E-Stang
Thread Starter
2nd Gear Member
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 153
From: So Cal
E-Stang
Hi all,
I'm converting a '65 Convertible to an electric vehicle (EV). Here's the before picture, as the car looked when I bought it:
I can already hear the purists crying. Before you do, know that this car was 'ruined' as a classic long before I got it. The guy I bought it from had started converting the car to be a racer about 25 years ago. He swapped out the rear end (to a 9" from a Lincoln Versailles), beefed up the suspension, added four-wheel disk brakes, a T5 tranny, and replaced several panels, the hood, and trunk lid with fiberglass. Then he lost interest (or ran out of money) and the car sat in storage since.
I started looking for a car to convert a little over a year ago. My plan was to do the conversion myself, but I'm in the Army Reserves and got deployed to the Middle East. So I decided to go ahead and buy a car, then pay someone else to do the conversion for me. I found this car on Craigslist and knew right away it was the one I wanted! (My first car, bought when I was in basic training way back in 1985, was a '65 convertible.) The racing mods make the car lighter and stronger, which is also great for an EV.
The car is in a shop in Oregon now, being converted. I'll have the car shipped to my home in NY as soon as it's ready (hopefully in March, when I get home). The car obviously needs a lot of restoring too -- I'll do that myself. My goal is to use the car as my daily driver.
As an EV, the car will go roughly 60 miles on a charge -- more than that in the city, less on the highway. Its performance will be WAY superior to stock. Electric motors have a great torque range, even at low rpms, so 0-60 is no problem. The car should top out at about 100mph in third gear, which is probably as high as I'll go -- but in fourth or fifth, who knows?
I'll put some more photos of the conversion as I go along, but here's one of the engine, er, motor bay with the motor and motor controller installed:
I'm converting a '65 Convertible to an electric vehicle (EV). Here's the before picture, as the car looked when I bought it:
I can already hear the purists crying. Before you do, know that this car was 'ruined' as a classic long before I got it. The guy I bought it from had started converting the car to be a racer about 25 years ago. He swapped out the rear end (to a 9" from a Lincoln Versailles), beefed up the suspension, added four-wheel disk brakes, a T5 tranny, and replaced several panels, the hood, and trunk lid with fiberglass. Then he lost interest (or ran out of money) and the car sat in storage since.
I started looking for a car to convert a little over a year ago. My plan was to do the conversion myself, but I'm in the Army Reserves and got deployed to the Middle East. So I decided to go ahead and buy a car, then pay someone else to do the conversion for me. I found this car on Craigslist and knew right away it was the one I wanted! (My first car, bought when I was in basic training way back in 1985, was a '65 convertible.) The racing mods make the car lighter and stronger, which is also great for an EV.
The car is in a shop in Oregon now, being converted. I'll have the car shipped to my home in NY as soon as it's ready (hopefully in March, when I get home). The car obviously needs a lot of restoring too -- I'll do that myself. My goal is to use the car as my daily driver.
As an EV, the car will go roughly 60 miles on a charge -- more than that in the city, less on the highway. Its performance will be WAY superior to stock. Electric motors have a great torque range, even at low rpms, so 0-60 is no problem. The car should top out at about 100mph in third gear, which is probably as high as I'll go -- but in fourth or fifth, who knows?
I'll put some more photos of the conversion as I go along, but here's one of the engine, er, motor bay with the motor and motor controller installed:
