E-Lorean Electric Conversion

[bitMuse]

Hey all,

I have no idea if anyone's taken this project name yet! Here's my attempt to bring back 000983. Consider this an official build thread while I ambitiously chase after the title of the world's fastest electric DeLorean.

The donor car (000983) I found thanks to Mike at DeLorean Midwest. The exterior was in near-perfect condition, the inside had a little damage, and the motor was seized / frame was rusted out. Thanks to Mike I was able to get it shipped to my shop with a second lightly-damaged frame. I cared very much during this project to not take a good car out of the market and instead breathe life into something already lost.

I started about four months ago and I've gone through some various design choices. The first decision I made was using a Tesla Model 3 Performance motor. For those unawares, this motor is an induction motor and the car it came out of weighs 1,847kg. The performance of this motor boasts a 3.3s 0-100km/h acceleration 471lb/fts of torque, and 450hp with a 11.5s quarter mile. That's with two motors on the base car, and on this car I am just using the rear motor but expecting about half the curb weight.

The BMS is an Orion 2 with 96 cell taps at 3.7v for 355.2v nominal 403.2v peak. This is where the design gets a little weird. I chose low density lipoly pouches because I..
A. Believe Sulfer or Graphene Ion batteries are around the corner which will turn the market upside down.
B. Would like to spend as little as possible if the market is about to change.
C. Don't care about range at this time.
D. Just want to get this moving.

So this battery pack is 96s2p for a nominal capacity of 32A with a peak discharge of 1,000A. That works out to a little under 13kwh. Abysmal for a battery pack. I will probably get about 30 miles of range out of it. Maybe more. Maybe less. But on the other hand it will charge in about one or two hours to full. For reference, Tesla packs usually range from 70-100kwh. But it met my design goals, with the idea that when new battery tech drops I will swap it out. There's plenty of things to work on until then.

Speaking of that, so formed the todo list:
1. Separate the body and chassis.
2. Rebuild the frame / patch any rust.
3. Mount the motor.
4. Hot-Dip Galvanize the frame, and powdercoat it.
5. Replace things as necessary.

Incredibly ambitious and it took me a while... Pictures incoming.

https://i.imgur.com/e6RzKsq.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/6VA3zNO.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/iMqUExk.jpg

[bitMuse]

https://i.imgur.com/O7XY0vw.jpg
Here she was the day she arrived to me. It was super sunny out and I had never actually seen a DeLorean before. Let alone any type of exotic car. I immediately fell in love. It didn't matter the doors didn't work, or that it smells like old and mold and death inside.

https://i.imgur.com/iEDfj3B.jpg
While I had her in my garage and started tearing down the interior to see what the damage was. Rust was really bad near the driver side window pillar. The roof is black epoxied (I don't know if this is factory or not but I suspect it's like this because the roof was leaking for the previous owner and the roof box is perhaps rusty. Just a guess.)

The floor was still damp, the headliners were dropping. Common problems for an old car and I was just going to do it all again from scratch anyways.

In this time I got new lifts for all the hoods and doors for the car so they'd stay up on their own. Easy ten minute fix.

https://i.imgur.com/eWWeRLg.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/N5BR3KI.jpg

The frame was toast, the driver side wheel was barely attached. I had to come up with a plan.

[bitMuse]

Buy lots of stuff of course...

https://i.imgur.com/WlIwVzs.png
https://i.imgur.com/bwbmiUF.jpg

I started with purchasing the motor and the Delorean Industries spec suspension. New seals. Stainless steel trailing arms. And started counting up the many, many problem items on this car. Missing dust caps on the spindles, the parking brake bracket was rusted through, etc etc etc.

All the meanwhile I worked on separating the frame from the car which proved.. obnoxious. The front two bolts had epoxy poured into the holes (courtesy of a previous owner?) so to get them out I had to use a hole drill to clear away the epoxy before I could get a wrench on them.

It took me maybe an embarrassingly long amount of time but the satisfaction of splitting the frame for the first time was SO worth it.
https://i.imgur.com/QFWcDhd.jpg

The shop only gets messier from here.

Around this time I started working on disassembling the car to strip everything that was good while I worked on designing how this motor was going to fit in this frame.

[bitMuse]

https://i.imgur.com/1qaNPLI.jpg
Speaking of the donor frame, here she was. Normally covered with a tarp. Naked for the photoshoot.

https://i.imgur.com/3nR5uFN.jpg

I got her into the shop and started doing test fits. On the Model 3 the engine fits with the driveshaft behind the two mickey mouse ears. This wasn't going to fit on the DeLorean so it needed to be mounted backwards.

https://i.imgur.com/gntni9w.jpg

Bonk! I didn't have enough room to get the CV axles in about the same spot as they were on the DeLorean chassis factory. There's some play here but I didn't want to get crazy. There was no way this was going to fit without modifying the crossmember.

https://i.imgur.com/ajNjpYf.jpg

Speaking of, I'm not doing this entirely alone. I have a buddy with me Whom Shallnt Be Named who is at least a solid sounding board for my insanity. We spoke about cutting into the crossmember, or replacing it. And so on. There was a lot of talking and thinking about this. Way too much. But at the end of the day the crossmember wasn't in great shape, so I impulsively decided to go with what my gut told me.


https://i.imgur.com/wSVCWcC.jpg

Overt your eyes folks of weak stomaches...

https://i.imgur.com/2Sg2gHa.jpg

I cut it off. I was going to dedicate myself to fabbing a new suspension and engine crossmember. Oh boy. Was this way more work than I figured.

I started with the old school CAD. Get some dimensions and get a feel for the angles.

https://i.imgur.com/4xk4H1s.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Hzjdw9d.jpg

The original plan being to use some good old 2x4 box steel to bridge the gap. But as I puzzled out the various dimensions a pattern emerged and I switched to digi-cad.

https://i.imgur.com/yf1TmT7.png

Until I came up with this. The same orientation for the suspension link, but with grooves cut to make this thing a reality and fit with the engine. I had to drop the lettering though eventually because it was too thin for the laser to cut. Oops!

[bitMuse]

https://i.imgur.com/CkIivLW.jpg

There is something pure and wonderful in this world about receiving a package of laser-cut 1/4" mild steel panels in the mail. It's a little magical. Like being a kid at christmas. And then when it tacks together and everything just fits.. Hard to compare.

I matched the advance angles of the original frame and started putting things roughly where they'd need to be. New fill in plates would need to be designed as necessary to bridge the gap to the frame. And we did that.

Step by step.

https://i.imgur.com/l7ttI9y.jpg

Around this time I also replaced the front frame extension.

https://i.imgur.com/c4k7fVw.png

And then started cutting out more plates to fit to the frame...

https://i.imgur.com/lVgFajh.png
https://i.imgur.com/iDz82FZ.png
https://i.imgur.com/abDUVzX.png
https://i.imgur.com/Hq8aV23.png

Until we reached this week, where we FINALLY have the motor attached to the new frame and supporting itself. It's been a huge road to get this far in just a few months.

[DL4567]

Holy cow... What a post! Amazing project.

[DavidProehl]

Very cool project. You've been doing a ton of work on it, great job on the frame repairs! Looking forward to following your progress. I find electric conversions exciting.

[Mark D]

Awesome project, I'll be following along for sure.

Great work on the cardboard aided design (CAD) and actual design work for the laser cut parts. I also love the feeling of getting that stack of parts and everything just fits flawlessly. You must have some experience, because you did a great job making the pieces interlock with tabs to hold together in the correct orientation during welding. I design a lot of parts like this at my job and I can't tell you how much the welders and assemblers appreciate these types of design considerations.

Can't wait to see what's next!

[bitMuse]

No big updates yet, or at least nothing interesting. The frame has been packed up and is in a burn off oven for the final stage of cleaning before I HDG it and powdercoat it. She's getting real spoiled.

In the meantime my associate and I have cleaned up the shop, moved body panels into an unused corner to protect them, assembled a blasting cabinet, and have just been straightening up while we wait to begin the next step of this insanity.

Things will really start to move once the frame is coated -- reassembly time.

We've also put the Model 3 engine on the bench and we're about to disassemble that to make the modifications to run it backwards. I've gotten a lot of questions on how we're doing this and we'll be (attempting) to make a youtube video to show what we're doing and hopefully pave the way for future conversions using this beautiful motor.

Frankly, I don't know if what we're doing will work as there is a huge gap between "theoretical" and "practical", and there's no going back from this modification. So.. fingers crossed. :devil:

[Helirich]

Very cool. I?ll be watching for sure.

[bitMuse]

The frame has been dropped off for galvanizing!! Awww yissss.

Still waiting on parts before I begin on the motor. However the rest of the parts for the blasting cabinet arrived and I finished assembling that and started restoring parts.

https://i.imgur.com/Bhuwb9R.png

Here's a picture of an upper control arm just starting to be cleaned. The level of grime and rust is .. frankly awful. Utterly unusable.

https://i.imgur.com/2NJpy9q.png
However after some glass blasting at 80 grit, it's looking much better. I'm super picky with my paints and waiting for some black gloss eastwood chassis paint to arrive to coat all of these pieces. The frame is in gray, and I like the dichotomy of gray and black for the chassis pieces.

https://i.imgur.com/WqRZpW3.png

I also tried to restore the brake cover, but the pitting and corrosion is pretty bad. I'm debating if I want to do an epoxy fill to try and fit the pitting or just roll with it and paint over it.

All new bushings and ball joints are coming courtesy of Delorean Go, which will be installed to bring the upper control arm system back to factory-like condition. The bottom control arms and coilovers are Delorean Industry's suspension rebuild.

[Josh]

The frame has been dropped off for galvanizing!! Awww yissss.

Still waiting on parts before I begin on the motor. However the rest of the parts for the blasting cabinet arrived and I finished assembling that and started restoring parts.

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/Bhuwb9R.png[IMG]

Here's a picture of an upper control arm just starting to be cleaned. The level of grime and rust is .. frankly awful. Utterly unusable.

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/2NJpy9q.png[IMG]
However after some glass blasting at 80 grit, it's looking much better. I'm super picky with my paints and waiting for some black gloss eastwood chassis paint to arrive to coat all of these pieces. The frame is in gray, and I like the dichotomy of gray and black for the chassis pieces.

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/WqRZpW3.png[IMG]

I also tried to restore the brake cover, but the pitting and corrosion is pretty bad. I'm debating if I want to do an epoxy fill to try and fit the pitting or just roll with it and paint over it.

All new bushings and ball joints are coming courtesy of Delorean Go, which will be installed to bring the upper control arm system back to factory-like condition. The bottom control arms and coilovers are Delorean Industry's suspension rebuild.

We have several extra dust shields from our brake conversions if you want to buy good used set.
I see you got those rivets popped out without a fuss, right on.

[bitMuse]

Thanks Josh! I might take you up on that at some point. With how much money I just dumped into brackets, bushings, joints, HDG, and so on I'm gonna see what I can get done with the parts and tools I have. Taking the shields off and replacing them later is a lot easier than swapping whole car frames.

These ones don't even have aerodynamic/weight reduction holes yet from rust!

:elmo1:

It occurs to me now I should also mention for anyone in the future who obsesses over bolts as much as I do. Every bolt, nut, and washer I'm using in this project is made out of a metal called Bumax 88.

Way overkill.

The reason I chose this metal is that it has the corrosion resistance of stainless (slightly better actually), but the strength of carbon steel. Meaning I don't have to worry that the fasteners won't be graded to the engineered properties equal to the car's manufacture in suspension or structural application. Because of the higher moly concentration I don't know if structural welding due to material difference will be an issue, but I am using anti-seize as a precautionary and best-practices method anyways.

[bitMuse]

Today was more restoration work. I'm using a combination of wire wheel and 80 grit glass bead blasting for the results in these pictures.

https://i.imgur.com/Vt5NnL3.png

https://i.imgur.com/altRy6A.png

For the brakes I'm closing off both hydraulic holes by a loopback jig pictured above. I'm sad the calipers are so pockmarked from rust. I could probably fix it by hand-sanding it but I'm not sure if anyone is that anal or if that's a reasonable thing.

Discovered the rear bearings are totally shot so got a pair of those (thanks Delorean MW!). Progress was slow today mostly because I couldn't separate the long control arms from the rear uprights. The bolt was totally sealed in place, so I had to use a reciprocating saw to just cut the bolt on either side of the control arm and free it that way which took a while. Even the air hammer couldn't free these bolts.

Next shop day is .. more sand-blasting. I've got 7 more caliper halves to do, one front upright, two rear uprights, an upper control arm for the front, another brake dust shield, the front fascia (I'll do that one in .. baking soda? I think?) and the rear fascia. Then painting.

I also purchased some nickel-copper brakelines today and once I get the frame back, I'll be creating the 3D models for the nylon-carbon fiber replacement holders along the frame.

[bitMuse]

More not-that-glamorous work.

I'm about halfway through blasting all the parts now and I have some major complaints about my blasting cabinet:

It shocks me every 5 seconds or so
The visibility in the cabinet is incredibly low (glass damage + poor lighting)
Because the box is sealed and it has 90PSI coming in, the dust blows out all the cracks in the cabinet and covers everything nearby.
Glass dust got into the electronics box and shorted the light out.


So being who I am, I took today to disassemble the cabinet and modify the ever-loving shit out of it so it's usable.

https://i.imgur.com/aDRWKZu.jpg
Fixing the seals on the cabinet is easy. I have no intent to ever disassemble this cabinet ever again so I did RTV on all the seams. The window was popped out so I could replace the glass and clean the acrylic shielding.

Fixing the visibility due to light conditions is easy, I tossed the old LED light bar out and then lined the inside of the box with about 20 FT of 24V bright-white sterile LED stripping rated for outdoor use. My benchtop power supply tells me the draw is 0.73amps so I bought a proper transformer that I'll install when I get back to the shop.

Then the window was coated on the trim and between the panes with RTV to avoid dust getting trapped in there, and a disposable plastic sheet was adhered to the inside of the glass.

https://i.imgur.com/W0WBno9.jpg

The reason I'm getting the piss shocked out of me every few seconds is due to the dust and air pressure inside the box and the electricity is trying to discharge to ground, and I'm the best ground. This is super easy to fix as well. I mounted a new electronics containment box on the outside which is air-tight. I switched it to use a common PC-ground cable which uses the third grounding plug. I've had this grounded to the case's metal, making it far better for conduction than myself.

https://i.imgur.com/4SqT6Aw.png

Ta-da!

Now for the final problem. Because the cabinet is a positive pressure area and I've now sealed all the places the air can do, I need to make a place for the excess pressure to go to. I installed a 4" coupler on the outside of the case to a cyclonic filter attached to a vacuum cleaner. Mildly overkill but it should eliminate the mess and make reusing the dust easier. I don't have a picture of this so you'll have to use your imagination!

And now that I've built the perfect dust cabinet.. now I can build a DeLorean ... Again... Maybe. :P

https://i.imgur.com/2QRab4a.jpg

Also did a color test with one of the calipers. How does this color look?

[Timeless]

I like that color on the caliper.

[bitMuse]

Thanks, Timeless!

Also thank you to JohnnyK who pointed out that the bumax bolts are NOT strong enough for the suspension system, and I went back and bought all the OEM hardware for the suspension just to be safe.

UPDATE!

https://i.imgur.com/G5x7dsy.png

I have the frame back from the galvanizer and I wasted no time starting to bolt on parts. I literally couldn't wait any longer. The upgrade to the sand blasting cabinet was perf and I've started doing test color sprays for the other parts I will be mounting on.

With the help of a couple friends we've managed to continue stripping down the poor DeLorean and all that's left now is barely anything:

https://i.imgur.com/3eoS6Ds.png

Powerwashing is coming soon to wipe away all the dust and begin again from anew. Meanwhile I've managed to assembly a (very) messy test harness for the electric motor.

https://i.imgur.com/KhBtz2r.png

Now that I've confirmed the motor works I can begin the teardown to make it run backwards. There really, really hasn't been anyone who's done this before so I'm pretty nervous but I'm just going to go for it. Either it works, or it's back to square one. Let's do it.

[DMCMW Dave]

Now that I've confirmed the motor works I can begin the teardown to make it run backwards. There really, really hasn't been anyone who's done this before so I'm pretty nervous but I'm just going to go for it. Either it works, or it's back to square one. Let's do it.

Didn't the electric car it came from have reverse? Typically, electric cars just reverse the motor to back up, they don't have a gearbox.

[bitMuse]

Didn't the electric car it came from have reverse? Typically, electric cars just reverse the motor to back up, they don't have a gearbox.

Great question. It did, but the controller board on the inverter software limits reverse to a much lower speed for safety and there's no way to bypass that limit through software.

[bitMuse]

To expand on my previous answer, more information is available here: https://www.marklines.com/en/report_all/rep1830_201903

The Tesla Drivetrain is composed of: A resolver, an oil pump, a drivetrain gear assembly (including final drive and differential), the motor itself, an inverter board that converts DC to 3 phase AC, and a 'controller'. In the current implementation for these motors, a third party control module sends signals to the Tesla motor as the ECU, and the controller on the motor receives those commands to actually apply power to the drivetrain.

This includes features like regenerative braking, adjustable power limits, and so on.

There are no solutions right now that replace the inverter/controller (but there may be in the future).

So what we'll be doing is taking the three phase AC that comes through the gearbox and reversing two of the bus bars. The resolver, which includes an excitation coil, a cosine, and sine wave coil will all be reversed.

This should produce the intended result I want. (Running the motor in full reverse at full power). But I am, definitively, the first person to ever be doing this and it's totally a risk that I will burn up thousands of dollars of expensive equipment doing it.

But such is Science.

[Ron]

T..."Running the motor in full reverse at full power"...
I'd like to be there when you back, back into the future!

[SupercoolBill]

Cool write up. Condition of your car seems very similar to mine (see me restoration thread)
My blasting cabinet bites me pretty good too but only when I hold parts in midair while blasting. As long as I make sure they are touching the cabinet no lightening strikes. I've had it jump to my nose before...it hurts.

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[Ron]

Cool write up. Condition of your car seems very similar to mine (see me restoration thread)
My blasting cabinet bites me pretty good too but only when I hold parts in midair while blasting. As long as I make sure they are touching the cabinet no lightening strikes. I've had it jump to my nose before...it hurts.

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using TapatalkGround the nozzle...

[bitMuse]

Can confirm grounding the nozzle when I did my upgrade did fix the shocking problem. Also I grounded the whole box (it was not grounded.)

Pretty big status update so far. We've recorded the first part of the youtube video regarding re-engineering the tesla motor. As well as some juicy timelapses and glimpses into the motor itself. I've added a special picture at the end of the stream of today's photos ...

https://i.imgur.com/aboMv3G.png

Thanks to Mike's help at Delorean Midwest (and his encouragement) I was able to disassemble my brake calipers. They were all this bad and badly seized. I was on the verge of giving up, even at one point having welded a bolt to the piston in order to try and get it out. For anyone struggling like me, Mike's advice to "wiggle it back and forth by prying it up and then smashing it back down" was the piece I was missing.

This community is awesome, especially Delorean Industries, Delorean Midwest, and Delorean Texas for answering all my inane questions.

Emery cloth and steel wool was not sufficient to remove the grime from these pistons, so I had to use a wire wheel and brake clean. That finally got them clean. Another picture of the carnage left behind:

https://i.imgur.com/hnbhYsi.png

Following that was a couple shop days. We got all the bushings pressed out. The split washers out of the hub carrier. Then disaster struck.

https://i.imgur.com/4pxoYgd.png

The aluminum hub carrier snapped and a piece broke off. We're trying to TIG weld it back on and salvage that carrier, but it's tough. This was totally my bad and was the only casualty, but it sucks none-the-less.

Following that we were able to remove the doors, I spent half a day cleaning the interior (prepping to powerwash and ionize it to kill any must, mold, or germs).

https://i.imgur.com/7TPAqnX.png

https://i.imgur.com/Ig2rJUK.png

https://i.imgur.com/jl6UhlS.png

https://i.imgur.com/5tXG1Ri.png

https://i.imgur.com/OP5eCr5.png

https://i.imgur.com/AxUlgO6.png

https://i.imgur.com/sEF15ds.png

https://i.imgur.com/Eah7qZJ.png

https://i.imgur.com/wFItSLv.png

https://i.imgur.com/7RfTBUT.png[IMG]

When I took off the roof access panel, there was quite a bit of pollution up there. May be past its prime, but not sure yet.

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/hRQLjYc.png

Using plenty of anti-seize and torque spec +5% I assembled the front end suspension. Josh at Delorean Industries sent me the instructions again (because I lost them. Oops.) But I did have all the parts which is the important part. It looks SO GOOD coming back together.

https://i.imgur.com/nPxUbEz.png

https://i.imgur.com/Y6ZSTDh.png

I also took the opportunity to take more shots of the stripped down exterior...

https://i.imgur.com/7OGCPO2.png

https://i.imgur.com/7TPAqnX.png

https://i.imgur.com/LYKa91A.png

https://i.imgur.com/CwgplUE.png

https://i.imgur.com/F8NSuwf.png

And finally the image you've all been waiting for .. The image that makes going backwards possible, Marty. Made from CAD and imported into the real world as a prototype PLA part while I check fitment... The reverse polarizer.

https://i.imgur.com/ZpX8fLL.png

More deets to come soon. I just started a new job next week so I may be a bit slow going forward. But this project is still going alive and well.

[bitMuse]

I am long overdue for an update. Sorry guys! As aforementioned I got a job, and then .. my daily's engine exploded when I threw a crankshaft bearing so I was out of commish for even longer. Unable to catch a break, I now am moving across the entire country which means I need to get this thing together and FAST.

https://i.imgur.com/6XUi0vq.jpg

So after we slapdashed some wheels onto the frame and wheeled it outside we gave the car a nice simple green bath and powerwashing to remove the remaining cruft and began reassembly.

Priorities became in order:

Prep the body
Get Wheels On
Add Parking Brake
Mount Engine
Mount Body


While waiting for some parts to arrive and while my buddy was reassembling the rear suspension I took the time to clean up some of the mounting holes and hardware from the body of the car.

https://i.imgur.com/KbUd1h6.jpg
First came the mounting brackets for the heat shield of the engine bay. I'm not convinced I need that anymore when I have a water-cooled electric motor so I drilled out the rivets and tossed them.

https://i.imgur.com/m6lKALB.jpg
Unsurprisingly the 26 rivnuts by the kick panels on the sides were just trashed. Every single one of them seized and rusted or spinning in the frame. I took the easy way out and cut them all off with an angle grinder, die ground them down, and punched them into the body. They'll be replaced soon with stainless steel or aluminum rivnuts to never become a problem again hopefully.

https://i.imgur.com/3QP5Krr.jpg
The supposedly aluminum flanges for the seat pass-thru bolts were corroded and the metal that used to be my parking brake was effectively gone.

https://i.imgur.com/n2xbAhr.jpg
I made an attempt to clean up the flanges for the seats but two of them were so corroded they literally split in half and fell out of the car. So I designed new flanges and have had them sent off to a fabricator to be made out of 316 stainless.

https://i.imgur.com/ptzXpXe.png
Here's that DXF if anyone ever needs to fabricate one.

The old bolts for the parking brake were cut loose and the metal removed.

https://i.imgur.com/qkf70HZ.jpg
Thanks to everyone at DMC Midwest they sent me a spare parking brake caliper which I generously took pictures of the inside of before wirewheeling and cleaning up all the corroded parts.

https://i.imgur.com/PY773hU.png
Not all of the parts were readily available to rebuild the parking brake assembly. Some of them like this spring bolt needed to be fabricated from what was on hand and I did my best with an angle grinder and hand drill.

https://i.imgur.com/yndafPH.png
The parking brake is pretty terrible on the Delorean. Overcomplicated and confusing, but I managed to cobble two pairs together from the 2.5 pairs' worth of parts I had laying around. One day I will have to unify the paint and detailing of all these parts but that day is not today.

However before the parking brake can be mounted the trailing arm has to be tightened to spec and that presented a problem. The Delorean Industries trailing arm doesn't perfectly fit with the carrier hubs I have. The bolt length is closer to 120 or 130mm rather than the stock 110mm, and as such, there's also a small gap between the hub and the arm...

https://i.imgur.com/QWa7DtT.png

So some fabrication work needed to be done. I stick welded two washers together, ground them down a little, and whacked them into place on both sides. I couldn't find ANYWHERE where I could get the right bolt size for a 10.9, and definitely not for a 1.5 pitch. I did however find a partially threaded 150mm bolt 10.9 with fine threads at a local fastener specialist...

So I cut all four of them short using an angle grinder and bolted everything up to spec.

https://i.imgur.com/13G2jN7.jpg

With that I was able to more or less get the parking brake mounted sans rear caliper pads.

Since the last update we also added the control arms for the rear and .. surprise! The wheel pitch is correct and it did fit together with my lower crossbeam. Which is a relief. .... Because I never test fitted anything and never double checked my angles.

https://i.imgur.com/3WKVRlV.jpg

Now with the rear suspension and parking brakes more or less ready we finishing reassembling the motor and brought it over to the forklift. With some fancy lifting work we brought it over to the body and ...

https://i.imgur.com/9dWXMjY.png

Mounted it! With the wheels now firmly attached to the body we could let the car sit on its own weight with the new engine.

https://i.imgur.com/etlaStL.png

Tadaaa! This could not have gone better design-wise. The engine fits perfectly in the frame and uses space incredibly efficiently. I am so pleased with it.

Finally we were able to lower the body onto the frame for a test fit. The first time the frame was returning to the body in a long, long, long time.

https://i.imgur.com/S1XOsxf.png

There's still a lot to do to get this ready to be moved. The back lip has to be resealed with glue and riveted as the seam has come apart. Some of the rivnuts need to be replaced. The front and rear fascias need to be sanded and repainted. The door seals need to be scraped clean and resealed. And of course all the body panels and doors need to be reinstalled.

But for the first time in a while it's starting to look like a car again.

[FLUX @88]

great work! Thanks for sharing.

[Alexander]

Great project. There has been a few other EV conversion on a Delorean, but only a few...
I myself actually start my conversion .... today! I bought a 500miles only Delorean because I did not want to spend time restoring on top of the conversion. No rust, no dents or scratches in the body, nose/bumper perfect, rear panel/bumper perfect, wheels perfect etc. I have added 500 miles driving it without any glitches, except the AC that does not work. I have done a couple of full body off restorations and know how much effort that takes. You are a very courageous man ;-)
I am from Belgium/Europe where legislation is substantially limiting what can be done and what can not be done. Putting a Tesla motor is just not possible because I need to respect the original power range (luckily they look at continuous rather than peak power of the EV motor). The good news is that the instant torque of an EV will give a substantial boost to the driving experience, even if the peak power is not much higher than the petrol engine. I took a year studying and reviewing all the options and the legislation. I wish you all the best, and will follow your experiences for sure! I may start a thread myself.

[bitMuse]

Still not dead! Here's an update.

We managed to get the car back together in TWO WEEKS. TWO WEEKS. We went from rolling chassis to a chassis on the car with body panels bolted on in two weeks. With a working suspension and parking brake. That got it loaded onto a truck and over to the west coast, where we are now. It had to go in to storage for a bit as I sorted out a place to work on it -- also I needed a break after all that nonsense.

Now I'm back on the grind. Most recently I've been working on the battery pack. I had someone from Sentinel come out and do a 3D scan of the rear compartment. With that in hand, I booted up the ol' CAD program and started engineering.

I'm almost done that design now. I'm about .. probably 30 hours or so on this design. It uses a combination of flat pack bending, bolting, and tabbed welding. Using 3D printing and more. I'll be using a lot of SendCutSend for this portion of the project.
https://i.imgur.com/81sIC9K.png
For no particular reason, I am likely going to create everything out of 304 stainless. Which is unfortunate because 304 stainless is about 2.5x more expensive than literally everything else. The bus bars are solid copper, or copper sandwiched with galvanized mild steel. The windows are 4mm lexan.

A penthouse has been included at the top (and is the last component I have to fill out.) Each cell pack has four 6mm steel bars running through (one each corner). I used nylon (the white pieces) structural spacers for the central holes to take load off the lexan, though the lexan could likely handle it. It will also provide compression for the pack.

The penthouse contains the orion BMS, the TC charger/inverter combo, the pyro fuse, analog emergency shutoff, AC charging dual-throw relays, thermister expansion bus, CAN computer, primary and secondary contactors, and pre-charge relay. Having all of this in one space will make it suitable simple to work on, I am hoping.

https://i.imgur.com/uDWwVmG.png

Undershot image! I designed three support struts for the battery pack to lay on. I opted for a design that bolts to the existing frame, rather than a welded addition. Some minor cutting will be necessary for the rear bumper support. 9 M6 bolts keep the struts bolted together which has many times the rated sheer strength required for the design.

6x 6.4mm stainless plates are welded to the bottom of the battery pack, and these locate to inner bars which have their own interfacing plates to thread 12 bolts directly into the bottom of the pack. Additionally the vertical struts have their own 6 bolts, so the rigidity of the battery box helps distribute load to the frame.

https://i.imgur.com/qXboko6.png

There's still plenty of room left in the engine bay. For a flux capacitor maybe? :P

[jangell]

Thanks for the update! What are you using for cells, and how many kWh are you targeting? The battery looks smaller than I expected, but mostly because my future plans (someday...) aim for 200-300 mile range, which suggests something into e 80-90 kWh range like a Mach-E or Model S. I expect to fill the entire engine compartment and then some, although I want to avoid putting anything in the trunk if possible.

Also, are you building a cooling/heating system for the batteries?

-- Joe

[Helirich]

Very cool. Thanks for posting.

[bitMuse]

Thanks for the update! What are you using for cells, and how many kWh are you targeting? The battery looks smaller than I expected, but mostly because my future plans (someday...) aim for 200-300 mile range, which suggests something into e 80-90 kWh range like a Mach-E or Model S. I expect to fill the entire engine compartment and then some, although I want to avoid putting anything in the trunk if possible.

Also, are you building a cooling/heating system for the batteries?

-- Joe

I'm using SPIM08HP cells. Their characteristics are 8AH 3.7v. String configuration of 4P96S. Nominal voltage of 355.2v. At 32A that's 11366.4Wh, or 11.3Kwh. Max discharge rate is 400A (60C) Tesla motors use (on average) around 234Wh per mile, so it's an estimate range of 48 miles. Peak voltage is 403.2V, 32A 12902.4Wh or 12.9Kwh for 55 miles of range (est).

In my first post I originally called out this is mostly a 'temporary' battery pack while I wait for better technology, and the delorean isn't my primary vehicle. That remains true. I'm not using any cooling besides forced air. If you want a lot of range, plan to drop about 30-40k on battery, charger, electronics, etc. Which is totally fine -- I just wanted to save money and I went with the literal cheapest $ to Kwh option that was out there as I had an intent to later return to this.

You will end up needing to cut up the trunk. There is no way around it for that much power.

[jangell]

Cool, thanks. I was looking into LFP cells, mostly for stability and long life at the expense of energy density. But they're relatively small; I'd need 220 of them in a 2p110s configuration for 352v nominal. My plan was to fill the engine compartment as well as the transmission and fuel tank area, and possibly the pontoons if needed, although this puts a lot of extra weight in the back, and various custom battery boxes for the odd shapes. I haven't done any CAD of the design yet, so I don't know how much I can squeeze in those spaces before resorting to the trunk. I can drop the pack by 50v if needed to save space. I plan on designing a cooling/heating system for the batteries too, but I'm in the very early stages of all this.

In 10 years solid state batteries should make all this easier (half the size for the same range), but I figure I should design for what exists now and upgrade later.

Thanks again!

-- Joe

[r00b]

The pontoon in the rear is mostly empty, have you considered filling the space with batteries?

[bitMuse]

The pontoon in the rear is mostly empty, have you considered filling the space with batteries?

I did not, no. but it wasn't a design concern for me, as my batteries fit neatly in the butt.

[bitMuse]

Still been super busy. The car was at DeLorean Northwest for a bit with the extremely knowledgeable and awesome Toby. There we sorted and organized a bunch of my inventory, managed to get some body pieces back on the car, added headlights, repaired and restored a bunch of rivnuts, added a stability bar to the front suspension, among many other tasks that all needed done.

From there, I set up a little workshop here in my new shop which is a bit tighter than the old one.

To avoid boring you guys, here's a short progress collage of me building the workshop.

https://i.imgur.com/x5kO0pW.png

https://i.imgur.com/U3TkXIP.png

https://i.imgur.com/oADWdC4.png

https://i.imgur.com/6qTKYG5.png

https://i.imgur.com/LVTWqrd.png

https://i.imgur.com/sF2eCyx.png

https://i.imgur.com/PDquSbW.png

From there I went on to assemble the battery pack. I moved all my stuff into the shop, got some mild steel made for what will become the 'test battery pack' in two modules, and started welding and assembling...

https://i.imgur.com/b4s7pL1.png

I don't have a lot to say about these. This is the front battery pack module. I guess I could say these don't weigh so much when they're pieces, but when you put it all together it's pretty heavy! Who knew???

https://i.imgur.com/xCuYVMK.png

This is the rear battery pack, which I'm slowly putting together on the crane now and welding up all the support brackets.

https://i.imgur.com/brhnl0f.png

For reference, here's the CAD design:

https://i.imgur.com/apw5guk.png

Keep in mind this is just the test battery pack! Like I said in my first post, lithium ion prices would come down! And would you look at that???? CATL has dropped the price of lithium cells from 23k to 5k. I could already afford to put in an 80KWH pack, and in fact I have a design in CAD now to do that, but I'm going to stay on track and just get the car moving with what I have.

Mostly, aside from working on the traction pack. I am also working on the car's electronics, sound system, and interior so I can start getting things working like .. lights.. brakes.. power steering.. etc.


https://i.imgur.com/2crx86q.png

Here's the new deckboard designs I built up in my 3D scans. I'm using 5mm aluminum for the deckboards which I will bring up to half inch using dynamat on the exterior and carpet over. I eliminated both the storage area and the battery pocket to use as spaces for 8" subs. Which I'm sure I'm not the only person to come up with for that design. I've also added an access panel for the CANBUS main switch which distributes power and CANBUS signals throughout the car.

Rather than resin or body glue, these will be mounted using M6 aluminum rivnuts directly to the fiberglass clamshell.

https://i.imgur.com/CowkSfK.png
To help improve the sound of the subs and give me more surface area to mount electronics, I added 3.2mm aluminum plates to seal off the top air gap for the previous storage areas. These mount to the front and back of the deckboards and fiberglass shell to improve structural rigidity and remove possible vibration.

https://i.imgur.com/Sor4yhe.png

Of course, now that I took up the normal 12V battery spot I had to relocate the battery, so I made this little battery tray to relocate it to the engine bay.

And that's all I have for updates for now! I'm currently working on the main electronics board for the CANBUS brains. More updates to come.