This is the first post on my new blog to document the conversion of a 1984 Pontiac Fiero SE from a gasoline internal combustion engine to a battery powered electric vehicle (EV). This blog is intended for both electric vehicle enthusiasts and those who are simply curious. I therefore ask those who are in the know to be patient with any pendanticism on my part.
I first became interested in electric vehicles in 1994. I was belatedly finishing my high school at the University of Winnipeg Collegiate. The computer lab there was just beginning it's internet access. One could use email, but nothing else. I subscribed to two of the available mailing lists: the newsgroup sci.space in digest form, and the electric vehicle mailing list. Little did I know where it would lead.
Why would I want to drive an electric vehicle anyway? After all, their range is normally less that of gasoline or diesel vehicles, and then you have to recharge the batteries for hours at a time. Extended road trips are pretty much out of the question in an electric vehicle (there are ways around this, but most of them involve hybridizing the vehicle to burn gasoline as well). Also my home town, Winnipeg, is known for it's long bitterly cold winters (Winnipeg is the coldest city in the world that has a population over half a million people) and battery powered cars don't perform as well in the cold.
Well, there are a lot of reasons to convert a car to electricity, even (or especially) in cold Winnipeg including:
- Electric vehicles don't pollute. They don't pollute in a lot of different ways. They have no emmitions to foul our air. They don't drip toxic substances onto the roads (and into the ground water). They are quiet. Now some may point out that while the vehicle may not pollute, the power plant does. This is true when you burn coal to generate electricity, as is very common in the United States. However, I live in Manitoba, where we have abundant hydro-electric power generation.
- Our long, cold winters, leave us with a desire to find indoor hobbies.
- However, I think it was recent world events that have finally encouraged me to take the plunge and convert a car. This image says it all:
Ok, so why a Fiero? Well, the most honest answer is that I always wanted one. I first saw the Fiero in 1983 on PBS's Motorweek. I was 11 years old and that was when I started counting the days until I could get my driver's license. Now there are some downsides to converting a Fiero. It's a heavy car for its size at 3000 lbs, when the batteries are in the car it's going to be closer to 4000 lbs. At 20 years old it's getting a little long in the tooth and parts are going to be harder to find. And the small form factor means squeezing in enough batteries for a fun ride might be difficult. The car has is redeeming qualities though. With its very low profile comes low aerodynamic resistance, which will hopefully make up for some of the weight. Also, how many electric vehicles have the potential to look like this when they are done?
It took me a little longer than I thought to finally get my Fiero. As of Friday, May 7, 2004, I am a Fiero owner. After about a month of looking I found a car with which to start my project at a local auto-wrecker. It's a red 1984 Fiero SE with air conditioning, and power door locks and windows. I paid CAN$513 (taxes in.) for it. There were some other Fieros there for less, but the were significantly scavenged from already, and weren't rolling. That day I had it towed to my house for CAN$35 (total project cost: CAN$548). The rear decklid opened in transit, and got snapped over onto the roof. The roof is ok, but the decklid is not. Which isn't the end of the world since I'm not sure I would have kept that one on the car anyway. I had planed to install the Aero body package on the car (1986 and up Fiero GT style), and am now considering a Type 1 Ferrari kit as well (more on that later). The interior is in a well used state, which is fine as I planned on giving it a custom interior.
On the evening of Friday, May 7, I prepared my garage for working on the car. I took down the last remnants of an interior dividing wall that the previous owners installed. My 2000 Jetta fit just fine leaving some of the wall in place, but now I was going to need the room to work on the car. After that I cleaned the garage of a Winters worth of sand on the concrete pad, and relocated all the odds and ends that a garage on a house without a basement accumulates.
On Saturday the 8th, I washed the car and the engine with a pressure washer. Hopefully I will not get as dirty working on the car now. With the help of a friend, Paul; his son, Nolan; and his son's friend, Brady I moved the car into the now ready garage. I paid them in soft ice-cream, CAN$6 (total project cost: CAN$554). Once the car was in the garage, I removed the rear decklid, rear bumper, and front fenders. I also removed the cargo area carpeting and discovered some rust issues in the process. Also the bottom of the cargo space had been dented upwards somehow.
Lastly, for those that still think I picked the wrong car to convert, I'd like to offer the following portent. This is the front page of a newspaper that was in the car:
