Blog Blurb

Sunday morning is our day off together and we headed out this morning on our bikes to the shop to see what Royce accomplished yesterday for the Cougar. We threw together another project vid which was fun and is uploading now.

We wanted to post to say that we decided a couple of weeks ago to go ahead and cancel our hotel reservations in Missouri for the EVCCon to open up the room to someone else who will need it. This has been a slight bummer. There were a few reasons we're pulling the plug; the main one being, of course, that the car will probably not be finished in time. The other reason, a huge one, is leaving the shop for several days is just not an option for us, or for our help who is counting on making money that week. The final one is financial. We live on a shoestring budget and spending money to travel that could go into the car just seemed like shooting ourselves in the foot at this point.

We are hoping to be welcomed to the Saturday events in Cape Girardeau if we can take off on Friday after work to drive west, and spend a little time looking around the car show for the day seeing what other conversion folks in the world have been up to.

It's cool. We're happy project people. Our plates are filled to overflowing. And there will be next year, and hopefully many local parades and shows in the meantime once Bad Cat is off and running.

Here is something neat:

It looks like something off The Borg doesn't it? Note to self: Post a pic of Royce's Borg costume sometime, it was so kick-a.

This is a brake proportional valve. It proportions hydraulic fluid pressure from the brake pedal to the front and rear wheels. It effectively delivers 60% of pressure to the front wheels and the rest to the rear. It reasons that the rear lifts causing inertia and the transfer of weight gets shifted to the front, so the pedal pressure is reduced to the rear to keep them tires from skidding.

Most of these valves for the Cougars and Mustangs are relatively expensive, ranging anywhere from $90-120, depending on whether it's new or used.

I found this one on Ebay for $25, shipped.

Our Cougar is drum brakes all around. Royce is switching it to front disc/rear drum because disc brakes are much more efficient at stopping vehicles. It's the best option for a performance car.

New BadCat Video Update!

We hope you like it. Parts of it are a mess, we know, we know! We're busy people! :)

Upcoming!

New blog post is coming! Fresh, new video and lots of information on where we are at and where we are heading. The vid is rough and staying that way because neither of us have any interest in editing it, so try to extract the good parts and ignore the shaky-shaky. K&R

Hoping you had a chance to see Royce on this week's EVTV. If you didn't, here's a link to the episode:

http://youtu.be/jiBunCL_ywI

This was a great surprise because we didn't think the video was working. Video just hasn't been our friend through this process -and we're working on that!- but this time it worked (mostly!) and this is the result. Good fun!

If You Build It They Will Come

"Ray. People will come, Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up in your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door..." -Terence Mann in 1998's movie "Field of Dreams"


Okay, baseball metaphors notwithstanding, we headed west to Missouri this weekend.

This is the Bill Emerson Bridge that crosses the Mighty Mississippi:

And on the other side, for those in-the-know, is Cape Girardeau, the unintended (or intended? :)) Holy City for home-EV converts and DIYers.

We went there with intentions of assisting Jack Rickard to work out some irritating bugs in his Escalade with the help of a portable automotive scanner to track down issues through the ECU; but unfortunately, with little time there was little solution.

In the meantime we had a nice visit and took this photo the morning we left:

Thanks to Jack and his lovely wife for the hospitality and visit! We look forward to returning in September for the EVCon :)

Now, you know there is no place like home...

And with the painting done on the Cougar (DONE done!), we've crossed another threshold and the Mechanic will get back to EV engine work this week.

Blogging Assistant will work on figuring out how to make the sound better for the next vid.

Here's the Flavor of the Week :). Bob's '87 TVR Spins

New vid! And we know it's hard to hear. It was over 90F degrees in the shop so the fans are on HIGH. Just check out the overall vibe of tire spinning.