Good Donor car??

daihatsus are popular

G11 chassis is easy to convert, as much the same as a G100 chassis

other people have used G100 chassis

i plan to use either a L80 mira or G11 charade myself

regards
alex

other choices:
honda insight
toyota mr2
toyota prius (has heavy drivetrain that can be removed)
fiat fsm nikki 126
mazda mx5
suzuki mightboy
any ute
vehicles with heavy drivetrains (such as hybrids, or iron block V8s)

Matt

Matt

I hear the BMW's are good to convert

Something that you'll be happy dribing for the next 5-10 years

I like older cars - if you pull out the ICE, everything else still works - instruments, steering, brakes. They also tend to be lighter. A '62 Valiant weights less than a new convertible mini.

New cars have safety and airbags and stuff, if you like that :-)

cheers,
Woody

'84 ALFA ROMEO 33 GCL

Motor seized so going cheap!

Buy it - you know you want to
$750 is a steal

Since this link has been moved from the PERTH area most of the cars discussed above are from PERTH so please ignore them if you are in other states.

72 volt only and batteries where the back seat is making it a 2 seater Matis is very light It is the smallest vehicle that was on the market --since doscontinued. If 72 volt will suit you then go for it first measure the gearbox and motor lenght and see if you can fit 300mm long el motor..without demolishing the main frame Try- Charade, barina, Echo
Fiesta, cars that hold around 1300cc motors should be suitable most Cheers

Sparau, please forget about 4x4 vehicles running into you. By the time you finish making it there won't be any 4x4

Don't forget about pesky car electronics. Usually not an issue for older cars, but newer models may be problematic. The body computer may refuse to cooperate after the engine is terminated, making the car kind of useless.

I have thought that a recent, lead filled, commodore would be a good target from the point of view of having a neat graphics display in the middle of the dashboard, but subduing the various computers is likely to be a ugly affair that's harder than designing them in the first place was. After all that, the conformodore is seriously heavy at 1650Kg, making the drive and batteries an epic.

Some research is needed, because it won't be long before computers and electronic stuff become the norm in donor vehicles.


Cheers

BGA



Edited by bga - 01 December 2008 at 6:38pm

GVM pretty heavy anything smaller?

Originally posted by Goombi GVM pretty heavy anything smaller?

GVM is the load / maximum weight capacity, the curb weight is 939kg.

I hadn't seen many modern cars make it under the 1000kgs for curb weight but maybe I'm looking in the wrong places.

What did your Barina start out weighting? Ah found it 780ish kg (94) is good! I thought the Barina must have been somewhere near the 1000kg to start so I was wondering how you kept the weight down.

I'm an old car and mini fan myself so if I did an electric car I think I'd do a mini.
A Datsun 1200 Coupe would be a good proposition too everything Nissan/Datsun seems to swap over easily so the suspension from a 1200 ute would probably swap straight over if it isn't the same already, but then again I never looked.

Edited by fuzzy-hair-man - 02 December 2008 at 4:21pm

A mini is the car I'd drive out of choice at least until I have to go long distance or fit more stuff in, so I could live with a mini quite easily (well I sort of do already).
A lot of the things in modern cars rather annoy me just extra kruft to get you to buy the latest model which is really no better than the last one IMO . (others probably differ)

I sometimes think this might be one of the reasons why car manufacturers don't much want to go electric, once you make a car that is 80% or whatever efficient and has a motor which will last almost forever (I read a Semiens had a warranty for 15 years) then what's the point of buying a new car? In practical terms it can't really be that much better than the old one can it? I'd keep the old one and run it till the wheels fall off and save my money for more worthwhile things.

My rather biased opinion is more cars should be like the mini bare bones, minimalist, great handling and practical. In fact for a conversion a mini could be relatively easy, no brake booster, no air conditioner, no power steering, no heater, no radio (although I'd hook up something to plug my MP3 into so I can have some tunes) , a heavy cast iron block and head and a fair lump of a gearbox, and a starting weight of ~600kg.

Issues would be awful aero drag (0.53) and where to stick enough batteries. It's a commuter though so it should be kept around 60km/hr most of the time anyway... and maybe I'll get rid of the back seats.

I think I've liked minis since I saw a family of 4 somehow disappear inside one.