Monday, March 21, 2011

New Thundersky Batteries and New Tires / Wheels

March 21, 2011 - Wow, it's been a whole 5 months since my last post and I am so ashamed. But I do have a lot to blog about now. First and foremost, I have 45 brand new Thundersky 200AH batteries. Woo hoo!!! And they are a thing of beauty. But boy are they big and heavy too.

Apparently, I ordered them at just the right time as now I understand that there is a backlog of shipping orders. I ordered my batteries from Dave Kois at CurrentEVTech. Dave was very communicative during the entire process and used Google CheckOut to ensure my purchase. I was very pleased with the overall transaction.

A big FedEx semi tractor trailer pulled up in front of my house way back in January and delivered these bad boys. I tried to tip the driver but he said he'd get fired if he accepted it. So we packed him up with bottles of water and cookies. Here's a pic of the crates. They were dropped off on a single pallet.



Here's a closer view of one of the crates. I've already taken them out and thrown them away but they were very well packed with styrofoam sheets all the way around, sides, bottom and top. As you can see with some difficulty, they are strapped five together with steel bands and aluminum ends. The steel bands are attached to the aluminum ends with nuts and bolts. It was a real pain in the a** getting each group of five out their respective crates. The steel banding of one set kept binding with the banding of the one next to it and had to be brute forced out.



Here's a closeup of four I pulled out of their bindings to inspect more closely:



These batteries are 11in tall, 2 3/4in thick, and 7 1/8in wide. Each one weighs approximately 13 pounds. I've measured a few of them and they all seem to have about 3.3V.



Here's another closeup of a battery with a coke can for scale.



While having the batteries is a good thing, having a complete glider is another. The restoration process is almost complete. I just need to have a windshield installed (have purchased two off of eBay and received both damaged, thru no fault of seller but shipper, definitely buy the insurance). And buy the $1k worth of rubber seals. Ouch.

But I have had the brand new mag wheels that I traded the engine for mounted on the new Classic All Season 165/80/15 tires I purchased from Tire Kingdom today for $369.28 thank you. I was so excited, I could hardly wait to get them home and mounted on the vehicle and boy do they make the car look good especially after sitting atop the sawhorses for almost two years.



Here's a side view. It almost looks like the rear end is jacked up off the ground but I assure you it is not. It's the new 180lb springs over the new Boge shock absorbers that make it look that way.



The aluminum mag wheels sat for so long in the garage that a couple of them pitted a little. But they still look good. I know the lug nuts look rusted but come on, they are the original 35 year old lugs. I'll splurge and buy some new chrome lugs once I get closer to getting on the road.



I'm not going to promise but I will seriously try to mount the transmission and motor this weekend. It may be all I can do to just mount the clutch and adaptor plate to the motor. I'll need to rent an engine hoist so I can mate the motor/adaptor/clutch assembly to the transmission. And then using a jack with a transmssion mount, jack the entire assembly up under the rear of the car and bolt it in place. Ooh boy, lots of work. More in my next blog. Caio.

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