ElectroMods

[Eneto-55]

If this is too political, I would understand.  But Hemmings recently ran this article, asking what classic car would be your choice to convert to electric.  I personally find the idea completely unappealing, but would be interested to hear what you all think.  I used to subscribe to Hemmings Classic Car, and only stopped it because I was accumulating quite a stack of the magazines, and realized that I would never be able to throw any of them out, so I had to stop getting them altogether.  (Yes, I'm a bit nuts.)  But more recently the email articles they send out are getting more & more into vehicles so recent that I rarely find anything of interest anymore.  Recently, however, there was a very interesting article about a 28 Chevrolet boat-tail racer.  Not that I'm interested in Chevrolets, but I have been an enthusiast of pre-war racers as long as far back as JR High or HS.  (very early 70's).  

 

Here's the link to the article about converting old vehicles into electric cars.

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2020/11/04/open-diff-which-vehicles-make-the-most-sense-to-electromod?utm_medium=email&utm_source=transactional&utm_campaign=blog-subscribe-to-comments

 

I'm just surprised at the responses made there so far, that people are so favorable to this idea. 

[1950 Special Deluxe]

Why convert a Classic?

They are not a new idea.

I just joined the EV Revolution.

1980 Comuta-car.

 

[Plymouthy Adams]

enclosed golf cart...be good when playing a round in cold weather...

[plymjim]

  Let's flip this on it's head. Several years ago I saw, in a rod magazine,

a brass era electric car powered by a small block Chevy. Now that

should get the purist's attention. 

  Makes my head hurt thinking where to put all the batteries in a

De Soto Air Flow coupe. This is probably a really bad idea. 

  The electricity idea didn't work out so well for Dr. Frankenstein

now did it!

[Plymouthy Adams]

all I have to say about battery cars is right here.....most of us will not see a battery vehicle until it is a powered wheel chair/handicap scooter...then they will be too fast for many....

 

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=crmas&p=you+tube%2C+julia+dreyfus%2C+battery+car#id=1&vid=e9964fbf24e20aa42a5220eb23d30308&action=click

[plymouthcranbrook]

Sadly although I do get a vote on this it most likely won’t mean much. I am not a fan of electric vehicles in general and modded old cars in particular.  Just don’t see the reasoning behind it.   I apparently foolishly thought the reason behind driving an old car was to experience/relive the past for enjoyment.  We sure are not running low on gas and the relatively few gas powered old cars are not in my opinion destroying the environment.  

[DJ194950]

1 hour ago, Plymouthy Adams said:

all I have to say about battery cars is right here.....most of us will not see a battery vehicle until it is a powered wheel chair/handicap scooter...then they will be too fast for many....

 

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=crmas&p=you+tube%2C+julia+dreyfus%2C+battery+car#id=1&vid=e9964fbf24e20aa42a5220eb23d30308&action=click

They were Not even rechargeable batteries! Must at least be rechargeable, might take a bit between trips though?

 

DJ

[Ulu]

They have announced that here in California they’re going to make gasoline cars illegal, so I’m gonna start trying to figure out how to convert mine to run on moonshine made from lawn clippings. I can get all the free lawn clippings I want from my Gardener.

 

You wouldn’t want to drink this stuff but it might be 0K to run in a car. 

[Eneto-55]

9 hours ago, Ulu said:

They have announced that here in California they’re going to make gasoline cars illegal, so I’m gonna start trying to figure out how to convert mine to run on moonshine made from lawn clippings. I can get all the free lawn clippings I want from my Gardener.

 

You wouldn’t want to drink this stuff but it might be 0K to run in a car. 

I don't know what all is involved with it (or if it would be legal in this country), but a common conversion in Brazil was to use propane (the type used in gas grills).  It must not be too complicated, because as I understand it was done in small shops and even individually, at home.

[TodFitch]

I hope this topic does not become too political and need to be locked. Going on the assumption that we are all civil enough here that no moderation will be needed. . .

 

15 hours ago, plymjim said:

  Let's flip this on it's head. Several years ago I saw, in a rod magazine,

a brass era electric car powered by a small block Chevy. Now that

should get the purist's attention. 

  Makes my head hurt thinking where to put all the batteries in a

De Soto Air Flow coupe. This is probably a really bad idea. 

  The electricity idea didn't work out so well for Dr. Frankenstein

now did it!

 

I suppose someone put a small block Chevy in a brass era electric car simply because it could be done. But there are lots of things that can be done that probably shouldn’t. I’d count this as one.

 

OTOH, putting modern batteries and battery management into a vintage electric vehicle does have some appeal to me. Might make it faster and almost certainly give it longer range. But I suspect it would not change the vintage driving experience as much as putting a modern internal combustion engine drive train into a car of the 1930s through 1950s.

 

14 hours ago, Plymouthy Adams said:

all I have to say about battery cars is right here.....most of us will not see a battery vehicle until it is a powered wheel chair/handicap scooter...then they will be too fast for many....

 

Probably where I live, but I see a pretty large number of Teslas and battery electric vehicles from other manufacturers (BMW, Nissan, etc.). Of course seeing and owning are two different things.

 

14 hours ago, plymouthcranbrook said:

Sadly although I do get a vote on this it most likely won’t mean much. I am not a fan of electric vehicles in general and modded old cars in particular.  Just don’t see the reasoning behind it.   I apparently foolishly thought the reason behind driving an old car was to experience/relive the past for enjoyment.  We sure are not running low on gas and the relatively few gas powered old cars are not in my opinion destroying the environment.  

 

+10 for not seeing the need or reasoning for modifying a vintage car.

 

9 hours ago, Ulu said:

They have announced that here in California they’re going to make gasoline cars illegal, so I’m gonna start trying to figure out how to convert mine to run on moonshine made from lawn clippings. I can get all the free lawn clippings I want from my Gardener.

 

You wouldn’t want to drink this stuff but it might be 0K to run in a car. 

 

I have heard nothing about making existing gasoline cars illegal. What I have read about is banning the sale of new ones. If/when that happens it will be years after that before the attrition on existing gasoline powered vehicles gets to the point where gasoline will be hard to find.

[Ulu]

It was a joke Tod. Do you think they'll ever make moonshine legal?

 

A gal of gas (tax included) costs 1/4 the taxes on gal of shine. (about $10 but maybe more nowadays.)

 

Regarding the propane conversion, I've worked on/with older propane-powered flathead engine forklifts. It's easy but you need a heater hose to warm the carburetor (which has a water passage instead of a heat riser flap) and it is very sensitive to the thermostat temp. Too cold and the carb can freeze even in the summer. If the thermostat hangs open or is missing, it just quits running after the carb gets cold.

 

They can be harder to start, but you just shoot some gas into the air cleaner. The system is uncomplicated, but subject to cold weather. Nowadays they surely have better enrichment devices and computer controlled injection for this. I was fixing stuff designed in the 40's

[Ulu]

15 hours ago, Plymouthy Adams said:

all I have to say about battery cars is right here.....most of us will not see a battery vehicle until it is a powered wheel chair/handicap scooter...then they will be too fast for many....

 

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=crmas&p=you+tube%2C+julia+dreyfus%2C+battery+car#id=1&vid=e9964fbf24e20aa42a5220eb23d30308&action=click

 

I haven't watched these silly repetitive TV situation comedy shows for many years. Been there, done that, already used the t-shirt to polish the fenders.

But that was a funny idea. 

[Eneto-55]

Speaking of "moon shine", our VW in Brazil ran straight alcohol.  It was subsidized there, heavily, but what I was going to say was a story about some co-workers who were about to run out of fuel, and the "petrol stop" they came to only had gasoline & diesel.  They bought a bottle of rot gut, dumped that in the tank, and were able to make it to the next station, where they had alcohol.

 

But your comment about the propane run engines not starting easily in the cold reminded me - our car had a small 1 gallon gasoline tank under the hood, which could be used to start it in colder weather.  We lived up in northwest Brazil, where it never gets below 50 at the most, so we never needed the gasoline.

[Ulu]

Around here people keep a can of ether-type starting fluid, but this is citrus country. It doesn't get too cold and only freezes maybe one day a year.