Are EV Conversions worth it?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 พ.ค. 2023
- My opinion on the state of electric car conversions and their place in the future of the hotrod industry. Illustrated with the help of the AWD Ford Galaxie, featuring a complete custom chassis using Tesla Model 3 front and rear drives and a complete Long Range battery pack.
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Yeh, well said! There are still many that don't get it yet but when you experience all the massive benefits of an EV powertrain you wouldn't bother with LS swaps etc. Keep up the good work!
Thank you sir!
You are so far ahead of the game its crazy. 100% agree that hot rod/custom car ev conversions are the future. Old cars with full chassis make it even easier. Except for the sound of a V8 everything else about them is far superior. Another bonus that most people have overlooked is that we should be able to use their ev converted custom car as home energy storage while its parked once we can figure out how to do it. No need for a powerwall. That's a big old battery sitting around most of the time not being utilized.
I love the idea of using the EV battery for home energy storage. It doesn't make as much sense if it is your daily driver car, but a lower use hotrod is a perfect example. We just need to get bi-directional charging standard across all manufactures. And, in Canada anyway, have the power companies figure out the anti-islanding....
@@519Kustomz Yep . Not ideal for a daily however most custom cars/hot rods hardly get driven in my experience. Especially if you have more than one like many of us do. V2G/islanding in Australia is a few years away but with such a large battery l think this would support an offgrid system easily thus eliminating the islanding issue.
That’s what makes an ev hot rod so cool, it can be the daily driver! There are very little downsides. Oh hadn’t got that far in the video! Haha
Yes - and a PowerWall only stores 11kwh, whereas your car might have a useful storage range (10% - 85%) of 5 to 8 times as much.
Just stubmbled across your channel. HOLY MOLEY! that is an amazing build. Most EV swappers build custom battery boxes from the trunk and engine compartment. Your solution for unibody cars is amazing! Where is the build video for the Galaxy?
Thanks! I have a couple videos of the galaxie, but I built it before I decided to try TH-cam, so almost all of the build is just pictures.
I have some EV build specific questions and some more general scratch built vehicle questions.
1) A wrecker will charge $5K+ for the complete Tesla rear cradle vs. $1K for just a small drive unit. Is it really worth it to pay that much more vs. building your own cradle with the freedom to build your suspension any way you want it ? Tesla spindles, brakes, and suspension links seem more expensive than Ford so future repairs will also be expensive won't they ? I can see using the Tesla drive shafts as custom are very expensive, but why not just use the motor and driveshafts and source everything else Ford ?
2) Is using a salvage Tesla battery pack more cost effective than designing your own or just less trouble and already proven ?
3) With a custom chassis and salvage drivetrain, where does the VIN come from to get it registered and how does insurance treat a custom vehicle like these ? How would an insurer know how to calculate its safety, theft risk, fire risk, value if stolen or totaled ? If it was just insured as a Ford Galaxy (or Ferrari ?) wouldn't the insurer refuse a claim when they found out it was custom rather than what they thought they were insuring ?
4) For the Ferrari replica that will go on the skateboard in the previous video, will the A, B(rollbar), and C pillars be from the same 2x4 steel tube or something else ? 1.5"round chromoly maybe ?
All very good questions, let me try to tackle them.
For the most part we have been buying salvage title cars and harvesting the parts we need for the conversions. That leaves us with a bunch of parts we could sell off to recoup some money. Not the most efficient, but then we for sure had everything we needed. The cars these went into had dimensions that where very close to the trackwidth / wheelbase of the donor tesla so it made sense to use the entire cradle. The one I'm working on now is narrower so I am building the rear 'cradle' directly into the chassis and making my own suspension with custom made driveshafts. Using the complete tesla battery was similar in cost, but the idea was to use as much bolt on 'recycled' tesla components as possible. The registration is different everywhere. I am up in Canada and there is a disclosure process of the entire build to obtain a green plate and register as an EV. It retains the body vin number so it is registered as a ford Galaxie, but also as an EV. As far as insurance is concerned, we haven't had much issue yet. Full disclosure to them and they have been able to figure it out. As for skateboard chassis, the initial plan was exactly that. Chromoly tube frame ontop of the box chassis for rigidity and body mounting considerations. That changed after we received the body. Instead we had to get a donor unibody, strip and welded it to the chassis so we could use the A-pillar, windshield, B pillar, etc as the body was intended to mount directly to it.
Always a fan of your work Dan, can’t wait to see it in person
Thanks man!
Holy Crap!
That is so sexy!!!!
I can't wait to see more projects like this!
beautiful conversion and excellent video shoot
Thanks!
WELL DONE
your work is second to none, this is defiantly the future. very clean work. the hate is really jus the same as it was back when efi came in... "no soul" they say... right
Thanks man! yeah, the world will catch on to is benefits one day...
fantastic builds! i'd love to see an video on the BMS and other computer controls you used on your builds. accelerator, cooling and other programming pieces. dual motor S platform build.
Ill try to do a more indepth video but tough to get the car back. The customer is constantly driving it!
Love your videos bro! Quick question, is it fairly straight forward to close the contactors on the model 3 packs? Im thinking of implementing a pack into an off grid application but dont know if software varies from lithium/lfp or even if the new 4680's have some kind of special code or something.
Thanks man! In stock configuration, the model 3/y contactors are complex. It doesn't use a pre-charge resistor to charge the drive capacitors. Instead it uses the PCS boost converter to boost the low voltage (12V) to pack voltage. Only when it sees that will it close the contactors. Now if you are using it off grid, that is another story. You could just use the pack for the cells, and make your own HV contactor control. But, please be carefull!!! If you wanted to use the model 3 bms that is another problem...
@@519Kustomz thanks for the reply🙏🏻 there's a guy on yt that got a whole 400v volkswagon pack online and running with the solax inverter. Trying to replicate but with the tesla LFP pack. They are becoming very abundant and dirt cheap for the amount of storage you're getting😁
Hello, love your videos, just started following. I have a tesla model 3 and would love to do a body swap with a 1955 chevy truck that I have. The wheelbase is the same on both vehicles. What is the hardest part of these body swaps? What do I need to keep as far as the electronics, wiring harness, etc.? Thank you!
I would say the hardest part is execution. By that I mean making it look like it was all one design and not a bunch of compromises to get the result. I personally think that body swaps (cutting model 3 body off and welding something else to it) are the wrong way to do it. I think engineering the project from the ground up gives you a much better product overall. Everything can be made with specific intent instead of a bunch of work arounds. I remove most of the electronics that are not needed and run aftermarket controllers. Not the easiest way, I admit, but it has served me okay.
Hi man i have a doubt if i build a battery pack with 4680 battery ( 72 volts 78ah ) how much fast can i charge it. Max fast charging
Thank you 😊
Heck yea man good to see it driving, will you be showing more of how you put everything together?
Tough to borrow it back from the customer, He is basically driving it daily! I only took a bunch of pictures but the next one i am just starting will be documented way better. As always, I’m happy to answer any questions though!
@@519Kustomz Yea man for sure, Going to start this weekend hopefully building my custom frame for the Truck conversion.
Just hope I will be able to make some good frame joining joints for the transitions. Would really have liked to see some of your frame construction process.
Take it easy man,
Casey
@@TeslaRebuilders I havent made it to the discord in a while, ill try to send some pics of the frame construction. My insta should have a bunch too. I'm always around to bounce ideas off...
I have a galaxie that year and I'm curious if you build those frames to sell and how much. I see these wrecked Tesla's getting cheaper and cheaper at copart in the years to come as tesla keeps cranking them out. Also did you cut out the floor pans for the battery? It looks like that frame rail is really wedged in there between the floor pan and the rocker panel.
Yes the floor was cut out and modified to fit the battery. Ended up having to raise the seat height about 1 inch. This car being a convertible has extra reinforcing in the floor, the new frame rail is designed to fit within that factory channel with good clearance. I do have some fixtures I made for the chassis so I could make another one. As for pricing, that is tough... Maybe email me Dan@519Kustomz.com
What did something like this cost you to do? Awesome work!
Every one of these projects is different. I like to make full chassis to have the best engineered solution as possible. A realistic budget should be around 100K+ still
@@519Kustomz Awesome, I figured around that
Pandoras new box of business
If you don't charge us up at your home or shop would you be able to charge it at charging station because of the modification
It would not be allowed on the tesla network of chargers as of now, But we are trying a ccs mod that would allow it to DC fast charge anywhere else. Level 2 charging would work just perfectly though.
Excellent conversion but Not the future. Battery conversions are all well and good. There are two types. Converting a normal car or building a new chassis.
In the customs world which you specialise in thats all well and good and what you do is outstanding. You can make good use of a full battery pack and motors donated from teslas.
However in the normal world outside of customs its a different kettle of fish. Converting an ice car to battery looks a right royal pain in the arse.
Here in the UK theres one company in particular who do such a thing and they do it very well. But range is appalling.
Battery conversions aren't the future. They certainly are part of it but not the be all and end all.
Other fuels like synthetic and hydrogen will make a huge impact on the future but whete they win over battery is that the internal combustion engine will live on.
Yeah yeah electric cars are fukin fast. So what. ICE cars are too But they Sound oh so good.
I do agree that converting normal ice cars is not realistic. Cost for one major hurdle and the integration into the existing systems wont make it ideal. I do think the hotrod industry will move more towards the conversions. The more of the younger, next generation of hotrodders I talk with it is pretty clear that they have a strong interest in electric cars. If you can provide the classic styling of the older cars with the tech they are excited about, it makes for an appealing package. Now, for the rest of the world...I personally don't think hydrogen is viable for the passenger car segment. I think it has a place in the longer haul applications that are not as weight and volume sensitive, ie train, shipping, and long haul truck. Synthetic fuels are exciting but they ultimately still use complex engines and multi speed transmissions. The e-axle is such a simple, low component solution, we just need better batteries. Lastly, we need to be honest about how 'green' any of these solutions currently are, but balance that with the need for large investment to evolve them.
Electric classic cars gets good range out of their conversions. So does down at the barns both UK based ev conversion only shops. 👍🏻