Gutting the Donor Car

In order to start our electric conversion, we would first need to remove the gasoline powerplant and all of its systems from the car. Luckily, the gentleman who bought our engine from us was an expert in Fiero Engine removal as he had already done it several times on his own cars. Unlike most cars, the fiero's engine doesn't come out through the top of the car, instead you have to lift the car off of the engine. Luckily, my grandpa had an engine hoist we could borrow to lift the car with. Three days of work later, our nearly perfect V6 motor left the car, never to return.

EV Research

So how do you build an EV? That was the first question we had to ask. And the answer is: the opposite of a normal car. The first preconception we had to remove from our thought process was that a larger motor means higher speeds. It doesn't. Unlike a gasoline engine, electric motors depend almost completely on the batteries running them.

While a larger motor can in fact handle more power, more often than not, the batteries are the determining factor for any EV. But the problem with batteries is the ammount of space they consume. Before we could even consider batteries, we would have to find out how much space we would have left after the motor was installed. The only way to do that of course is to buy a motor. So after several weeks of planning we decided to buy a Netgain Warp9 9 inch electric motor, and a Zilla Z1K HV controller capable of handling 1000 amps of current at over 300 volts (thats over 300,000 watts or 402.3 horsepower!) Turns out though, that the motor was back ordered 4 months and the controller was back ordered 6 months. Now we would just have to wait.

Finding the Fiero

Well, here it is. This is the car we will be converting to electric. It is a 1986 Pontiac Fiero GT. At over 23 years old, it certainly isn't a new car, but having bought it from its original owner, it was in very good condition.

When we first started looking for a car to use in the conversion, we were looking for cars that didn't run. We naturally though that would be a better choice for a conversion because the engine would already be trash and you wouldn't be destroying something that already runs. However, looking at the situation a bit more realistically, we found that what would actually be best is to find a car that has been maintained. This would give us a well taken are of interior and exterior as well as a clean and maintained engine bay.This makes far more sense in terms of the work it needs as well as the money we will have to spend on it. True, buying the car in excellent condition cost more than buying a car that didn't run by about $2000, but if you want your car to be painted nicely, any full car paint job will cost more than $2000. The only way to avoid this obligatory paint job is to buy a car that has been maintained, and that means a running vehicle.

This car truly is beautiful, and a true sports car. Built in the mid 80's, this car was years ahead in terms of style, and in fact, when seen in person, looks very modern. Unfortunately, the same modern feel does not carry into the interior. The classic boxy plastic GM dash of the 80's protrudes toward the driver and passenger like a pile of bricks. Clearly, this will need to change, but first, we need to get the car running.