Not Much New

Not much happening with the conversion process. The Cabriolet has been resting calmly in the garage though we take it out on the weekends for errands. I'll probably drive it into work (about a 70 mile round trip) several times next month so I can use up its last tank of gasoline.

I've received an invoice number from ElectroAuto with an itemized list of the VoltsRabbit components that should be shipping. The conversion instruction manual is the first item that will be arriving.

Summer Day

Driving around the neighborhood on a nice summer day. The car is a little hard to start when cold which I think is pretty common problem for the CIS fuel injected VW's. My family had a '79 Rabbit many years ago and I recall it had the same trouble. My father and I replaced a couple of cold start valves. I'll check that the cold start injector is spraying when grounded and try some of the hints from this blog and see what I can do without spending any money on the ICE. Once going it drives pretty well though needs a few items to make it more comfortable. It needs one of those shift linkage kits as it's hard to find some of the gears. There is a rattle coming from the back of the car when traversing a bump, probably a shock mount. Only one speaker is working and its still needs a good interior an exterior cleaning. Anybody have any hints on what would work well to clean the top?

I'm waiting on my order confirmation from ElectroAuto and searching around on Craigslist and Ebay for tools and other items that are needed for the conversion.

Parts On Order

I sent off for the VoltsRabbit kit from Electro Automotive today. They are saying about a 8-10 week wait to get everything but some parts should start rolling in a few weeks. The journey begins..

I saw a link to this report on the BBC news today. This Chatham House report is projecting a serious oil supply crunch in the next 5-10 years that could push the price of oil to $200/barrel.

Legal to Drive

It's legal, but still under gas power. I took it to the shop this week to get a few items done one was the state safety inspection. Sort of surprised me it passed as I can't get the heater controls to blow on defrost and the ride is pretty bouncy indicating the struts are shot.

Two of the original tires had some steel showing so I had the shop install a set of the low rolling resistance Sumitomo HTR 200's. Hopefully they will give some good gas mileage while while making up my mind an ordering EV parts. Bought these at Tire Rack, I've used them in the past and I've had no trouble finding local installers. I did not replace the wheels with anything fancy. I shopped around a little and looked on my local Craigslist, but in the end I think am going to just sand and repaint the centercaps and hopefully find a couple more trim rings for the right side.

I installed some 1/4 x 1/2 bolts through the back of the licence plate holder and installed a nut then placed the plate on top and found these chrome acorn nuts to finish it. So these should come off easily when it is time to replace these plates with personalized 'electric' plates when it's finally converted.

The upholstery is in good shape (no rips or tears) just very dirty.

I've talked with ElectroAuto a few times in the last month and they are indicating about a 10 week waiting time on the VoltsRabbit kit. They do want to know what batteries I will be using so they can customize the charger. Most chargers (Russco, Zivan, etc.) will work though ElectoAuto said a Manzanita is back ordered and will be a longer wait time. But the dual voltage (110v/220v) charging would be a nice feature. I'm probably going with the tried and true Trojan T-125 or the US-125XC batteries. I called a couple of places here regarding the US-125XC but they didn't carry them.