The Instrument Console

Done. Six hours, but it's done.
It looks pretty much like it was always supposed to have a voltmeter and ammeter, which was the whole point, of course!

The cluster getting prepped for the hacking

After the hole saw


Done!
The old fuel gauge is now the voltmeter, which give me battery life; the temperature gauge is now the ammeter which tells me how hard I'm being on the batteries.

Batteries, Round 2

I put the batteries back into their newly insulated boxes - I have decided to wrap them in plastic, then seal 'em up using expanding foam insulation. That will help anchor everything, and will provide the maximum heat transfer and insulation for the batteries... The component box is done - it's not pretty, but it's functional.

Four batteries are up under the front of the car, one are down each side of the motor.

More and more...

I've had to spend some time figuring out how to keep the batteries warm, as the weather is cooling down and I'm expcting to use this car for as many months as possible. To that end, I've insulated the boxes with industrial carpet and rubber, followed by a heating pad with a .050 piece of aluminum on top. Hopefully, when the boxes are sealed up, I should be able to keep about 15-20 additional degrees in the batteries.

The vacuum system is also coming along after a few delays. I should be installing it shortly...

Heater

It's in. The easy part was wiring the new ceramic core and making a plate for it to sit in... The hard part was replacing all the rotted foam in the poor old thing. It looked/felt like it had been doused in gas - all the foam would come apart at the slightest touch.
I replaced all the foam with adhesive backed foam strips used to hold truck caps down with. Perhaps not going to pass concours, but good enough for me.

The new heater core

My sketchy re-foaming. The whole unit had to come apart to get the inner vents...

Back in place. The dash will be in tonight, and then I'll get the instrument cluster re-wired for my ammeter and voltmeter.

Back From Camping

So many components showed up while I was gone...
Vacuum Pump, Potbox, Circuit Breaker, Fuses, Gauges, Shunt, Battery Pads, Heater Core...
I don't know where to begin, so I'm first going to build the box to put it all in...!

Getting ready for the heater

In preparation for the heater showing up this week before I go away, I have the dash out and the heater box broken open. Once I get the new core, I can determine the best way to mount it...

Final Battery Box is in...

Front battery box is now in. After loading the boxes up, however, I noticed the front is too high. I'll probably need to shorten the springs...