Tesla Powered 33 Hot Rod

[Mastertech5]

Can't wait to hear now it goes on the open road. No vroom though just whoosh! That blue one looks insane!

[BradC]

Can't wait to hear now it goes on the open road. No vroom though just whoosh! That blue one looks insane!

You should hear that blue car run. It's crazy!

[BradC]

Brake and lamp inspection is done so I have everything to go back to DMV, and hopefully get a temp registration at that point. I have an appointment for Wednesday but I'll try a walk in Monday and see how it goes.

I went for a little longer drive today now that it's insured and got it up to about 50. I still can't get over the instant acceleration - it's sooo cool!

It seems good for the most part but I'll have some suspension adjustments to do as expected. The front end is a bit too low and the steering doesn't feel like it's self centering as much as it maybe should. The ride is firm but not as rough as I was expecting in the front with the 400# springs. I'll check the caster again but I may need to take it to an alignment shop. Not sure how it's 'supposed' to feel though. For those with finished cars how does the steering feel in terms of self centering? It's tracking straight but if I push the wheel a little it'll stay there.

[RoadRacer]

You'll find a LOT of personal preference in setups - I run 10º caster without p/s, and I find it perfectly acceptable for weight and self-centering, but my problem was never a lack of self-centering but instead too much tram-lining (i.e. following lines/cracks/imperfections on bad roads). That's a lot to do with my wide front tires though.

I'd still recommend a little higher than the factory recommendations though - and shoot for the moon if you have p/s!

[33fromSD]

Brake and lamp inspection is done so I have everything to go back to DMV, and hopefully get a temp registration at that point. I have an appointment for Wednesday but I'll try a walk in Monday and see how it goes.

I went for a little longer drive today now that it's insured and got it up to about 50. I still can't get over the instant acceleration - it's sooo cool!

It seems good for the most part but I'll have some suspension adjustments to do as expected. The front end is a bit too low and the steering doesn't feel like it's self centering as much as it maybe should. The ride is firm but not as rough as I was expecting in the front with the 400# springs. I'll check the caster again but I may need to take it to an alignment shop. Not sure how it's 'supposed' to feel though. For those with finished cars how does the steering feel in terms of self centering? It's tracking straight but if I push the wheel a little it'll stay there.

"Self Centering" and wide tires don't go together. With the super wide tires on the front, mine at least (I'm sure others do the same) tends to track with the road. When I'm on a super flat, super smooth asphalt road (very hard to find around here) the car goes down the road laser straight, I can let go out the wheel at it just stays straight. if I'm on the highway with those stupid grooves the put in mid-west roads to help channel the water the car follows the lines, if any roads have a decent crown in them, the car tends to pull to the shoulder cause it's following the crown.

Jim

[BradC]

Thanks guys. Sounds like somewhat normal but I’ll set up the alignment rig again and see where it measures after I adjust the front height up a bit. Which by the way is a huge pain in the arse with the tight space as I’m sure you all know. I had them set as much as I could do by hand but it needs more. I’m printing a cf reinforced short spanner tool for 3/8” ratchet to see if that will help. The Komi one looks to be out of stock. If it breaks I’ll machine one in aluminum or steel. Always start with the lazy route and go from there!!

[BradC]

The 3D printed spring collar wrench worked for a little while but then the 3/8 ratchet end stripped out. I'm actually impressed it worked as long as it did. Pretty cool.

I'm having some laser cut in stainless steel. I can machine them myself, but can't do the 90 degree inside corners for the ratchet extension. I'm making two different sizes so as the collar spins you can always reach a notch from the same access point. Anyone interested if I had more made? I was thinking $25 a set. I'll want to make sure they work well first of course.

Capture.JPG

I bought these vise grip pliers to hold the coilover threaded sleeves in place hands-free. It's so tight in there I can't keep a good hold on the sleeve while turning the spring collar. I wrapped the sleeve in rubber and clamped the pliers on - worked great and no damage done to the sleeve threads.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Mastertech5]

Most roads are crowned slightly for drainage. We used to always give the right tire about 1/2-3/4 a degree more caster than the left and 1/4-1/2 a degree less camber to account for road crown.

[BradC]

Most roads are crowned slightly for drainage. We used to always give the right tire about 1/2-3/4 a degree more caster than the left and 1/4-1/2 a degree less camber to account for road crown.

Thanks for the info!!

[Nigel Allen]

G'day Brad,

I know, it is a long way to send them , but I would like to buy a set of your collar wrenches.

Cheers,

Nige

[BradC]

G'day Brad,

I know, it is a long way to send them , but I would like to buy a set of your collar wrenches.

Cheers,

Nige

Ok, sounds good. I'll let you know once I make sure they work well.

[Nigel Allen]

Ok, sounds good. I'll let you know once I make sure they work well.

Champion

[BradC]

I went to DMV this morning hoping to get the temporary registration but no luck. Whoever the DMV agent had to talk to on the phone was insistent that I have a BAR smog referee inspection. Even though CHP and the brake/lamp inspection people noted it's electric. So I called the number to set up an appointment and they said it's a phone interview! Gotta love bureaucracy (or not..) I guess. So I have the phone interview scheduled for next Monday which isn't bad but still seems odd that they couldn't just go by the proof I had already. I'm hoping that will be all I need vs. then having to schedule something in person later.

[Papa]

Brad,

I feel your frustration. When I went to title my MK4, the DMV told me I needed an odometer disclosure from the dealership. I tried to convince them that an assembled vehicle isn't purchased through a dealership, but they sent me up the street to a used car lot to get the form from a dealer that had absolutely nothing to do with my car.

Dave

[BradC]

Ha - that's quite mindless of them. At least the agent at DMV has been great so far with mine. She was rolling her eyes on the phone when they were telling her what I had to do. And CHP was great too. Can't complain too much I guess. It definitely could be going worse.

[J R Jones]

Ha - that's quite mindless of them. At least the agent at DMV has been great so far with mine. She was rolling her eyes on the phone when they were telling her what I had to do. And CHP was great too. Can't complain too much I guess. It definitely could be going worse.

I went through a similar process with a salvaged (Yamaha) motorcycle. I had to pass the Sheriff inspection of the bike with my file folder of receipts. He expected a VIN on every (ebay, craigslist, and shipped salvage part) invoice.
In the third hour I shared with him, "The next time I have a similar project, I will bring five receipts".
jim

[BradC]

I went through a similar process with a salvaged (Yamaha) motorcycle. I had to pass the Sheriff inspection of the bike with my file folder of receipts. He expected a VIN on every (ebay, craigslist, and shipped salvage part) invoice.
In the third hour I shared with him, "The next time I have a similar project, I will bring five receipts".
jim

That's crazy..

[BradC]

I went back to DMV today because I read I could request a temporary operating permit since my brake/lamp inspection was complete. That was correct, and they gave me a 60 day permit which is perfect! Wish I knew to ask that yesterday but no big deal. I was in and out in about 40 minutes. Now I can legally make the yearly car show at work Thursday, cars and coffee Saturday, and euro Sunday (it's everything, not just euro cars). So it's the big debut over the next few days!

[Dan Cooper]

This calls for a celebration, for the time and quality of your project I think it is quite an accomplishment. Job well done sir.

[Nigel Allen]

Great outcome. Time to get those electrons moving.

[BradC]

This calls for a celebration, for the time and quality of your project I think it is quite an accomplishment. Job well done sir.

Thanks Dan! Now we'll be watching yours.

FYI to everyone - Dan is building 'serial# 2' with my motor/suspension design, but will likely be taking a different approach with the batteries to accommodate the fun Phoenix summer temperatures (needs liquid cooling). Looking forward to seeing it come together!

[BradC]

Great outcome. Time to get those electrons moving.

Thanks Nigel! Also time to figure out what's rattling in the trunk area - ugh. I don't have the engine rumble to drown that stuff out so you can hear EVERYTHING. All part of the fun!

Likely time to change the front coilovers too. I took it out last night again and I think I'm going to switch over to the double adjustable QA1's and longer 300# springs in the front to soften it up. I read through Jim's (33fromSD) post on it and it was really helpful. Thanks Jim for documenting all that - it'll save me the box of unused springs trying to dial it in.

[Tom Veale]

Hi Brad, Re: Springs, Shocks and weights....................

Now that the project is fully assembled, what's the gross vehicle weight, weight distribution Front/Rear, etc. My car with a Ford 302 Pushrod V-8 weighs in as follows:
CW_WO_05_2012.gif

The shocks/springs I'm now using were selected after several years of track and street use. Last year I dropped the front and rear spring rates down as I don't use it for track events any more. The right combination of shocks and springs make the car far more civilized than what it was initially. My soon to be 74 year old carcass likes the greater civility!

Best wishes,
Tom

[BradC]

Hi Tom,

That's on my list. I have a friend with scales so I'll get it on them at some point soon hopefully to see where it sits. I'm thinking it should be close to 50/50 front to back still but I'll find out.

I'm definitely in the 'more civilized' camp too. I have no desire to track this thing and I much prefer a more tame suspension. It's not horrible now but it is stiff. What shock/spring combo did you end up with in the front?

[Nigel Allen]

I feel that my roadster softened after a couple of thousand K's. I guess this is probably due to stiction on new suspension components?

[BradC]

Good to know Nigel. Thanks. Not sure I'm patient enough to see if mine does that though. I'll probably change the fronts out if for no other reason than to have some damping adjustability.

[Tom Veale]

What shock/spring combo did you end up with in the front?

You may want to do some corner and axle weights before selecting spring rates just to be sure yours is in the same neighborhood.

I am using 350#/In x 9" long front springs with single adjustable QA1 Shocks. (longer is good!)

DSC03657.JPG
Note that adjusters are at the "top" - shocks are mounted with the shafts "down."

At the rear they're 250#/In x 12" long springs. But, remember mine is a solid axle 8.8" Ford, not independent rear. Your spring rate and length might not be the same as my solid axle. Again, the longer the better as long as there's no spring bind at full suspension compression.

Tame is good!

PS: my weights were done by driving each corner and each axle onto a county weigh scale! It was + or- around 10lbs, so total weight and axle weights are probably the closest. Corner weights have the greater potential error. My method was to first get the car's frame 'level' to the floor. Then I drove to the scales and did left and right first. Then go corner and axle weight the car. Then back and make adjustments and go back and do the weights again. It took a few times but I got it close.

Best wishes,
Tom

[BradC]

Thanks Tom - appreciate the info.

[BradC]

Three separate shows in 4 days! Annual car show at work Thursday, Cars & Coffee Saturday, and Euro Sunday. Glad I was able to get it street legal in time to make them all. It was fun - LOTS of questions about the car, and many the same over and over. Ted G was out there with me (the amazing Cobra next to mine in the images below) and had a good suggestion that I probably should make a nice sign covering what's in the car. I'll have to work on that. Another friend suggested I get an Energizer bunny toy to set on the battery box when it's on display. I might just do that too..

Thursday
IMG_3142.jpg

Saturday (I only took one picture when we got there early - forgot to take more when it got crowded)
IMG_4852.jpg

Sunday
IMG_4874.jpg IMG_4870.jpg

I changed the caster to 8 degrees from 6 and it helped, but still needs more I think. I'll try 10 degrees next. I've found and fixed a few rattles too as expected. All part of the process!!

[jayguy]

Looks Amazing Brad!

[BradC]

Got the coilover wrenches today. They work great with the two sizes, so you can always grab a hole in the collar in the tight space up front. I have 3 extra sets if anyone is interested.

IMG_4878.jpg

[Namrups]

Got the coilover wrenches today. They work great with the two sizes, so you can always grab a hole in the collar in the tight space up front. I have 3 extra sets if anyone is interested.

IMG_4878.jpg

PM sent!

[BradC]

On to finding all the little tweaks I realize need to do now that I've the chance to put a few miles on the car. One was that my left foot didn't have a neutral place to rest and the space between the kick panel and the brake pedal was just a little too tight. So I shifted the Tesla brake pedal pad to the right a little and designed a dead pedal. Much better now.

IMG_4881.jpg

I got all my paperwork approved for the BAR smog referee meeting and have an appointment set for next Thursday. After that I can go back to DMV and turn everything in for final registration (I hope).

[BradC]

I went ahead and swapped over to the QA1 double adjustable shocks with 300# springs in the front. It's definitely a nice change from the stock 400# and fixed Koni's at first impression - noticeably more comfortable ride. I've only driven it a couple of miles so far because it rained a bit this weekend. I'll need to play with adjustments more but I like it so far. The ability to mount them upside down is nice too with all the adjustment up top where there's more space. I might do those in the rear too but not right away.

IMG_4892.jpg

I also wired in a switch to shut the power steering off to see how that feels at speed. If I like it I'll look into finding a solution to shut it off automatically over a certain speed.

[RoadRacer]

I went ahead and swapped over to the QA1 double adjustable shocks with 300# springs in the front. It's definitely a nice change from the stock 400# and fixed Koni's at first impression - noticeably more comfortable ride. I've only driven it a couple of miles so far because it rained a bit this weekend. I'll need to play with adjustments more but I like it so far. The ability to mount them upside down is nice too with all the adjustment up top where there's more space. I might do those in the rear too but not right away.

IMG_4892.jpg

I also wired in a switch to shut the power steering off to see how that feels at speed. If I like it I'll look into finding a solution to shut it off automatically over a certain speed.

Can't wait to do the same.. finally got to the top of my todo list

[33fromSD]

I went ahead and swapped over to the QA1 double adjustable shocks with 300# springs in the front. It's definitely a nice change from the stock 400# and fixed Koni's at first impression - noticeably more comfortable ride. I've only driven it a couple of miles so far because it rained a bit this weekend. I'll need to play with adjustments more but I like it so far. The ability to mount them upside down is nice too with all the adjustment up top where there's more space. I might do those in the rear too but not right away.

IMG_4892.jpg

I also wired in a switch to shut the power steering off to see how that feels at speed. If I like it I'll look into finding a solution to shut it off automatically over a certain speed.

Can't officially check since I just stored the 33 this weekend but I think I'm at 6 clicks on the compression and 2 clicks I wanna say (maybe 4) on the rebound. Like you noted Brad, the QA1a are night and day difference over the Konis.

On the rear I only went with single adjustable QA1 and those are set at 6 clicks I believe too. I'm constantly playing with the rears though, the fronts I think I have set where I like them.

Jim

[BradC]

Can't wait to do the same.. finally got to the top of my todo list

I don't think you'll regret it for sure..

[BradC]

Can't officially check since I just stored the 33 this weekend but I think I'm at 6 clicks on the compression and 2 clicks I wanna say (maybe 4) on the rebound. Like you noted Brad, the QA1a are night and day difference over the Konis.

On the rear I only went with single adjustable QA1 and those are set at 6 clicks I believe too. I'm constantly playing with the rears though, the fronts I think I have set where I like them.

Jim

Thanks Jim. I started at 12 on compression and turned it down to 10 today - rebound is at 5. I was thinking I needed to drop both a little more so that helps knowing what yours are. And thanks again for posting your thread on that. Saved me a lot of experimenting for sure!

[33fromSD]

Thanks Jim. I started at 12 on compression and turned it down to 10 today - rebound is at 5. I was thinking I needed to drop both a little more so that helps knowing what yours are. And thanks again for posting your thread on that. Saved me a lot of experimenting for sure!

Sure thing.

I know you have a cluster of batteries up front so I'm not sure the total weight of that cluster, but for comparison sake, I'm only running a little Ford 302 which fully dressed is maybe 450 lbs.

The only other difference I see, is I'm running full fenders/running boards but "maybe" the fenders / mounting hardware add an additional 15-20 lbs. They are not that heavy.

The fun of these cars is playing with it. I watched a you-tube video where a QA1 engineering said the best way to dial in the QA1 coil-overs to your liking is to find a route that has both smooth and rough roads and then adjust your shocks in small increments, taking a ride on that same chosen route after each adjustment, stop re-adjust, take the route, etc. etc. until your where you like it.

I didn't do that the first time so it was hard to tell if the changes I was making was getting better or worse, so I choose a path that had terrible pot-hole ridden sections and then very smooth sections and this is where I could notice the big differences with the couple clicks at a time adjustment. Once I got it to where I really liked it, then I tried to fine tune it with single clicks verses two clicks at a time. I was kind of funny cause the route I chose had a bunch of kids playing in the yard so they would give me waves / thumbs up yelling every time I drove by. I think I made 10-12 loops until I was happy with it.

Jim

[BradC]

It's probably really close to your 302. I never weighed it but the CAD model said 430lb for the front battery box. So with bike fenders, the shorter front end with the 32 grill, and a smaller radiator I'm probably a little lighter than yours if anything. Splitting hairs in terms of shock setting differences I'm sure. I have my repeatable route too. One of the residential streets leaving my neighborhood is a little worse than the rest for some reason so I go that way when I change something with the suspension. I pass Toadster's house on the way but I haven't seen him playing in the front yard yet.. haha. Sorry Todd...