openinverter forum

Burning out driving and fixing crappy old vehicles.

My newest two vehicles are 30 year old minivans. Both now presumably have blown head gaskets and other problems. They've both passed 300,000km. They leak and burn an entire oil change worth of oil every 5000km. They both drink coolant. And they're old, everything's starting to fall apart. The old rule of "If you own a crappy van, you have to own TWO crappy vans" has never been truer. I basically juggle driving one while fixing and repairing the other. And I have a 3rd van I'm supposed to either fix or throw out from a friend, that's not worth the engine work it needs to troubleshoot/repair. So, 3 vans in barely-running condition, that I'm throwing 500-1000km/week on. My vans get used like trucks, the rear seats haven't been put back in in years, hauling all kinds of things for everyone I know, because I'm a guy with a van.

I used to have a more modern SUV, but I fixed it and sold it for 10x what I paid for it at the tail end of the pandemic. Which has been nice, the most I've ever paid for a vehicle was $1500. I've had 3 non-fault near write-offs (2 of which I'm still driving). I've actually made a responsible net amount of money on vehicles in my life.

I've never finished, or even got any one of my several EV projects rolling, and the newest of those is a 1985. They drag on and on. They take up space. I keep shuffling them aside to work on the cars I actually have to drive.

I'm not a car guy. It's not part of my identity. I don't enjoy working on vehicles. I don't enjoy maintenance. It's a big part of why I first got into EVs, because I never wanted to have to learn this stuff. Maybe that's burning me out on working on my EVs, maybe not. Who knows.

So, it's time I make a decision. I think it's time to give up on my whole dilapidated fleet, get rid of it. I need to just go buy a modern vehicle in good shape. A small SUV or crossover, something with AWD for Canadian winters that doesn't need constant, exhausting repair and troubleshooting. Just bit the bullet. Time to browse the classifieds and go spend $15k (not new, maybe 5 years old) on a reliable vehicle with an engine, that I can inspect in person, like an adult, and stop acting like a broke teenager.

... which is why last week I purchased a 50 year old, 2 seat, gull-wing, non-running electric sportscar, 1 of 50 ever made, sight-unseen, in a different country, 1500 km away, across a mountain range, with no plan of how to get it home.

Curious how that will continue If you get rid of the vans you're no longer the man with the van, huh? Lot less to drive.

Or otherwise I hope you can eventually switch to a low maintenance electric van because... it's kind of a thing on that forum

The good news is ev's have a huge depreciation in the first few years so you should be able to get into one for about your budget. There are some hybrid options but those seem to hold their value. Hybrids have 2 systems to maintain, though the electric one isn't very needy typically.

I'm looking forward to seeing your gullwing project. That's ambitious for a non car guy

jrbe wrote: ↑Wed Feb 05, 2025 2:25 pmThe good news is ev's have a huge depreciation in the first few years so you should be able to get into one for about your budget.

Pfft. I live in the oil producing capital of Canada. There's hardly even any Priuses here, and those have been around 20 years.

I think the bottom's about to drop out of the EV market, so, I'll hold off a bit there. And, if I want a larger vehicle to go around touring, it still makes sense to buy one with an engine. Canada is just so big and so empty, there's points where you can get into trouble without a near enough gas station, let alone EV charger.

I'm looking forward to seeing your gullwing project. That's ambitious for a non car guy

I think it's actually the shortest path to getting an EV. I also have a 1970 Opel GT restoration/EV conversion that's been puttering along for 6 years now ("summer project" I said): viewtopic.php?t=383

But here's what I bought:


It has a great origin story.

The company once upon a time put an ad into the classifieds at the back of some car magazine. Something like "Send $1 to Address for sports car brochure".

Except that, they never had the money to design a sports car, so, at the time of the ad, no car existed for sale. In fact, they didn't even have the money to make brochures, and no brochures existed either.

But once the money came in for the brochures, they created some art concepts for the car that basically ripped off Ferrari, put them into the sales brochures, mailed the sales brochures back to the people who sent in their dollar, and advertised the cars for sale as kits or completed builds. Then when the money came in for the cars, they hurriedly designed the cars.

The GT and GT2 were based on the VW Beetle chassis, frame and floorboards. An excellent foundation, rear-engine RWD car! Uses a C3 Corvette windshield, most VW parts (transaxle, sadly), some Porsche parts too. With a stupendous 20 horsepower. It's pretty much a Ferrari.

They sold several thousand of various kit cars and completed vehicles, 1500-6000 seems to be the estimate. And then they took another big risk. They rebranded as "The Electric Car Corporation" and decided from now on they were going to build electric cars... in 1980.

They built 50 of these cars in-house to show off to the world what could be done with electricity... and spurred by the success of that dream they immediately went bankrupt.

Fast forward 45 years, that's where I come in.

I'm not sure all of what's wrong with it, but it was a daily driver until recently-ish, and has been kept in a garage for a couple years since it last ran. Batteries are shot on it.

MattsAwesomeStuff wrote: ↑Thu Feb 06, 2025 12:15 am I'm not sure all of what's wrong with it, but it was a daily driver until recently-ish, and has been kept in a garage for a couple years since it last ran. Batteries are shot on it.

Well a battery swap shouldn't be too bad, comparatively speaking.

I almost convinced a friend that wants me to swap his Dodge Omni to just buy a Jet Electrica 007 and I'd swap the batteries on it for new ones. He didn't bite.

P.S.Mangelsdorf wrote: ↑Thu Feb 06, 2025 12:48 amWell a battery swap shouldn't be too bad, comparatively speaking.

That's what I'm thinking.

... except the car above isn't my car.

This is my actual car:



It's a little rougher around the edges. Literally. Look at the panel gap between the bumper and the hood on this, versus the glamor shot on the one above.

But the previous owner is an electrical engineer, and has kept pretty good care of it. It might just be a battery swap.

The basis for the car is a 1973 VW Beetle, so, almost as old as my 1970 Opel GT, and, I'm going to presume the floor resembles the Titanic more than it does the Eiffel tower, and for probably the same reasons.

Eh that doesn't look too bad! Plus if it's beetle based, there should, in theory, be parts galore for the floor and running gear.

P.S.Mangelsdorf wrote: ↑Thu Feb 06, 2025 12:55 pmEh that doesn't look too bad!

Good looking from afar but far from good looking?

Things moving right along. April 12 she's being towed through a few mountain ranges by the seller, and I'm meeting them there and towing it the rest of the way home.

Happening a bit faster than I thought it would be. Not complaining at all.

I think this means I need to find a DC motor controller that can handle higher voltage. There aren't really any options. Time to bug EV8 for his old schematic and make up the super cheap one using the Prius Gen 2 inverter that Damien figured out years ago.

So I was at a meet this past weekend and someone mentioned there's one of these sitting outside a junkyard near me in NC. I haven't had any time this week to go see it, but I might this weekend. I've wanted to do a "will it run?" on a vintage EV or abandoned conversion....

P.S.Mangelsdorf wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 1:11 pmSo I was at a meet this past weekend and someone mentioned there's one of these sitting outside a junkyard near me in NC.

I've noticed that mine doesn't have the flip-up headlights. They've been replaced with just plastic shields. So, if they're parting it out and you can't rescue it... honestly there's probably lots of parts I'd take off of it.

Sad, only 50 made and there's one in a junkyard. Not one of the normal Bradleys, but a GTE?

MattsAwesomeStuff wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 7:21 pm Sad, only 50 made and there's one in a junkyard. Not one of the normal Bradleys, but a GTE?

I've only seen one photo, taken from a distance, and it looks like yours. I was told its a GTE, but not confirmed yet. I'm going to be 3/4 of the way there for a work meeting today, so I might stop by and see what's up.

EDIT: Apparently it was saved by someone else, according to a FB group.

P.S.Mangelsdorf wrote: ↑Thu Feb 27, 2025 12:56 pmEDIT: Apparently it was saved by someone else, according to a FB group.

Was hoping there was an update on it.

Well, hurray!

Any news on who? Tell 'em to show up here so we can share notes.

There's a 3rd one being auctioned off/given away in a contest to promote a guy's new auction website.

https://www.diyelectriccar.com/threads/ ... te.211193/

3 being restored at the same time sounds like we could help each other out a lot.

MattsAwesomeStuff wrote: ↑Wed Mar 12, 2025 8:17 am Any news on who? Tell 'em to show up here so we can share notes.

Unfortunately not exactly. It appears the person who has saved it is "Parker Ott". Only evidence was a screenshot of a post from one FB group (RADwood) shared in the comments to another FB group (TriangleRAD), and the person who shared it did not respond to my request for followup info.

P.S.Mangelsdorf wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2025 1:11 pmSo I was at a meet this past weekend and someone mentioned there's one of these sitting outside a junkyard near me in NC.

...

It appears the person who has saved it is "Parker Ott". Only evidence was a screenshot of a post from one FB group (RADwood) shared in the comments to another FB group (TriangleRAD), and the person who shared it did not respond to my request for followup info.

...

This conversation randomly rang a bell... this has gotta be it, right?



Says he rescued it out of a junkyard in North Carolina right before it was going to be crushed, posted this video 3 days after you last did.

He has no info, so, I'm going to reach out to him!

BUILD BUDDIES! WOOOO!

Probably, I'll have to check out that video!