The Hybrid Convertible Project Prius v

The last two machined parts from my order arrived today. The round bar is for the brake pedal, and the rectangular bar is to mount the steering column. This weekend should get interesting!



Bill the Engineer

 

Oh, man, you had to go and jinx it...

Saturday was 90F and above 90% humidity all day with what seemed to be hourly showers just to make things soggy. It was so bad that my glasses fogged every time I stepped outside from my air conditioned house. Hard to breathe in that kind of pea soup. Sunday (today) has been raw, dark and rainy all day. Fortunately I have a tarp over the car, because the garage door dripped on it every time I opened it to fetch some kind of tool or part from the far side of the garage. I would immediately close it again so that the actual rain would not splash into the garage.



I worked on the new parts at the bench. The holes on the brake pedal bar were opened up to the proper size at each end to fit the respective pivot pins.



I also found out that my bending brake is only good for sheetmetal. I had to resort to the old-fashioned way (bench vise and sledge) to bend the bumper bracket parts. Not pretty, but it gets the job done. The bottom bend will have to wait until I dig up something wide enough to put in the vise.



Hoping next weekend is better!

Bill

 

Got the new steering column mounting brackets installed to test the fit.





I was going to do more, but then the skies opened up and I had to hurry up to cover the car again because of the occasional roof leak in the garage. Sigh.



Bill the Engineer

 

Gotta say, though, that I have been frustrated by the endless string of weather delays that have been slowing down progress this year. I am hoping for a warm and dry Autumn in Ohio to catch up to where I wanted to be before Winter gets here.



Bill the Engineer

 

Electrician's gloves arrived. Traction battery removal this weekend so I don't need to flip-out over every rain storm. Not willing to gamble with any residual charge that might still be in the battery.

Also sent two bumper bracket plates to a friend with a hydraulic bending press to get that pesky last bend made. I'm hoping I get them back by the weekend.

Bill the Engineer

 

"Special Statement
Issued: 6:01 AM EDT Aug. 27, 2016 – National Weather Service

... Very warm and humid conditions to continue today...

High temperatures in the lower and middle 90s will combine with
high humidities to produce heat indices near 100 degrees this
afternoon.

If possible... spend more time in air conditioned or well
ventilated places this afternoon. If you will be outside... wear
light weight and loose fitting clothing and drink plenty of water."

... well dang... no welding today...

I'll do what I can...

Bill the Engineer

 

Got an early start trying to beat the heat...

Now that I have the electrician's gloves, I got into the Traction Battery, disconnected the main drive cable, and removed the battery from the car. The hardest part was getting the orange safety cap to come loose. The battery assembly is also surprisingly heavy.







I then took a few minutes to trim back the edges of the Gen II Gas Door assembly I will be using in the near future.



Last for the day, I test fit the brake pedal parts and determined that a hole in the Firebird firewall needed to be made larger for the Brake Pedal Connector Bar to pass through.



Once that was cut out, I test mounted the brake pedal components for a fit check.



By that time it was getting into the heat of the afternoon so I had to stop.

I'm looking forward to the 3-day weekend next week!

Bill the Engineer