blocking the front wheels, put it in neutral and used a couple of jumper cables to connect the terminals of the motor together and the motor to a single battery.
I tried to take a short movie of it to post, but the camera wasn't behaving.
There was a snap, a few sparks, a whiff of ozone and the motor lept to life!
It accelerated smoothly - no wobbles or vibration.
Good news.
Next I put it in 5th (don't want it going very fast if it falls off the jack) and tried it again. This was a little scarier, but with a zap the motor spun up again and I could see the rear wheels spinning in the proper direction.
Not bad.
I thought about testing the clutch next, but think I'll wait for someone else to help with the battery.

Clamps and Lugs

Well, I was mistaken.
Did some research before I ordered the lugs for my batteries - these are the kind that bolt onto the screw terminals. In the book "Convert It" (AKA the conversion bible) it recommends lugs over clamps. But I got to thinking the surface area of a clamp must be 3x that of a lug - even a big 3/8" one. So I did a little research and found an answer on the DIY Electric Car Forum (a great sight, by the way). One of the members explained that lugs are great for under 250 amps, but anything above that needs a clamp. This may not be 100% true (I think 250 may be a little low) but since I'm planning on handling 500 amps, this answer was good enough for me.
So I ordered a 26 clamps, 26 boots and a few lugs for the Zilla, Contactor, motor and etc.
Next I need to find a cable crimper to borrow...

Almost finished with the trunk rack

Saturday I took the bottom braces of the rear rack apart and re-welded them so that they lined up with the edges of the batteries. That way the batteries are properly supported from underneath. I also welded another two tabs on the rack to allow it to bold into the frame.
I also bought some more metal and nuts and bolts at a local hardware store - nothing too fancy this time, so I had no trouble finding what I needed.

On Sunday my dad came over to curt some plywood and I easily talked him into helping on the car. We bent and cut the top braces and drilled holes for each to be mounted to the rack. Doesn't sound like much, but took a while to get it all aligned. The picture here is from a test fitting. You can see how the batteries are still in their shrink wrap and the handles are still attached. I plan on smoothing out the welds with a grinder and painting it stock Miata red, so that it looks stock.
The rear tabs line up with some holes in the frame rail, but the front tabs need holes drilled. I need at least an 8" long 7/16" bit to drill all the way through the rail on each side. Guess I'll be making another trip to the hardware store...

Ordered 50' of welding cable

I was following another conversion project on www.electricyaris.com last year. He got his cable on eBay for a good price and even had it labeled with his web site URL at no additional charge. I was planning to spend around $260 for the cable, but found the same eBay listing for $176 - not bad. Got my choice of colors (I chose orange to compliment my blue batteries) and asked them to write "www.evmiata.com" on it. Yeah, I'm a copy cat.
Hope to get the cable by 4th of July weekend. I plan on spending the 3 day weekend crimping cable. Yee ha.

Batteries are here

I had the batteries delivered today. A guy drove up in a truck similar to one of those used to deliver water, pulled out a hand truck and wheeled them into my garage.
They all have a serial number to confirm they were made in the same batch, which he assured me they were.
Each are shrink wrapped and come with a plastic handle which makes them a little tight in the nose rack, but okay in the trunk and upper rack. The trunk rack's supports underneath don't line up with the batteries very well - looks like I was off about 5/8" when I laid it out, so I'll need to do a little cutting and welding on it. I also made the upper rack (formerly known as the cowl rack) a little too wide - about 3/8". I thought about cutting it down, but I think I'll just stick a piece of wood trim in as a spacer.

Turning Blue

Well, the battery reseller redeemed themselves today.
I've been busy with work and family stuff lately and haven't had a chance to call to follow up. I gave them a call this morning and not only did they remember who I was and what I wanted, but they explained that they had written down my number wrong and had been trying different combinations of the number to reach me. They hooked me up with the sales rep right away who knocked off the delivery charge. Nice start.
We started talking about terminals - posts and studs - he explained that the blue top marine batteries are the same chemistry, same price but with both posts AND studs.
Hmmm.
While he was checking the inventory I checked the Optima web site, just to confirm, and the specs are identical. Okay, then he explained he had 13 from the same batch in stock and he could have them delivered today. (!)
I got a family trip this weekend and having these babies sitting in the garage would be too much of a temptation. So I arranged to have them delivered next week instead.

Now I got to order some cable...