Picked it up Today

Own the fantastic City El trike ?
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electricvehicles
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Location: Lightwater Surrey

Picked it up Today

Postby electricvehicles » Tue Dec 18, 2007 5:16 pm

After a 500 mile round trip from Sunny Surrey to Wet, Damp and Miserable Mid Wales I finally made it back complete with my new Mini-el.
Sad as it seems E937 MRW is in a very poor state of repair.

The original resistor based speed controller has been removed and replaced with a non working, water logged Curtis 1203 !!!

90% of the wiring has been removed.

Motor is shot. ( Never knew they used Pacific Scientific Motors )

Battery carrier is rotted beyond recovery.

Rear shocks have more rust than the Titanic.

Springs just about had it.

Original display has been removed and replaced with a very cheap battery volt meter and a bicycle speedo.

Seat rotted away as is the adjuster rail.

Front and rear lights broken.

No Charger.

Canopy gas struts not holding canopy in the up position.

Wheels are all very corroded.

Couple of good points:

Canopy is more or less free of scratches.

Body is filthy but generally all OK, will be even better once its re-sprayed.

What on earth have I let myself in for ?

SANITY TO ME IS ONLY A PAST TIME :lol: :lol:

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qdos
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Postby qdos » Tue Dec 18, 2007 11:18 pm

Ah but you've a golden opportunity to build something from scratch using more modern parts.

Looking forward to seeing what you do.

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aminorjourney
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Postby aminorjourney » Wed Dec 19, 2007 8:52 am

Hi Dave,

I Shall resist calling your new car Barry (Barry White - It's white and the Numberplate is MR W ;) )

I have some spare rear shocks for a City El. I'm guessing they should fit a series I el! You can also get appropriate sized coil over Malagutti F10 shocks which will fit. Here's a photo from the German wiki:
Image

You can buy a replacement stainless steel battery box from http://www.cityel-import.dk/ The guy who runs it speaks English!

Apparently the struts for the roof are 450-500N ones. You've got a glass roof, which will be the heaviest of them all. I think the stock ones are 450N, but 500N would work. Don't forget that if it's cold and they've not been used it'll take a while for them to get going. Probably best to replace though! :)



What's happened to the Motor? The series II onwards use Thirge motors. The Pacific Scientific ones are really early model Els!


The original Mini El had a charger under the seat. It was a simple coil based job. Has that all gone too? The early Mini Els and City Els right up until the mid 90s (maybe even 2000) had really bad chargers.

I think you've got the basis of a good shell - which is the best part of the City/Mini El. I think most modern components will fit. A nice "Fact Four" kit
Image ?

They'll take 72 V which is what you were planning???

Rear lights are from a Fiat 126, so you may be able to get them from a scrappy.

I'll be interested to know who you get to paint it as I've not found anyone who knows about painting onto composite plastic shells. I found one place which ran a mile when I told them it was thermo-plastic! I've a couple of scratches on mine I'd like to take care of.

Oh, and I remember from the photo that the mirrors are missing. Apparently Vauxhall Corsa Mirrors can be made to fit, or you could go for the original ones which for your model have ventilation built-in. Not like mine - they're not quite so posh on later models!
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield

EVangelist and Media Relations Coordinator, www.ZeroCarbonWorld.org
Host, www.transportevolved.com

http://about.me/aminorjourney/bio

electricvehicles
Posts: 182
Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2007 8:22 am
Location: Lightwater Surrey

BARRY WHITE

Postby electricvehicles » Wed Dec 19, 2007 9:36 am

Barry White sounds good to me :lol: for the short term before its painted.

Thanks for the info Nikki. It really is in a poor state. Charger is under the seat, unfortunatley full of water. Surprisingly enough its a HF charger albeit not working !! Also its chain drive, again I thought only the Lynch motored versions were chain driven.
Not going to do anything with it this side of Christmas other than put some serious thoughts into the best way of restoring it. Its a shame so much of the original has been removed. Would have been nice to restore it back to its 1987 vintage. Anyway a few of the possibilities are:

Instrumentation: Curtis en-gage IV is just about perfect especially when coupled with the CAN based interface will show me just about all I need to know regarding MPH. Motor RPM. Motor Current. Battery voltage etc. It really is a nice piece of kit and will fit into the original apature.

Motor: Well im going to have to give this some serious thought. Would really like to put a Lynch motor in but when I have dozens of 36-48V 3HP golf buggy motors lying around I think Barry might end up with one of them.
Turning it into a 72 volter really is not a sensible idea. Its not designed to go any faster than say 50MPH and even then I would'nt feel comfortable with the braking system stopping me. So definately a 48 volter.

Wheels: All three are in a really poor state of repair. Fortunately I have access to a wheel refurbishment company and will have them stripped, machined and power coated to match the new colour.

Regarding the painting of the composite body. Absolutely no problem, we re-spray golf buggies that are composite and have no problems getting the paint to stick. Urethane paint is one of the most flexible and even if you do have a small shunt and distort a panel the paint does not flake off, it just flexis with the panel. Any car paint shop of any repute will know this. Afterall 99.9% of car bumpers are plastic !!

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aminorjourney
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Postby aminorjourney » Wed Dec 19, 2007 9:46 am

Great! Thanks for the paint info!

Yeah, as regard to the chain drive - it's a common aftermarket addition, especially where it's hilly. The drive belt is just lossy and the motor isn't all that efficient either when compared to a lynch!

The Fact Four uses a German licensed copy of the Lynch. It's quite happy to do any voltage between 12 and 72V apparently....

Voltage wise, you could always do 72V and really low current, like the Twike! ;)

To be honest though I've got my City El maxed out at about 45 in the summer and it will peak at 50 downhill. Suspension really suffers at that speed as does your drift-ability One gust of wind and 'Poof!!!'. There is a guy who has one which does 67mph on 48 V!!!. I quite like what he's done with that as it gives maximum ranges of over 100 miles but enough power to get up hills! (That's my ideal for an el, to be honest!)

I don't know if I mentioned it, but Twike tyres are your best bet as they are identical wheel sizes. They are a bit taller, but with the right suspension modification that most El owners now do (adding a second, half-spring) they'll fit just fine.

Barry could be restored to 87 state. If you want PM me and I'll give you the contact for the previous editor of the BVR. He is selling lots of Series I stuff, some of it's even experimental!
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield

EVangelist and Media Relations Coordinator, www.ZeroCarbonWorld.org
Host, www.transportevolved.com

http://about.me/aminorjourney/bio


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