Dangle6060'/ 1983 Electric KE70

[Dangle6060]

Now I know what you are all thinking, a granny electric in a KE70 chassis?

Why would I do that?

Truth be told I was originally planning to put a 3gse black-top into a KE70 but I entered an electric vehicle competition last year and won.

I saw opportunity to have a project car and have it largely funded while doing something educational and different. So I toke that oppurtunity!

I purchased a pretty run down 1983 ke70 wagon chassis complete with mismatched steelies, minimal bolts and every thing of worth stripped off. Which you can see below

I did the usual firsts for projects: weight reduction and wheels.

I purchased some spitfires 13x8 front and rear which looked pretty good.

I worked on finding adjusties and new rotors for a while and came across MRP which had all I really needed in terms of AE86/KE70 parts I saved up my own money to get these and boy am I glad a did !

I did the normal welding and they were a first time fit with mm perfect percision. Couldn't have asked for much better than that.

I then purchased a twin headlight front end which I got rid of surface rust sanded and painted what I needed to protect it.

Nows the hard part with any KE.. Getting the front end to sit straight.. I've been told many times once you get it right NEVER EVER touch it not even move it an inch.

So after about a week of playing round with the front I was happy: Front suspension in, brakes on, and front end ready for panel and paint.

A few weeks past and I'm looking for bucket seats and some harnesses which the only place to get good condition and cheap in New Zealand is NZKW so I struck a deal with them and ended up with a hydro handbrake two bucket seats and mounts for little under 1 grand.

In the days they were being shipped the worst of all things happened, the twin headlight front end had been stolen right from under the roof of my garage. This happening destroyed me in and out, I got in two local papers but never recovered the parts and the police can't do much about it. So I moved the car to a more secure place in town to keep the rest of the project safe.

After receiving the bucket seats and harnesses I fitted them and boy they look beaut, still minor modifications to be done to get one of the bolts fitting on the mounts.

Discussion Thread

[Dangle6060]

After this I set out to buy a new front end, and to my dissapointment and probably yours it won't be a twin headlight as I don't have the 1g+ to spare so I asked around and sure enough I found a straight headlight ( I believe also called the 84 front) so I got the spruced up and brought some plasti-dip to make the car look abit cleaner

Then applied the matte black coat which turned our pretty beaut!

Now the project is about getting the f series Hilux diff all setup with its drums and air shocks into the KE70 which is proving a challange but nothing I can't handle.

Enough about the aesthetics and drive train, we need to talk about this crazy stuff we call electric powered.

[Dangle6060]

So a simple rundown

We will have 2x Warp9 motors series wound DC.

These are pretty much your electric forklift motors but pack more punch.

They put out 150kw and 360Nm each.

Any more in this chassis and it would snap in half!

They'll look abit like this minus the transmission.

We will also have a special motor controller the Manzanita Micro Zilla 2k-HV which is the EV equivalent of an ECU, this will allow us to shove 192v and 2000amps into the motors.

We also have Li-ion batteries 192v of batteries, which is 60 batteries with 160ah of storage.

The result will be an overly torque beast in a overly light but robust KE70. I call it KEV70 or just Kev.

Now I haven't talked cost much at all.

This KEV70 is largely funded by sponsors we have:

ETCO

Kumho Tyres NZ

Good ride Tryes NZ

Geraldine Auto Restorations

Barber Well Drilling

Electro flash

Hammer Hardware.

Along with my after school work at the local convenience store/dairy.

Which has left the project 75% funded. We are looking for just the last few grand to pay for batteries and we'll be ready in November to debut this beast and its 300kw and 720Nm of torque.

[Dangle6060]

So a little update on things going on.

I have recently purchased Monroe shocks but have a few odds and ends to get those fitted.

I also got the plasti dip cleaned up to reveal windows and some chrome!

The motors are in New Zealand on their way to Chrustchurch for pick up now.

The brake lines are going to have to be custom made which is more money to spend but nothing to harsh.

All looks good in the near future steady work untill the motors come then it's of to the engineer to get A LOT of work done.

[Dangle6060]

Today we received some really good news and bits!

Firstly I got the bonnet chrome installed! Although small really complements the car and makes it complete.

I also recieved the WarP 9 motors, Tyco EVC500 contactors and maintenance switch which will be off to the engineer next week to get installed!

We also meet with our biggest sponsor Peter, the CEO of ETCO who has opened big oppurtunities for the KEV70!

[Dangle6060]

So long time no update!

I have been busy aking the KEV70 up to Christchurch and back a few times a several trips too and from the engineers to only disappointment.

So the car along with motors spent two weeks in the engineers while they made motor mounts and did small odd jobs to clean up the car, last Friday. I received a call from the boss that he wasn't happy with the mounts that his engineer had made and it'll need to be redone which is a set-back but will be good to know it'll be done properly!

I have purchased the motor controller, charger and other major components which leaves us with only the batteries, a peice of copper and wiring to purchase.

I managed to sift meeting the co-founder of Tesla and founder of Wrightspeed, Ian Wright, which was a shouted dinner with other people who have invested in the EVolocity competition that the KEV70 will debut at!

We also have a changed plan to use 90ah Winstons in a 48s2p arrangement (2 lots of 51 batteries) which will give us a result of 180ah,173volts and a peak current of 1800amps which will give us less top speed but will allow us great improvement on performance in the future!

The car was also at the TEDx Conference on Saturday which I got to meet a lot of people who were keen to see the project finished!

But not as much as I want to see it finished!

[Dangle6060]

So it has been a long time coming since our last update and he has come a long way since then aesthetically and machanically!

 

You'll see below that we have changed the wheels to a larger 15"x8" manufactured deep-dished D shaped steelies, added an air dam which only has a temporary fit and wrapped the whole car in sign wrap thanks to our awesome sponsors ETCO!

 

 

 

As you may be able to see the Air Dam is not a perfect fit, this is due to the Flat Front and the Twin Headlight that the Dam was made for being a different shape and size at the bottom of the guards/across the valence. I was told by the guy who made it that it will fit but it didn't quite turn out that way, but o'well I made it fit and should last until I decide to buy another Twin Headlight.

 

 

We also have a collage of sponsors at the back which was a mix-up from the design company but still no real complaints as the car does look very good in the wrap anyway.

 

[Dangle6060]

Next we have the engine bay to talk about.. or should a say motor bay.. I'm not gonna lie she is looking quite empty which is really the glory of the whole electric thing, everything is low maintenance and compact. 

 

 

If you look too hard you may be reminded that a cable tie is a mans best friend 

 

 

Although it looks like there is only one motor there is actually two just one is shoved right back into our transmission well which was enlarged by our sponsors Southern Jets. You'll see this enlargement a little in the next post.

 

You'll also see two green boxes, these are really the heart of the whole operation under the hood, pretty much an ECU but 10x the cost and 10x the complexity.

 

The smaller one is a "hairball" and acts as a handy wee circuit for anyone to pretty much has no knowledge to be able to simply wire up the car in a day and not have to worry about what they did and care for any extensive thought or calculations and is what tells the motor controller, the Zilla 2K, how many volts and how much current to give to the Motors by how hard you are pushing the throttle.

 

 

The Zilla 2k is the loosely said the electronic fuel injection system which does what it is told to give the motor up to 365volts and 2000amps! But we won't do that quite that because I don't have the money spare to buy a new one!

 

 

There is plenty of info left out so if you have any questions feel free to ask and I'll answer them in a reply.

 

Pretty spacious for 300hp and 540ft-lbs I think

 

 

[Dangle6060]

The interior of the car is not quite so complex and giving exception to the 95mm orange wiring, the voltmeter and enlarged transmission/motor well it is pretty much just the stripped interior of a race car. 

 

Still Sporting NZKW Seats and 5 point harnesses, a SCA drift wheel, a stock handbrake for now and.. a reassembly stock dash.

 

 

You'll see we adapted a ignition switch which is for "race use only" and have some complex instruction on how to start the car.

Having driven the car with a heavy lead battery pack the first thing you notice is the massive along of the contractor switches turning on after you push the big button.

 

 

 

The contractors and fuses are in a massive acrylic box in the centre of the car about where the smallest tidly-wink would sit on your family holidays and are marked with a simple instruction.. "Do Not Touch"

 

 

For the next month we will be getting the new Lithium battery pack in, sorting out an electric vacuum (which happens to be a very hard thing to do for a cheap price) but after this is too get out there and get to some drags and track days to run the KEV70 in a little.

 

Completely open to questions or queries!