Massive overhaul of 16655- including planned BEV conversion

[Ashyukun]

I've had 16655 for somewhere around 15 years now, and sadly the latter half of that time it's been parked because of the sway bar attachment to the front extension having rusted through. 4 years ago I finally got off my butt and got the car into my garage to start tearing things down to replace the front extension and repair all of the other rust damage to the frame. Since that required stripping everything off of the frame in order to take it to a local shop to have it sandblasted to get all of the remaining epoxy coating off the frame to have the bare metal to start the repairs, I decided that I was going to take the opportunity to also swap in a newer powertrain. My original plan was to use the Renesis engine from an RX-8, but as I looked into it I came to the conclusion that the rotary's high RPMs would likely not be appreciated by the car's stock transmission. At about the same time, I happened across a 2012 Nissan Leaf in a nearby junkyard and was able to pull the motor, gearbox, and electric AC compressor from it for a really low price (the yard didn't have any prices for the EV components and essentially said, "screw it" and charged me the price for a transfer case...).

It remains to be seen whether I'll end up actually using that motor & gearbox (it's relatively low-powered compared to newer ones) or get a newer wrecked donor car that I can also pull the battery pack from to reconfigure to use in the DMC, but it will have some form of electric drivetrain. I'm planing on making as many other improvements/fixes as I can while I have the car mostly disassembled. Current plans include:

• Adding power steering
• Completely rewire the car (I'll need lots of new wiring for the new drivetrain anyway)
• Fix (or replace) the roof box
• Potentially upgrading the brakes
• Custom digital dash (I had hoped to be able to use one of the projects others have started, but haven't seen much on those for a while)

It has been slow going though overall, but I'm hoping to try and focus more on it this summer. I have the frame back from the blasting company and just got in the new front frame extension from across the pond so need to stop dragging my feet and get the repairs made to the frame and working out mounting the electric motor/gearbox.

[Josh]

Jacob Graham fitted his DMC with a Nissan Leaf motor and gearbox. Perhaps he could be a good resource for you. The car goes by "AC/DMC" online.

I am interested to learn more about your restoration. Pictures?!

[Ashyukun]

Thanks! I?ve looked a good bit over what he?s posted as well as what I can find about the others that have been done. Probably the closest to what I?m looking at doing Bill Carson?s conversion using a Chevy Bolt, primarily because he just used the electronics (inverter, BMS, charger, etc.) from the donor car vs having to either buy or build them which would (hopefully) reduce the cost.

I need to go through the pictures I?ve taken (I?m not as good about it as I should be, I tend to get going working and not think about taking pictures) and post them- but here?s a very broad view of where things are after working on things yesterday:
IMG_6507.jpg

Yesterday I finally got the angle iron drilled to be able to put the front end of the frame on my very jury-rigged ?rotisserie? (turns out a new, non-ancient drill press and a fancy 1/2? drill bit makes drilling the necessary holes much easier) only to discover that 1. the angle iron on one side sticks out too much to allow rotating it in one direction, 2. the engine stands I?m using somehow don?t have holes for the locking pins at 90 degrees so I can?t lock the frame completely on its side, and 3. I really need to connect the two engine stands so they can?t yaw when I try and spin the frame due to not being able to mount the frame such that the CG of the frame lines up with the rotation points of the stands. Fixing that (likely using a lot of wood I have lying around) will be my next order of business- annoyingly the two stands aren?t identical so it may take some work (or my going to HF and buying another stand, which may make sense anyway so I have a stand for the motor down the line).

Next up will be deciding exactly what places on the frame need to be cut out and patches fabricated and welded in. Along with that I?ll need to work out how to best shore up/brace the frame while doing that so everything stays properly aligned- it would suck to do all that work and then have nothing straight and lined up. Just out m-of-frame in that picture is the box from Delorean Go that arrived just a week ago with the new front frame extension (the main reason all of this is happening in the first place?), the new front brake flex lines (mine were so rusted I couldn?t get the nut loose to remove them from the frame), the one brake hard line that broke when stripping the frame, and the roof box repair kit (which will hopefully be enough? I?d prefer to not have to replace it completely if possible).

I have a few options for what I may use for a donor for the electric drive and may have one of them purchased in the next week if it works out- then I?ll need to figure out whether it?s better to repair the stock engine cradle or follow in the approach of at least one other electric conversion and cut out the cradle and design and fabricate a custom one for the new drivetrain.