Electric Avenue

Something I like about when I go to independent auto shops is that often someone working there will have some kind of interesting project in the works. This was just such an occasion!!!

The double-edged sword is that I usually do most of my own work. A bit ago, though, I took Scruffy to get her air conditioning repaired. I pulled up while the proprietor was busy with another customer, so I was looking around, and saw this beauty on the lift. I'm not a particular fan of VW microbusses, but anything this clean is admirable in it's own right!!! I took a closer look...

Underneath, and off to the side was the engine.

But directly under the rear, was this... I looked closer...

I looked at the other side...

Hmmm, looks like a transaxle, but there's no bellhousing....

About that time the proprietor walked by, and he says, "You're wondering, huh???" I reply, "Is that what I think it is???" "Yeah!!!" "All electric???" "Yeah!!!"

"Sir, I salute you!!!" Magnificent!!! A perfect candidate, actually, there's plenty of room for batteries, and it probably ends up way quicker than the original!!!

When he finally got to Scruffy, he determined it'd need a new compressor and some hoses. He'll get the stuff ordered, can I come back in a day or two??? Actually, it was two Fridays ago, and I told him I'd be back in a week, since that's my day off. Got to come back and see the progress. He'd made a spot for the strut mounts, and mounted the cradle. As it sits, the wheels were cambered way in, but that may change after it has batteries, and gets rolled some. Also, after I'd been there a bit I noticed the Chevy Bolt donor carcass out in the yard. The second to last shot here you can see the mess of wiring harness laid out behind it. Also, I hope he's going to be able to adapt the VW wheels to it, or at least get some steelies that look close and can mount the wide whitewalls.

So I got to see a cool project coming together, and I got the air conditioning fixed!!!