BMW 3.0 CSE

When I had the car media blasted, almost two years ago, I had them shoot black epoxy primer to protect the bare metal from rust.  Since then we've done a lot of cutting, welding, rust repair, fabrication, etc and exposed a lot of steel.  Since I'm getting serious about installing all the wiring and EV components, I figured now would be a good time to re-prime all those exposed areas, before they become difficult to get to. I didn't want to stall the goal of driving the car within the next two weeks so I took a day off work and disassembled the wiring in the trunk area, the cooling pipes, the A/C, power steering, and brake booster so that I could shoot some paint.  This, along with prep and masking took the better part of a day so I ended up shooting the epoxy primer late at night.  At least now everything is protected.

 It is getting close to being on the road again.  Pretty much the only thing left is wiring.  Lots and lots of wiring -- it is an electric car after all.

With 10 Tesla Model S batteries up front, the job is only 71% done.  Because the Tesla drive unit needs a minimum of 272 volts to operate, and each module has up to 28 volts, there would be basically zero range with 10 fully charged modules.  Therefore, I need to add at least 4 more modules to the car somewhere to get any power or range.

Hoses and brake lines are a challenge on this Frankenstein project.   Brake lines a combination of metric DIN bubble flares and ISO imperial double flares, with a super odd metric double flare on the Tesla master cylinder.  Plus, the original ATW front calipers have two redundant circuits so the original master had 5 ports.  The Tesla iBooster only has two.  And the original rear-mounted proportioning valve isn't practical with this new setup.