This morning, Rich came over, and he and I head out to where the Mercedes was, a little less than a two-hours drive west of my house.

Once we finally get to the address, we see a classic Firestone sign on the garage and a Cushman parked in the driveway - this is a good sign.

Parking the truck, we head towards the one open garage door to meet the seller. He was in working on his car, and the garage was filled many motorcycles, including classic Harleys and scooters. We think we like this guy already.

The Mercedes 240D was sitting right there.
We popped the hood and got the tour of it. The body is in good condition, but for one big rust hole on the drivers side, and some floor rot in the back seat. The engine looked pretty good, and the car had a new starter and a new (big!) battery.

We started the car (I still don't know how the glow plug light thing works). It is more steps than starting a gas car, but compared to what I have heard about diesels, it started right up.

This car has a pretty neat looking front end. The grill and headlights have a bit of style the way that mid 90's cars never did. I am hoping to be able to sell parts off the car to help cover some of the cost of the purchase.

Purchase? Where's my cash? Doh! I zipped the cash I picked up from the bank yesterday inside my coat pocket. My OTHER coat!

Um - sorry seller, I don't actually have any money with me.... Is there an ATM machine around somewhere?

He pointed out where in town there was a bank with an ATM. Now how much money can I take out of it?

I swiped my card and punched in a number of hundreds of dollars. The screen blinks "Processing"... and then denies my request for cash.

A receipt with "daily maximum exceeded" is all the rejection I need for the day.

I seem to recall from reading my bank's fine print that there is a limit to both the maximum you can take from an ATM, and a higher total maximum per day.

$400 seems to ring a bell.
I Request $400 from the Automated Teller. This time, I am rewarded with a stack of green crispy 20's.

Try Again? Get more cash?
I try, but get another Dear John letter. Time to stop pushing my luck.

We drive back to the seller and fork over the $400 plus another $100 we put together between the two of us. I promise to deliver the rest of the payment in check or whatever form the seller is agreeable to.

He's a nice guy and tells me that I seem to be a good character. We finish the deal by trading contact information and a handshake.

He also threw in a big jug of the original fuel he drained from the tank after he bought the car. I'm not sure if the fuel is any good or not, but a big jug will be great to have once I start collecting oil and brewing bio-diesel.

Backing out of the driveway, I have the first glimpse of how this car is a rolling....... OK - let's not call it a rolling death-trap. Let's just say that it's not my type of car.

The brakes on this thing are not good. "That's OK" I keep telling myself.. I bought it for the engine. I bought it for the engine.

However, bad brakes, a diesel engine, and an automatic transmission are not a good combination. That would be the torque of a diesel, a transmission that makes the car want to go whether or not you give it throttle, and brakes that can't hold it back!

After the second traffic light, I just started shifting into neutral before coming to the light.

According to the fuel gauge, it had a little less than half a tank. I asked the seller if this was accurate, and he had no idea. He suggested that I don't trust it and stop at a gas station right away.

We pulled into the first gas station we found, only to see NO diesel pumps. Hmm. They have diesel listed on the sign. Must have pumps in back. Sure enough, they do - ones for the big rigs to fill up at.

I pull up and swipe my debit card to pay at the pump - recalling that I may have just maxed it out for the day ten minutes earlier. However, the card does clear. The Lord's of Automation are smiling on me.

As I put the diesel hose into the car, I notice it is HUGE compared to a regular gas pump nozzle. This is a fire-hose of fuel pumps.
I jam the nozzle into my fuel tank filler as best I can, and flip the little trigger that sets the handle so it automatically kicks the pump off when the tank is full - which would be exactly ten seconds later.

Five gallons! In under ten seconds!? That's a big fuel hose! Guess that's the only way to fill a big rig. The fuel gauge still reads exactly what it does before.

The fun continues on the drive home. The defroster controls are totally unlabeled. As the windshield freezes up, I fiddle with the defroster controls, and several other mysterious black knobs that seem to have no purpose.

For a while, the defroster blower squeals away managing to clear a small view of the road. It eventually quits working all together, and I crack the window, Electro-Metro style.

On the way back home, Rich and I stop for lunch, and then fiddle with the car in the parking lot. Hmm, the odometer hasn't moved at all yet has it? We aren't able to get the heat to work. I threaten to use the restaurant men's room hot air hand drier to defrost my toes. Unfortunately, they only have paper towels.

A Delicious Cheeseburger improves my mood and we get back on the road, planning to stop in at a Community Supported Energy meeting. At the meeting, they are cooking hotdogs and heating a pole barn with a FEMA down-draft gasifier running on sustainably produced wood pellets. We take a look at their project technology and say hello to a few folks, including the two guys there who are making their own bio-diesel. I tell them my plan about the Merc-Chevy. Nobody laughs. I am obviously in the right place. We talk about the possiblilty of using the truck to drive around picking up restaurant oil.

Finally back home, Rich drops off my giant jug o' fuel and points out the fact the the MB weighs about a thousand pounds more than the truck. That's good to know. The truck pulling my camper should feel about the same as just driving the Mercedes did.

After grabbing my notebook and title from the back seat of the Benz, I close the door. Or try to. Why won't the back door close!?!?

I bought it for the engine.....I bought it for the engine.....I bought it for the engine....

Electric Car Savings

There is an amazing number of people converting cars to electric, and sharing the information by web-based video.

One of these people is Blair Fraser.

He's converted a Holden Barina (Australian version of the older style Geo Metro) into an electric car.

Not just any electric car. One that looks GOOD and has great range as well.

Just this morning, I got an e-mail from Blair that he has national news coverage on the car. It's a great story and sums everything up far better than I can.

So, click the video link at the top of this page to watch the video and enjoy.

Congrats, Blair.

To connect with Blair (Ipgas1) through YouTube, please visit: http://www.youtube.com/user/lpgas1

Dodge Neon EV Conversion - Battery Box Construction Video

Want to build your own electric car?

Well, you are going to need plenty of batteries. And where are you going to put them all? In battery boxes, of course.

Watch this video to see how the battery boxes for the Neon EV are built.

Electric Car passes Emissions Testing!

What a day.

Had to get up and hitch up the ol' Metro to the S10 for an hour's drive into the city.

I misplaced one of the cotter pins for the Metro tow bar, so I used a stock one from a bin of them I had. The type where you poke them through and bend them over.

When I finally got to the Technical Center and went to unhitch the Metro, that cotter pin was long gone. I later found it on the top side of the belly pan. I would need a replacement before I towed again!

Once unhitched, I guided the Metro across the glare ice of the test center parking lot and slid right into the front and center parking space.

Heading inside, and employee grunted at me to have a seat in what looked like their lunch room. A few minutes later, I was informed that I needed to fill out the first couple lines of a particular form, and an employee asked me for my keys.

Him: "Anything special I need to drive this car?"
Me: "Put it in second, turn the key until you hear the click, and drive it."

I was also informed that, due to insurance liability, I could not come back into the car bay area until they said so.

Uh, oh. Other people driving my car, then doing who knows what with it behind my back? This could go bad....


Fortunately, I was called into the back soon after. There were lots of smiles on lots of faces.

I popped the hood and did the tour, telling of the voltage, how I used a forklift motor, the whole nine yards.

I think every employee of the building must have been through in the next few minutes. They were especially impressed with the "gas tank charging door".

My "inspection" consisted of being asked plenty of questions about the car - "How far can you go on a charge", etc. and lots of photos being taken of it.

The inspectors were friendly and helpful, including giving me some information on helping out other EVers get their emissions exemption. I was even told that there was another technical center within electric car driving range of Tom's house. He will just be able to DRIVE his NEON to the test center when the time comes!

The inspectors told me that they get all sorts of crazy things coming in there. One car they saw was simply referred to as "the Hydrogen Bomb".

We had a pretty good discussion about alternative energy and transportation. The one inspector makes his own bio-diesel, and not only DRIVES on it, but HEATS HIS HOUSE with it as well!

The other inspector invited me to be a presenter for an future Automotive Technician's club meeting.

Once I actually had the A-OK on my car, I mentioned the speeding ticket and pulled out the newspaper article. They all got a kick out of that and ran a couple photo-copies of it.

It was great that not only did I find some decent guys at the test center, but that they were also very supportive and forward thinking fellows. Kudos to them!

So it's official.

My car is licensed, registered, insured, and ready to roll. All I have to do is put that little sticker on the license plate when it comes in the mail.

In some ways, this is an end; another crazy project under my belt. Another thing saying "Can't we do better?"

So what's next? Bio-diesel, truck engine swap, renewable energy co-op? Helping friends. I know a contractor who wants to get his truck going on bio-diesel. I know a woman who wants to convert her pontoon boat to electric.

We are still working on Tom's Neon, and after that, Rich is making a scratch-built EV sports Trike.

My garage still needs rebuilding. Perhaps straw bales with a green roof?

Things are starting to look up. People are examining the world around them and want positive change, and are willing to take it into their own hands to get it.

Can one little backyard project change the world?

It's changed mine.


Thanks friends for all your support on this project.

Keep it clean and green,

-Ben

EV Dodge Neon Conversion: Battery Boxes

Today, Tom, Rich, Brian and I worked on battery boxes for Tom's Dodge Neon EV conversion.

Tom had spent the week working on designing and building the battery boxes, complete with welding jigs. The boxes are hefty, galvanized sheet metal, bent into a U-shape, with dividers, and threaded rod welded on.

There are six boxes for the back of the car, each holding 3 to 5 batteries. We laid out the boxes and designed  supports to hold the boxes and attach them to the frame of the car.

This was one of those things that really made it feel like there was big advancement on the car. I know the same feeling as when the gasoline engine came out of my Metro.

Tom already has the electric motor and transmission back in the car, so it's really looking like an electric now. Once the batteries are in, it's a simple matter of hooking up the AC motor controller, as it's already pre-wired and bench-tested.

There's still a matter of battery chargers, instrumentation, monitoring equipment and more, but somehow, I have a feeling that an un-official test drive can't be too far away...

The 144V Open Source EV Controller.

Of all the interesting people I have met in my Eco-Adventures, many of them are from over the internet. I only know them by screen name and YouTube video.

Yet at the same time, many of these people have been amazingly supportive and helpful in my projects.

One of these people is Paul.

This summer he was converting a VW Bug to electric at the same time I was, and with about the same budget, on a substitute teachers salary. He chronicled his adventures with clever wit entertaining enough to keep you coming back to check on how his car was doing, whether or not you are even into EV's. His mechanical skills were even less than mine, which was encouraging. If he can convert a Beetle, I MUST be able to convert a Metro.

In a shocking twist, Paul is far better with electronics than he ever let on.

He is currently working on an Open Source project for an EV motor controller.

The concept is simple. Bring down the cost of home electric vehicle conversions by designing a higher-voltage motor controller, build it, and share the parts list, parts supplier, schematics, and all the other tips of how to build one yourself.

Paul is back at school and short on time and money. The time, well, we all have the same 24 hours in a day... As for the money, I think we all know that teachers are paid far less than they should be.

That's why I propose we all pass a few dollars Paul's direction. Put a few bucks in the virtual tin can to support the idea of us doing something for ourselves instead of waiting for Detroit, or expecting the Government to take care of us.

See that DONATE  button on the top-right of the screen? You want to click it, you know you do. Go ahead, all the money goes straight over to Paul to buy parts for the project.

Adopt a Mosfet. You'll be glad you did.

-Ben

`

New Years Resolution - No More Gas!!!

I started thinking about this a while ago. The electric car has been great, but I would really like to take it further. I really want to go all the way and get completely OFF GASOLINE.

I'm still not sure how to do it, but bio-diesel and waste vegetable oil seem like to best options to explore.