Rhino Liner

We had a great experience with Doug at Rhino Linings of Jacksonville on Friday.  We had the opportunity not only to get the bed of the Ranger coated, but to actually do most of the work!  Doug explained to us the chemical properties of the liner and also the fact that it cures in 8 seconds!  After prepping the truck bed, Aaron got the opportunity to practice before spraying our truck.  We rolled the truck in the spray booth and the coating began.  A short time and three coats later, the truck emerged with a beautiful hard finish.  Thanks to Doug for his time and training.

We have Power...steering that is.

Dakota finished mounting the power steering pump today.  All we have to do is plumb and wire it up for 12 volt operation.  Since we removed the gas engine and all components, the power steering had to be revisited.  We bought a 12 volt pump out of an MR2 that should do the trick.  The only issue we will have is the current draw can be as high as 75 amps, so we need to design a circuit to limit the current draw under certain circumstances so as not to tax our DC/DC converter.

Fundraising at Harris Teeter

Today was an incredible day of fund-raising at the Harris Teeter in Porters Neck. Every student who signed up for a shift showed up to sell their raffle tickets. We were at the store from 9am to 5pm, and the reception from the shoppers was phenomenal. We sold over $1000 worth of tickets for our upcoming drawing on May 6th. Way to go team!

Welding supports for battery boxes

Today, Casey and Greg took some time to weld the battery box supports on the frame rails.  The process went smoothly and now the battery boxes can be bolted onto the supports for the final install. 

1200 pounds of simulated batteries

This morning, we needed to find out how the truck will sit when the batteries are installed.  We had to do this to insure that the rear battery box would clear the rear differential.  What better way to test this out than to have 1200 pounds worth of students jump in the truck to simulate the weight.  We were able to determine the placement of the rear box and also were pleased with the stance of the truck.  Hellwig spring helper suspension bars have been installed and will drastically help out with the ride and handling of the truck after the addition of the batteries.

Kiwanis Breakfast

Five of the EV students showed up at 7:00am to the Topsail Island Kiwanis meeting in Holly Ridge to sell raffle tickets.  We will be giving a presentation about our program on May 18th, so Secretary Ray Barwick was nice enough to allow us to show up early and sell our raffle tickets.  We did very well, selling $202 dollars worth in less than 20 minutes!  We will be at the Harris Teeter in Porters Neck this Saturday from 9 to 5, so come out and buy tickets.

Long day, double duty

 

    Today we had two events to participate in, our raffle fundraiser at Ace Hardware, and Earth Day in Hampstead.    Six students showed up at various times to help sell raffle tickets and to show off the car.  People were very interested in the MR2 conversion and most were surprised that it was done by high school students.
   We have passed the $1250 mark for raffle sales indicating were are half way to our goal.  Next week we will be at Harris Teeter in Porters Neck from 9am-5pm.  We also will be heading to the Topsail Kiwanis club on Tuesday to sell tickets before their program begins.  All this and a truck to convert makes for a busy week!

Battery boxes have arrived!

We picked up the last of the four battery boxes today and they look great.  Thanks to Billy Vaughn at Wilmington Sheet Metal for his fne work and attention to detail on the welded aluminum boxes.  The largest of the boxes will hold seven batteries and will be located in the rear of the truck underneath the bed.  We still have to decide on a mounting system, so if all goes well, they should be installed next week.  Our 2/0 cable will be in next week as well, so we can beging the process of assembling the wiring of the system.

We have batteries!

Our batteries were delivered today.  We are breaking from tradition this year and will be using US Batteries instead of Trojan batteries.  The Trojan representative never returned our seven messages therefore we decided to go with a manufacturer that would provide us with a quality USA made battery and excellent customer service.  The US 145XC specs out exactly like the Trojan T-145 we have used in the past, they look great too!

The transplant is a success!

Today we installed the WARP 9 electric motor by attaching it to the Ford transmission. The coupler went on the transmission shaft as smooth as silk. We bolted the adapter plate to the transmission and ran the motor with 12 volts to see if all was well. If there were any problems, the motor would vibrate or the transmission would not rotate the rear wheels when in gear. Everything was fine and so we began the process of attaching the clamp motor mount to the frame of the truck.  Our battery boxes and batteries should be delivered today, so keep in touch!

Fundraising at Hampstead ACE Hardware

Saturday, we all had shifts at ACE Hardware starting at 7:30 am through 2:00. We were amazed at the support and generosity of the customers. Each student needs to sell 200 tickets in order for us to reach our goal of $2500 and Saturday helped several of the students sell half of their tickets! Thanks you to Teresa and Tommy of ACE for letting us share the parking lot for our fundraiser.

Raffle, Raffle, Raffle. Anyone want a Raffle Ticket?

We have begun our yearly fundraising effort to secure funds for future projects. The class goal is to leave the program in better shape than you found it. So, with that in mind, we have been working with Toni Castoro form Hampstead furniture and Jo Adcock from Modern Woodmen to create a fundraising package that help us achieve our goal of $5000. We will be raffling off tickets for a chance to win:

An Ashley rocker recliner

Webber grill

Kawasaki string trimmer

Napa $100 gift card

Framed autographed picture of Hurricane Eric Staal.

Tickets are 1 for $3.00 or 2 for $5.00

Woodmen of the World insurance company will match our efforts up to $2500!! So this could potentially be a very successful opportunity. We will hold our drawing on May 6th at our first annual EV open house.

Wheels!

We bought wheels for the truck this week. Richard at Midway Tire was able to get them for us at his cost, plus he donated the tires for free. Thank you Richard!! We mounted the wheels and tires on the truck just to see how they look and the response is mixed. Some love them and others think the truck looks "thug". Well, when all is said and done, and the truck is lowered down a few inches, it will look just fine. Let us know what you think. Like them or not, they are staying!

Putting it all back together

With the truck back from paint, we need to concentrate on getting everything put back together, painting the unfinished areas and also cleaning the over spray. We have a long way to go and a short time to get there!

Tasks needed for completion include, mounting motor, making battery boxes, installing control board and components and installing batteries. We are still waiting on our controller, which has been delayed due to manufacturing issues, so hopefully we will actually have a controller before the final competition in Raleigh.

Time for paint!!

With Spring break here and a week out of school, it seemed like a good time to get the truck painted. Harry Rowland at Rawls Customz agreed to paint the truck for a good price. Some minor body work needed to be done and a color change. Therefore, the door jambs, engine bay and under the hood required prepping and spraying. The truck was painted Chrome Yellow like our old Ranger, and it turned out great! I will let the photos speak for themselves.