Considering an electric car retrofit kinda project. Need guidance or someone to tell me don't do it.

So this past year I've really wanted to try a new project. I think it would be neat to go the electric route but with a vintage-ish body/chassis. I'm thinking Porsche 914 since that's something I've wanted to tinker on for years but not completely settled on that platform since they are usually crusty and pricey. What would be neat is an outlaw style anything with Chevy Spark electricals but maybe there's a better option for the electric side of things?

Budget wise I'm thinking 7-8k all in, maybe 10k if I eat more ramen and sell some crap that's sitting around.

What I know to be the most important factor will be condition of the chassis car. I found a couple local Fiat 850 coupes that kinda get that outlaw possible vibe for $2k that don't appear to be rusty. Today I'm not ready to pull the trigger but what I would like to get from the GRM community is some sort of direction on what I should be considering. Or for that matter if I should wait a couple years for better donor platforms to pop up?

I spent some time looking around https://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums at one point, both for ideas, and to look at the classified listings. Somebody's unfinished project could be a good source of inexpensive parts...

Electric or ICE, doesn't matter to me, but I do like the whole Outlaw vibe. I should have kept my supercharged beater Miata NB for that reason. I spend time thinking about what would be a good candidate and find limited choices that have any aesthetic appeal. 914 is a good choice, or how  about an Opel GT?

Or , an MGB-GT , like this thread........Tell me I'm crazy - MGB-GT "outlaw" project| Grassroots Motorsports forum |

Edit: an old fiat 124 with the hardtop, done up like the Abarth rally cars back in the day.

Edit: VW Type 3 Fastback

The main thing to keep in mind with doing an electric conversion is that a small, agile car isn't going to remain lightweight with an electric conversion. A battery pack to give a useful range is going to be heavy. So I would go with something where neither light weight nor the character of the engine is critical to the driving experience. The end result is either going to be a cruiser or a straight line rocket. At the same time, I can understand taking the view that a smaller car will need less batteries and be cheaper.

Here are a few possibilities that come to mind:

1. A "No gas gasser" - some sort of small, 1960s or older import done up as an electric version of a gasser, such as a Fiat Topolino. Maybe a giant fake C-cell in front of the grille in place of the beer keg fuel tanks gassers used to run.

2. VW Bus. EV conversion plus the hippie save the earth vibe are always a good fit. Not heavy, lots of room, and been done fairly often.

3. Random oddball small cars - Saab 96, Volvo Amazon, Dodge Rampage, VW Type 3, anything small that has unusual styling and isn't expected to be set up for corner carving.

If you do EV, do US all a favor and get some really good electric safe rubber gloves.  We don't want to see you get hurt in an accident.  

I always thought a cruiser would be cool.  Something like an old cadillac, lincoln, or even a 60s/70s mercedes sedan.  Something that doesn't have a repuation for handling or lightness, so nothing to ruin.  Smooth, silent, and a comfy ride:

In reply to captainawesome :

Take the unreliable Italian drivetrain out of a Maserati BiTurbo but keep the elegant body.  

Other cars with bad drivetrains but interesting or elegant bodies:

Anything from Lancia, Opel, Fiat or Renault 

openinverter.com is a great forum, and they have a wiki that's a great place to start if you are looking for direction

If you decide to do it to a classic car that actually has value (like the 914 or the Lincoln above), make sure you're comfortable setting your money on fire.

If you plan to keep it, enjoy it and never sell it then party on!

Just don't expect to get anything for it if you have to sell.

Side note, one of Neil Young's electric converted classics burned his garage to the ground. The universe has a sense of humor.

I was a bit worried about packaging with the batteries using a smaller car, so definitely something to consider.

I like the suggestions so far, just need to find something I will LOVE vs something I think is kinda cool.

A quick marketplace search locally didn't give me donor Spark's that would fit within budget, in fact FAR removed from it but I haven't dug into local auctions yet. That isn't a nail in the coffin but a bit of a worry. I don't have to go electric but thought it might be something new to try out.

How about approaching the issue from the other direction? 

What do you want to do with it? List those out, and then we can help enable spending your money.

My '66 Cadillac would make an excellent EV. That drivetrain has all the characteristics GM was aiming for back in the day.

As somebody said, it depends on what you want to do with it.

First gen Nissan Leaf drivetrain donors are dirt cheap if the car is light enough for that drivetrain to give you the performance you want.  In fact I may have one available for $0 if you are interested.

If it's an autocross car or a cars-n-coffee car maybe you don't need a huge range, so it could still be light. 

I think all these hugely heavy EVs with 300+ mile range that people mostly use for 30 mile commutes are just as stupid as huge heavy pickup trucks that usually carry one person to work and back.  

I have a lot of experience with EV conversions and EV design.  IMO a LiFePO4 battery pack is the easy button.  Yes you can get slightly smaller and lighter with a different chemistry, but with a substantially higher risk of "thermal runaway" which means fire, usually in your garage.

Application of what I would used the car for is pretty simple. Using it to run an errand in town or commuting to work a day or two. My work is 30 miles away mostly interstate at 70mph so at minimum 60 round trip. There are a few miles for lunch or whatever, so say a safe range of 100-125 miles would work?

Autocross would be neat to try out but I think SCCA hasn't opened up the DIY electric can of worms yet? I'd probably have to trailer for that anyway since my distance to get there is 37 miles. There is one club I think I could run with that's more lax on some rules but probably best to ask first.

In reply to ekauppi7 :

I haven't done enough research to know if the Leaf would work, but I'd hazard a guess it's within the realm. Are there some sort of online calculators that I could use to guesstimate range based on LiFePO4 to see if weight will be an issue?

Where are you located?

Look at Copart for a wrecked VW e Golf as a donor!  Maybe you could flip the arrangement to put the motor in the rear?  

Would you consider building a 3-wheeler from scratch? That's suggested because your application appears to lean toward smaller and more agile, and building from scratch allows building around the chosen drive train components. As was said though, ideas of ending up with an 1,100 lb autocross terror should be cast aside. If I was told I had to use something that already exists, an old VW Rabbit shell comes to mind - if they aren't selling for $200K just yet, hah. Another might be an old mini truck - tons of space for the battery pack in the back.

Regardless which way you go, just realize that whatever sucky traffic you deal with now, it'll be no different in anything you create. I once saw a cartoon showing a crowded freeway before EVs, and after. It was the same drawing.

In reply to kb58 :

I've never really been drawn to the 3-wheeler world. Also I think trying autocross once or twice sounds like fun but it's not really a must have. I have considered a 27ish model t roadster but afraid packaging will be really tough to get any range at all. I also want something that can be parked outside without worrying if it will become a bathtub when rain arrives so it would at least need some sort of soft top with side glass. That would be better suited with maybe a model A?

In the end I  keep going back to the outlaw kinda vibe and I think paired with an EV drivetrain would be neat. A little straight line fun but not a 1/4 mile burner. A heater at minimum. Ac would be nice but haven't thought too heavily on that aspect. I know the more comfortable I make it, the more I will drive it, so making it strictly bare bones race car isn't appealing.

3 wheeler...

Do you mean a trike, or something like a Cushman or Reliant Robin?  Or more modern like a Polaris Slingshot?

Those are all VERY different vehicles. 

A nicely done 914 ev recently sold on BAT.

There are some details of the swap in the text  and the videos.

I think ev conversion of air cooled vw's and porsches is a pretty well worn path.

A 100-125 mile range at highway speeds sounds challenging on a 10k budget.

Can we define or give examples of "Outlaw Cars"?

A google search of "outlaw cars" gives mini sprint racers with huge wings designed for circle track racing. A google search of "outlaw street cars" gives images of pro street muscle cars with huge hood scoops or blowers sticking out of the hood. I'm pretty sure you don't mean either of those.

Im also pretty sure I am a fan of outlaw cars too, but can't figure out the right search terms or what characteristics define an "outlaw car".

In reply to SV reX :

All versions. It's just not for me.

$10K is a tight budget to buy both a clean serviceable donor AND a nice vintage shell that isn't crusty.  Both of those things are in high demand.  I've been looking to do it too. 

In reply to captainawesome :

Did I misunderstand something?  I thought your first post indicated the outlaw vibe was interesting to you. 

In reply to SV reX :

That was in response to the 3 wheeler, sorry should have quoted that.

Just a couple examples. It's hard to really pin down the "exact" look but when I think of outlaw car, the 356 comes to mind.