Coming soon, the greatest Favorit project ever! (Probably)

[favguy]

Hi all, sorry for the delay in updating this thread, but I've not made a lot of progress on the project before now due to problems with my finances and illness.

Anyway, as I havn't had a lot of cash spare to buy the main electric drive parts, I thought I'd get busy on sorting out the car itself, whilst I'm waiting, upgrade it a little bit to boot, then modify the body for the battery boxes.

The car was already very good, having only done just under 20,000 miles from new, but it did have a few knocks from its careless elderly owner (and his dog!) So I started by attending to the following:

* New bonnet was painted and fitted. The old one was a replacement following a minor collision in the past and had rusted due to having an inadequate paintjob!

* Removed, repainted and refitted the drivers side wing. Again this had been replaced before, with bad paint and fit!

* Removed, repainted and refitted the front panel. As above bad paint and chipping.

* Repainted both small panels above the rear wheel arches. This was due to minor scratching/dents, thankfully no rust was present!

* Refurbished and repainted all four wheels. lots of curbing on the fronts!

* Replaced the door bump strips on the drivers side rear and passenger side front doors as the old ones were bubbling from the steel inserts in them rusting.

* Replaced the front and rear bumpers with good undamaged used ones.

* Same for the rear mudflaps.

* Stripped and repainted the passenger side mirror housing. The usual alloy corrosion! oddly, the drivers side is still perfect.

* Re-aligned the tailgate, this had never been on right from the factory it seems!

* Also re-aligned the left side outer rear light, again never on right from new, tut-tut Skoda. I had to use stainless steel washers to get the light unit to sit right, then a silicone bead over the original seal to ensure it was still watertight. The rear panel alignment prior to spot welding appears to have been out from the factory!

* Replaced the drop glass in both rear doors. Owners Jack russel had been busy scratting at the glass!

* Replaced both the rear door cards with good undamaged used ones. Jack russel again!

So having done that little lot, which took me several weeks on and off the whole car body was worked over with Farecla G3 then G10 polish and the interior was hoovered, cleaned &shampoo'd, the results are below, sorry they aren't high resolution, my camera is limited (as is it's user!):

So now the car is looking like it just left the factory, it'll soon be time to start taking it to bits and cutting it up!!

But first a few subtle improvements.

More to come soon...

Paul

Edited 15 September, 2009 by favguy

[anewman]

Amazing work. You're obviously a perfectionist!

[Robshaw]

This looks like a good thread

[favguy]

OK, so I wanted to upgrade the car a little bit with a few useful and safety features, but still wanted to keep it looking completely original as far as possible, so all the upgrades had to look OE style!

I started by fitting front electric windows, sourced a set with really nice switchgear that looks like it might have been 90's era Skoda, in any case it's very in keeping with the rest of the Favorit door fittings. I also managed to shoehorn the system in, in such a way that allowed me to fit the switches over the original winding handle holes. This meant no blanking grommets and give away that it's not an original fitment

The next upgrade was a high level centre brake light, I expected this to be quite easy, but fishing the wiring for it up the rear pillar, through the corner of the roof, through the original hatch wiring grommet and then out the cavity local to the new light was unexpectedly difficult, and meant removing part of the headlining! The picture doesn't really show it very well, but again, I tried to keep the look pretty original, and I'm pleased with the result.

And onto the last visible upgrade. I fitted a nice rear parking warning system, It's the acoustic type that beeps at you faster and faster until you get a constant tone when you need to stop! Again, I think it looks pretty "factory" as was desired. There is no sign of the wiring for this visible, with the module mouted inside the boot cavity under the carpet near the R/Hand light unit bulb access

Although I can't show you any pictures for this one, I also fitted remote locking. The module also has a remote boot release feature, so.... a 12v solenoid later hidden in the box section to the side of the hatchback lock, (now I know what performing keyhole surgery must be like!) and the car has remote boot release for the hatch! .

I'm also planning to upgrade the car with an upper hatchback spoiler that was fitted on the Blackline (and Silverline?) Favorits, and am currently trying to source one of these rare beasties.

Externally, the only other modification is the Hatch lettering has been changed from "Favorit GLXIe" to "Favorit Electric" as you can see in the pictures. I'm also going to get Vinyl cut to replace the original "Flairline" decals with "Electricline" in a style that looks original. (I'm beginning to think I'm mad! )

Oh, and the original wheel cap logo's have been changed from the horrible black with dull "Skoda" script only, to the new style roundels. (Don't worry, no original logo's were harmed during this upgrade as they had all fallen off already lol!) and if you're really observant, you'll notice the metallic silver plastic, 17mm Audi Bolt covers on the wheel bolts!!!! Gives a really finished look to the wheels eh?

OK, thats it for now, the next installment will cover the beginning of the conversion process in ernest, and will include the removal of lots of parts, cutting of big holes, welding, painting, bolting & sealing. (Try not to get too exited now...

Paul

Edited 14 September, 2009 by favguy

[favguy]

OK, So now we get to the good stuff

The next job was to remove all the existing systems out of the way ready for the body modifications and fitting the battery boxes in the rear and mid sections of the car.

So the spare wheel, parcel shelf, rear seats & carpets were all removed and safely stored out of the way and the floorpan was carefully measured and marked up ready for cutting.

The exhaust was removed from the cat back. The centre silencer was modified and temporarily remounted, to expell exhaust gas out to the side of the car, this allows the car to remain mobile for the time bieng. The exhaust heat shields were then also removed. All the now redundant exhaust hangers were then removed or cut off.

With the exhaust out of the way, the petrol tank was drained and removed along with the filler pipe assembly. The petrol pump was removed from the tank and mounted in a 5 litre petrol can which in turn was mounted into the engine bay and connected up to give a temporary fuel source to allow the car to still be moved about whilst work is in progress. Next all the front to rear fuel lines were removed.

Now with that lot gone, we can start the really fun stuff...

The rear box was cut out using a combination of jigsaw and good old hand held padsaw where I couldn't get the jigsaw in. This was a little tedious! the edges were then all filed to get to exactly the right size and de-burred All the exposed edges were primed and painted.

Also got this bit left to play with

So the next job was to do the same again to the underseat section. This was easier to cut out using just a jigsaw. Again the cutouts edges were all filed to exactly the right size and de-burred. Due to the pressings in the steel at the front edge of of the hole, there was some additional work to be done here though. The edges of the pressings were cut and the steel panel beaten completely flat along the whole of the front edge. (This was necessary to allow for fitment of the box and reinforcing frame below later) Once flat, the cut sections were welded together and the area sanded smooth, cleaned and painted.

And yet another bit left over!

Before going any further, the original brake lines had to be re-routed as they now crossed the cut out for the box.

So the old lines were cut out and new lines were made up and routed around the box hole

Next... boxes and frames, construction and fitting.

[chrisw880]

This is looking to be a very interesting build

[favguy]

So we now have two large holes, it's time to make something to fill them with.

Starting with the mid box, this was contructed from 1.2mm thick galvanised sheet steel. Folded and then seam welded into a complete box to exactly fit the cut out. It was then etch primed and painted matt black on the outside. The inside was then painted with several coats of insulating rubberised paint.

An additional support brace was constructed from 20mmx20mm box section steel to give additional support to the frontal area of the box, as the metal this is being fixed to is only single skinned at this point.

The rear box was again constructed from 1.2mm thick galvanised steel sheet, folded, welded, and painted, but an additional reinforcement of 18mm thick marine plywood was bolted into the base to give additional support and remove any possibility of sagging as this holds two rows of batteries.

A support frame to interface the sheet metalwork of the box to the irregular edges of the cut out and provide additional reinforcement was again made from 20mm x 20mm box section steel.

Once made, the boxes and frames were trial fitted and all mounting holes were drilled through the boxes, frames & car body. Everything was then dis-assembled and cleaned. All the drilled holes were then de-burred, primed and painted ready for final assembly.

After drying, black polyurethane bonding and sealing mastic was then applied around the mid box aperture and the box was bedded into this. Both the box and frame were then finally bolted into place permanently using 6mm A2 grade stainless steel bolts of varying lengths to suit.

You'll also notice three countersunk bolts in the bottom centre of the box below, these hold the clamps for the handbrake cables. (previously secured to the bottom of the fuel tank)

A different technique had to be used for the rear box as it was not practicle to apply mastic between the frame and car due to the gaps at various points, so the frame and box were first bolted in, again using A2 stainless bolts, with the mastic seal bieng applied between body and box from the underside. Only a 1mm to 2mm gap existed at any point between the rear box and cut edge making this very easy to do from below.

The polyurethane used is structural in strength, similar to that used for windscreen bonding, or in place of welding for panel assembly on some modern cars, so will add to rigidity, particularly of the mid box area.

The final result, no more holes, and two completely watertight battery boxes!

So next we'll look at altering and re-fitting the rear seat to provide additional height for the mid box batteries, along with making the cover for the rear box.

Back soon...

Paul

Edited 17 September, 2009 by favguy

[favguy]

Right, time for a bit more. Now a problem I did have was I could only go so low with the battery boxes under the car, as I didn't want to go any lower than the rear axle and risk any bottoming of the boxes on rough or bumpy roads. This isn't a problem for the rear box, as we can raise the top section into the boot space as much as we we need to, but it could have meant losing the rear seat base to allow for the mid box battery height.

So what to do...:confused: Anyway after much head scratching, I figured out a good compromise. I stripped apart the two rear seat bases, cut them up, and remade them into one using 20mm x 20mm angle steel & 12mm plywood to make a built in box lid. After much welding, sawing and painting, it was ready for reasembly. I then cut the original foam for the outer part of the base and glued it back onto the ply box outer edges. Then using new, much higher density foam, I cut and shaped it to form the main centre part of the seat base, the hhigher density foam giving support over the now much thinner top section. This was again glued on, and a final 5mm layer of very high density foam was glued over the whole lot to help even out the differences in density. The original seat covering was altered and sewn together from the two parts making up the two seat bases and refitted over the now one piece base.

The result is a seat base that looks completely original, still gives some cushioning, but is harder to sit on than the original seat. Also, we still have split folding upper sections of the seat for loading odd shaped luggage, but we now have a one piece folding base. Overall, I'm very happy with the compromise, and I get to keep the rear seat and original looks

Next... rear box top

Edited 17 September, 2009 by favguy

[favguy]

Now onto the rear box top...

Quite simple this one, using 12mm ply again, a box top was constructed with the rear edge partially open to allow it to swing up over the batteries for access. The box was sealed then had matching carpet glued to it and trimmed off. It was mounted using two hinges fixed to 2 of the front box mounting bolts. Once closed the lid is held firmly secure by the two shootbolts that go into receiving holes (lined by nylon inserts to avoid rattles!) in the rear cross section as you can see below.

Very neat, simple solution, looks nearly factory and we only lose about 4" of boot height in total too

The boot carpet was then cut to suit and reinstalled, job done.

The finished mid box from underneath, rear box can be seen on earlier rear end shots:

We'll need to revisit these boxes to drill holes for conduit entries for cabling, and of course battery mounting at a later date, but thats it for now.

Next, Ohh... my Favorit bit, (pardon the pun!) the instrumentation :thumbup:

Paul

Edited 14 September, 2009 by favguy

[octimark]

WOW, nice project:cool:

Keep up the good work:thumbup:

[Babs]

This is epic!

[favguy]

I think before we get to the really exiting instrumentation bit, (and there's a lot to this!) we'll have a little interlude and I'll tell you about the charging point

As said before, I really want to keep the car looking as standard as possible, and for the modifications to look as though they might have been from the factory so to speak. So with this in mind, I needed to be able to keep the charging point looking similar to the original petrol filler arrangement.

This was my solution. Firstly I cut the top section off the original petrol filler pipe and entry point down to just the plastic screw thread and flange that sits up against the rear of the panel, under the wheel arch. This was nice and easy as it's made from a very malleable plastic.

Next, I stripped out the filler cap, just leaving the outer shell of it.

Then I got a pair of these :

The male plugs casing was modified slightly so the two halves screwed together with the filler entry in the middle. This meant a little bit of reaming out of what was left of the filler point until it all fitted together nicely.

The female plug was completely chopped up, leaving just what I needed of the outer female section to plug into the male on the car. This was then screwed to the outer part of the original filler cap through what was originally the key hole, using a suitable "dished in" stainless steel washer and countersunk screw. This was then finished off with a plastic trim cap of the right size and texture glued over the centre of the filler cap as you can see below.

The last task was to drill a small hole towards the bottom of the filler cap to allow for a small key I made to slide in and pull off the cap when it's time to charge.:P

I don't have a photo of the back of the cap, or the key at present, but I'll post one when I get time to snap one.

Anyway, I think the end result looks pretty slick, and it doesn't allow water into the plug terminals, when the caps on so, I'm a happy bunny.

OK, I think I'm going to keep you all in suspense for a little while longer before we get to the cool dash bits, and tell you about the heating solution next... as we will no longer have hot water from the engine for the heater, so any guesses what was done to provide cabin heat?

Paul

Edited 15 September, 2009 by favguy

[philc]

Nice to see some proper engineering going on -and this is the first power plant swap thread on Briskoda where nobody's suggested a 1.8t!

Cabin heat? I'd guess you're using the excess heat from the electronics somehow.

Phil

[favguy]

OK, where have we got to? Ah, that's right the heater.

Well believe it or not, this is what I decided on to heat the cars interior :

Yes, that's right, a hairdryer!

But it has to be the right type of hairdryer...

This is a dual voltage 120v/230v 1500 watt model. I chose this as in the 120v setting it will work just fine with 144v DC:D. This is because all small hairdryers use DC motors anyway, rectified for use with an AC power source and the voltage is in the tolerence range of the element.

The fact it's 1500 watt also means its really powerful and can produce large volumes of hot air quickly. I also chose this particular model as it's compact, so will fit where it needs to. It also had a three year guarantee, and although I realise I won't be able to take it back if it goes wrong! lol, it does hopefully mean its bearings etc. are up to the task of lasting a while, remember these things usually get used and abused daily for years!

It also had a heavily domed metal grill on the rear end which allows for both easy mounting in the box it goes in, and good airflow into the rear of the unit when mounted.

Oh, and it only cost a tenner in a sale!!

This is the component box we also needed:

Of course we first have to modify the hairdryer body considerably ready for mounting in the box:

And the finished article, all ready to bolt into the original heater matrix box:

The heater matrix box itself had to have the end face opened up a little with a hole saw to accomodate the new heater. The assembly was then screwed to the end, with a small foam gasket fitted between the boxes to give an airtight seal:

The end result works very well, it is activated by a 12v relay that in turn applies the 144v main pack voltage to the heater when both the cars fan is switched on and the heater slider is pushed over to the right to the heat setting. (Utilising a strategically positioned microswitch behind the dash!)

Ok, so next we get onto my favorite part, the instrumentation and dashboard alterations.

Paul:thumbup:

Edited 22 September, 2009 by favguy

[favguy]

Oh, just to let you all know, I finally managed to get my hands on an original Skoda upper spoiler for the tailgate as fitted on the Blacklines:thumbup:

Butts of Bawtry are selling off there new old stock on ebay and had a couple, so there is one left if anyone wants it... (they're like rocking horse **** you know!) About £28 with delivery. Just to clarify, that's still on ebay, I'm not selling it lol!!

Anyway, it's on now and looks great, I'll take a pic and post it on here for you soon.

Bye for now...

Paul

[favguy]

And here it is:

I think it looks pretty good, excuse the dusty car, it needs cleaning

Edited 24 September, 2009 by favguy

[favguy]

Right then, on to the dashboard instruments.

When considering this, I spent a good deal of time thinking of the best way to keep the dash looking as "factory" as possible. I also wanted to avoid a homemade look that so many other electric car conversions seem to end up with, especially with the instrumentation. Also there isn't a lot of spare room on the dash for the gauges needed.

I need to keep the original tachometer and drive this from the motor with a suitable sender, so this stays. The original fuel and temperature gauges are no longer of any use so they were to go. (This at least gives a little space for some of the new instruments.)

We needed to somehow incorporate all of the following somewhere:

* Voltmeter - 144v battery

* Voltmeter - 12v battery

* Ammeter - 144v battery

* Ammeter - Motor current

* Temperature - Motor

* Temperature - Motor Controller

* Individual realtime battery performance under load meters x 24! (for up to 48 pairs of cells)

* System active warning light

* Controller pre-charge warning light

* Motor overtemp warning light

* Emergency system disconnect

* Cruise control on/off & set switchgear

So with that onerous task, I set about planning where it would all go and the best type of guages to source. I decided on backlit LCD meters as opposed to analogue as they are more compact and the style chosen blend nicely with the original dash style I think.

It was decided that the centre left air vent and storage tray beneath it would be sacrificed to make room for the main meters.

The headlight adjustment system and bulky switch for it to the left of the steering wheel was also removed to make room for some of the new kit. This was really no loss, as it didn't work anyway!

OK, so below is the style of meter chosen for the voltage and current readings, these will go in the new centre panel to be built:

And the temperature readouts that will go in place of the cars original fuel and temp. gauges, these are actually much smaller than the above gauges, as you'll soon see:

The temperature gauges are only available in 5 volt form, so had to be fed via a miniature 2 watt 5v - 12v converter built into the rear of the instrument pod.

The 18 battery performance meters had to be both compact and arranged in a format that would allow for instantanious comparison of the whole pack at a glance, so a "graphic equaliser" style panel was needed for this task. Unfortunately no such thing exists as an off the shelf item, so I had to make one from scratch using stuff like this lot :

As well as the above, numerous resistors, capacitors, diodes & potentiometers were needed along with a lot of solder, wire, superglue and various connectors!

This is the circuit diagram the meters were built from:

Once built, this array will go into the lower centre console.

Ok, so now we have our components, it's time to once again start chopping things up!

I think we'll start with the new centre panel, back soon...

Edited 24 May, 2011 by favguy

[Babs]

This is just awesome!

What's the deal with road tax, is it possible to get it re-classed as "zero emissions"?

[yegnold]

AWESOME. Hth

[favguy]

Thanks for the compliments

When finished it'll be re-classed as Electric, which means the road tax is indeed nothing just like the emmissions.

[RobClubley]

This is excellent! Amazing work so far. Looking forward to the rest

[Babs]

Thanks for the compliments

When finished it'll be re-classed as Electric, which means the road tax is indeed nothing just like the emmissions.

That's good - was just wondering if you could actually do that, so this is good news!

[favguy]

Hi Rob and thanks, unfortunately you might have to be a bit patient, I've a few more posts to cover the rest of the work I've done to date, but now need to save up for the rest of the kit before I can finish her, it might be a month or six yet lol!!!

Regards Paul

[favguy]

So here we have the original centre of the dashboard prior to starting:

The left hand vent and oddment tray beneath were first removed. The left hand vent ducting was blanked off and the holes now left by removal of the existing parts were further cut out and modified to allow room for installation of the new meters.

A new panel was cut to size from a suitable grained plastic sheet. This was fixed to the centre panel and sprayed matt black to match the sheen of the surrounding plastics. The Ammeter, (top) 144v meter, (middle) and 12v meter, (bottom) were installed. This sounds easy, but cutting the holes needed accurately enough to have them all line up perfectly was surprisingly difficult, I had to throw away the first panel and make a second!

To the right side of the panel you see a switch, installed to allow the Ammeter to display either battery pack current draw or current being supplied to the motor from the controller. Below this were mounted two diffused LED warning lights. The amber will show system active and ready to drive (remember there is no noise from a running engine to tell you this!) and the red, controller pre-charging (a bit like the old glow plug light on a diesel). All the necessary wiring was run from behind the panel area and into the engine bay/fuse box as appropriate.

The finshed result:

And when active:

The meter backlighting doesn't show very nicely in the photograph, it's actually a very nice shade of blue as shown in an earlier post showing the single meter. I'm very happy with the end result and think it blends quite well with the overall dash styling.

Back soon with the original instrument cluster modification...

Edited 15 October, 2009 by favguy

[Jonny5ive]

Breathtaking. Really, your passion for detail and finish are amazing.

Edited 24 September, 2009 by Jonny5ive
spllenig