First photo: This is the newly powder coated frame with one of 6 battery chassis installed. We are attempting to design new trunk hinge locations since they need to move out about 4 inches to allow for the B17-B8 battery system. The piece of cardboard is a template that will be used to laser cut new steel hinge attachment brackets.
Second photo: This old E-Code T-Bird shows the normal trunk hinge placement. We removed the spring and cut the hinge in half to save space. The new placement is to be right up against the wheel well somehow?
Third photo: Nice newly powder coated frame. Just started putting parts back on it. Notice the battery behind where the seat would go. There will be 6 batteries in all. Three pairs of batteries. Each battery is 48V nominal, but the motor is 120V, so we are putting two in series. The trunk holds 4 batteries. Each battery has eight modules. Each module is made up of 96 cells. 16 series packs of six in parallel. These are Lithium Iron Phosphate. Each hot swappable module is about 1000 watt hours, so one complete B17-B8 is almost 8000 watt hours. We could not fit the large 8 module system in the front, so we decided to make a shorter battery with 6 modules. This shorter battery exactly matches the B17-3 inverter which is the shorter of the two B17 inverters. Strange reason to create a new product, but hey, we needed a shorter battery.
Fourth photo: We are finally applying mud on the front end. Parts of this had to be fashioned by hand since it was all rusted out. We are amazed at how much work goes into contouring body parts to make them as good as new. We still have the back end to contour.
Fifth photo: One part of this project that is actually almost finished is the trailer. Last week it was just an old white beat up trailer. Look at it now. Too bad we can’t find the title so we can get license tabs! Something more to work on.
Fifth photo: Some of the parts that have to get rattle can painted before assembly.
57 T-Bird Body 57 T-Bird Body 57 T-Bird Body 57 T-Bird Body 57 T-Bird Body 57 T-Bird Body
27 days left!!!