Buttoning up the Exterior

Even though all the BatMon boards are not wired up, I was itching for a quick test drive. It was time for me to get the wheels on the car and take it for a short spin.


This is the picture of my front hallway closet. I had originally stored the tires from the Civic in the front hall, but my cats licked the brake dust off the inside, so I had to put them in the closet. They didn't fit that well and kept tumbling out every time I opened the door.


As you can see, they just don't fit that well...
The tire on the lower left is the spare tire for the 914. The batteries prevent me from carrying in the car.


Okay, here we are installing the tires back on the car.



I re-installed the splash guard under the front of the car, but found that the new front battery rack angle-iron interfered with it. Here are pictures of the chunks I cut out of the splash guard to get it to fit around the front rack.

With the wheels on, I used the floor jacks to lower the front end of the car onto the ground. What!?? There's fluid leaking out onto the floor! I realized that there was still coolant in the heater core inside the car that drained out when I lowered the front end. With the front lowered, I used the floor jacks to lower the rear end as well.


Here's the Civic with it's freshly applied "ELECTRIC" emblem on the back! It drove out of the garage quite well.


And here we are, ready for a short test drive. The front suspension is a bit lower than I'd like. There's only about four inches of clearance, but I'm sure it'll work.

At this point I took it for an EV-grin spin around the block. Videos are here.

Many thanks for all the people who have answered my questions and offered support during this project. There still a ways to go, but things are looking good.

Best wishes,
Tim