Rust Patrol

POR-15 is amazing.  The floor pan and  the front firewall  look great.  I’ll post pictures after the pedal cluster comes back from being rebuilt by Eric Shea.  Lesson learned: do not use an expensive brush to apply POR-15.  Next time it will be the 3-for-a-dollar  Chinese made brush set from Dollar Tree.

Next I decided to attack the engine compartment.  I removed the rubber weather stripping, air deflectors, and the old battery tray.  Removing the tray was a lot easier than anticipated, thanks to a reciprocating saw and a very sharp chisel.  The “hell hole” wasn’t hellish, afterall.  In fact, it was surprisingly rust-free.  Here’s a couple of pictures:

I used a grinder, wire brush drill attachment, an assortment of  manual wire brushes, and the chisel to clean up the area.  Treated with the POR-15 prep regimen, misted the area with a garden hose, and blow dried with a shop vac.  Now it should be ready for painting, maybe in the next day or two as time permits.

My license plates are here.  Hmmmm, guess what it means?

How it all began …

OK, I’m a slow starter.  My interest in electric vehicles go way back to the late 1980’s.  Back then I worked for Pacific Bell in San Ramon, California.  Even in a building complex with 5,000+ employees, one gets to notice a bright red Karmann Ghia whose owner isn’t very shy about promoting the fact that it is battery powered.  Heck, it even had a hair dryer serving as window defroster!  Way too cool!  So, I joined the Electric Auto Association, with the intention of converting a cool donor car to electric.  I procrastinated, and eventually my interest waned, just as my membership with EAA expired.

So, what renewed this interest, hmmm, ~17 years later?  My 2.1KW rooftop solar power plant installed in 2003 is a big factor.  Selling excess power to the utility during the day and buying it back at a steep discount at night to ”fill ‘er up” is way too tempting.    Plus my commute to work is now a whopping 10 miles a day, round trip.  Add another 10 – 20 miles if I do errands or see clients in town, and now, we’re talking.  An electric vehicle now makes perfect sense.

Even clean power needs cleaning:

Here’s the inspiration: