I started pulling a 1996 Saturn SW2 down during Xmas. Here are the pelimanary pictures. The car is licensed and insured for the 2009 tax year. It is cold here!!!!!!!!!!

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I have the car half done, I decided to rethink my battery configuration, and make a new control board. Something that is easier and more fluid than the last one. So today I picked up some steel for fabricating my new battery boxes. I have changed the rear drum brakes to disk brakes. All the unnecessary junk has been stripped from the car. I took a big chunk of the radiator core support out to make room for installation of the batteries. Some of the steel I bought will be used to reinforce the core support back to it's former strength. I changed the rear struts from the SC into the Wagon as they were made for the weight of the rear batteries. I'll post pictures tomorrow. I expect to be done by the end of this month.

I just wanted to say a few words about oppertunity. I have a unique oppertunity to adjust and tweak my car, the Saturn platform is so similar that I could have just transferred my components from one car to the other car, but I have decided to tweak my second car by making some major changes to it. The first thing I have decided is to only have two of the propulsion batteries in the front of the car as I have room now to put ten in the rear. Thus starts the project. I project the car to be back on the road in two weeks from today or sooner, unless some major upset happens in my life.

Now that most of the transfering of parts has been done I can concentrate on the Battery Boxes. I cut out most of the old box in the front and kept only what I could use for the new one.

Here are some pictures to check out my project. As you can see I have cut out most of the Radiator Core Support and then reinforced it with welded in steel. I removed the seats console and carpet to clean and replace the shifter to my manual one. The rear is ready for the Battery Box. I am going to cut the spare tire well out and mount the spare tire under the car with a cable system like a truck has for it's spare tire. I also have plans to coat the steel with a rubberized sealant and slope the steel with a drain so I can wash the batteries in the car, I used to pull them every six months and wash them then dry them and replace them in the car.

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The vaccum tube is still in the same location, as is the negative and positive cables. The car needs a bath badly.

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Here are a couple of pictures of the pelimanary rear battery box, I need to reinforce it, grind it down, add sides and paint it. It fits perfict!!!!!!!!

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I worked on installing the parking brakes, hooked up the brake lines, ran the shifter thru the firewall, and installed my JVC radio/cd player. I also searched out a suitable reinforced flooring for my rear battery box. And did allot of cleaning in the garage, it's amazing how a little grinding can cause such a mess. Most of the mechanical is done on the car, I still have to hook up the shifter, bleed the brakes, and install the heater, plus put the interior back in, but that about does it for the mechanical end of it. then the electrical end kicks in. I also went and checked out decals and costs over the weekend for my logo.

I finally found what I was looking for in the back yard frozen to the ground in one foot of snow. LOL I got out the come along out fastened it to the tree and up it came, slowley but surely. Then I drug it to the pavement and hammered the huge pile of dirt that was frozen to it before taking it inside the garage to cut up. Here are some fabrication pictures of the still in process rear battery tray. Just in case you are wondering why it is built so sturdy, I will have ten, eighty four pound batteries, a total of 840 pounds, sitting in the back of the car, so I need lots of support, it is still not compleate. I will post more pictures later as I progress on the project.

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Here is the last picture for the night, I worked on it for about 10 hours time to call it a night. Tomorrow I will finish it and install it in my car.

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