Summary of the week

It was great to see so many interested students! We had great fun in taking a look at what we could remove and dreaming of what the finished car will have. Here are a few pictures of the awesome students!

First Saturday Work session

It rained most of the morning. I suspect most kids decided to stay home and dry, but Arlet, Michael, and Marcus showed up to work. We managed to drain the oil, remove the old air conditioning condenser and pump and all of the old heater hoses. We had to take breaks here and there because of the rain, but it wasn't too bad. Thanks to Marcus one of the work benches we have for the classroom is now enclosed to secure some of the power tools. It looks great too!
Everything is coming off so easily and quickly, we may have a chance to pull the engine sooner than I imagined. However, from countless times working on cars and other home projects, one bolt can create countless hours of toil. I don't expect it though, things were built for surprising ease to work on. Great engineering for the 1970s!
We brainstormed about a crew name in the hopes of doing new projects in the future. Who knows what we can do. We voted on "Los Rayos Engineering" which was by far the best of all the ideas we had.

Ironically, as I was set to go home, my van would not start! Turning over, but not catching. I suspect it is the fuel system as I just gave it a tune up, but it could be so many things! Can't wait to not have to deal with oil changes, filter changes, fuel pumps, exhaust leaks, radiator flushes, heater hoses breaking, and all of the other stuff the infernal internal combustion engine requires. Well, thank goodness for the school vans I was able to get home to get out of the rain. Hopefully I can figure out what is going down with it tomorrow, I would hate to have to tow it somewhere! $$$ Hopefully, I can spend more on this conversion than on keeping my other cars running! Until next post, El Rayo signing off...

Started with the Students!

We started on Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 for the conversion! I have a solid crew and more are interested! It was very exciting to go over the process and some of the procedures (mostly about safety) we will use. Some have a pretty good knowledge of the tools, but I began to teach what each tool was and what it was for. On Thursday, we took a picture of ourselves for a newsletter for Rotary International. They have generously made a wonderful donation to the project and they wanted a short quote and photo of the starting crew.

We had an example transmission and electric motor that I was able to borrow from a pioneer in a electric car conversions in San Diego, Mr. Abran Quevedo (Mr. Q). He is a retired auto shop and art teacher and I am currently taking his class on electric car conversions. He will undoubtedly be a great resource for us on this project. I taught the studens about the tools and I had a few dive in and take the tranny and motor apart. Next, the students took out the alternator, which was easy to get to. The car itself is great to work on, there is so much room to access everything in the engine compartment.

Also had some exciting news! The Southbay Expressway (new I-125 toll road) has made a donation as well! In addition, we have a donation of body work and paint from Joey Reyes from Southbay Dent Repair and Auto Service in National City. This is great news as we needed that before we were to be able to put up sponsorship logos onto the hood of the car.

The students will be creating a website and documenting via photos, videos and their own reports on our progress. In addition, I have a couple of students designing a logo for the project. More info will unfold and we are all excited about the start of the project!

Starting to work with students this week!

It has been long in coming but I am now ready to work with students on the project. We will officially begin Project Z on Tuesday, January 26, 2010! The interest is high and my hope is that I can find a way to give so many students meaningful ways to learn all of the wonderful concepts and skills involved in this conversion. I know that I have learned so much, especially about electrical engineering, that I have been more and more excited to begin the project. So far we have gotten more sponsorships and I hope that I can get a sponsorship from an auto body shop to help with the rust spots and paint. Since we have a car wrap being donated for the project when it is complete, it will have to be painted, a cost that I had neglected to calculate! As the project grows, a website will be created and you will hear from other students about the progress of the project. Here is until next time you hear from me, after we have begun! Let's hope that the rain does not come as it has been extremely stormy the past two weeks.

Moved the car to school!

I have now committed further to the project! On Saturday morning (January 9th, 2010) I had the car towed to school. We will begin with the after school program on January 25th! Recent developments are that I am taking an Electric Car Conversion class which is giving me a preview of what I have to look forward to. This has been great to see where other people have converted cars and hit some challenges. Makes me more optimistic than ever too.

Attached is a picture of the car at school! Until later...

Gas tank removed!

Finally got the gas tank strap bolts removed.. From there it was a pretty simple process of removing the tank. First step is done! Here is a picture of the tank (looks to be in great condition) and underneath with no tank! This will be fun removing all of the un-needed parts. I wish I could pile them all up when I am done and take a picture! However, I will want to get rid of them as soon as I can to keep our project neat... Next, anti-freeze drained, then off to park it at school!

Finally back to working on the Z

After a very long and busy fall semester, I am getting a chance to work on removing the gas tank and anti-freeze. I was hoping that there was only going to be a couple of gallons of gas, but unfortunately there was 7 gallons! It took awhile to drain it and store it in tanks and I am disposing of it safely. My hands, despite having latex gloves on (the gas destroyed them!), were dried up and itchy for a couple of days after handling the gasoline. The tank strap bolts are fairly frozen up so I am working on loosening those up. Looks like I may have a trade of the gas tank for an interior door panel and steering column cover. However, how do I ship a gas tank? I imagine lots of duct tape...