11BL resto-ev-mod

KiwiPete

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Tadpole
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Oct 7, 2020
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76
Location
Irvine, Ca
Figured I’ve been lurking long enough, and I should post and introduce myself. I’m a Kiwi, living in Southern California. I’d been looking for a pre 1952 11BL for a while, and this was the best I could come up with.



Seems like someone “restored” it in the late 90’s. Its wood lined and has some other oddities. Body sheet metal is great, but the floor and the bottom 1/2 “ of everything is toast. Battery box/cowl vent and most of the parcel tray also.



The plan is to repair the floor and ot
her sheetmetal as if it was being restored, but then convert to EV. I’ll have to figure out how much battery weight I can add, but I want to keep the torsion bar front end and FWD, so that will limit things somewhat. Anyway – I have a bunch of sheetmetal work before thinking too much about the EV conversion.


TA Side (Large).jpg
TA Floor (Large).JPG
IMG_0422 (Large).JPG
IMG_0423 (Large).JPG



No idea what's going on with the wood. Someone spent a lot of time fitting each piece. Maybe Americans think European cars double as saunas...?


Pete
 
Have you seen this thread yet ?

https://www.aussiefrogs.com/forum/index.php?threads/11bl-rusty-floor.140716/

Sounds like a fun project. I doubt the driveshafts will upto the torque of an electric motor. You might have to convert it to modern 'cv joints and spline the drums as a part of the conversion. (I'm betting you just leave it in 2nd and reverse the motor to go backwards).

seeya
Shane L.
 
Just wow ! Bit of rust! - but that wood ! What were they thinking?! A kind of rural cabin in the woods effect!
 
That floor replacement is quite straight forward the seat tunnel and the floor pan are available as repro parts in Europe. I would recommend either CAS or CTA in the Netherlands.
 
Have you seen this thread yet ?

https://www.aussiefrogs.com/forum/index.php?threads/11bl-rusty-floor.140716/

Sounds like a fun project. I doubt the driveshafts will upto the torque of an electric motor. You might have to convert it to modern 'cv joints and spline the drums as a part of the conversion. (I'm betting you just leave it in 2nd and reverse the motor to go backwards).

seeya
Shane L.
Thanks Shane. Yes, I've been following that one closely. Lots of common ground there - plus Johns here in the States.

I'm also following your thread on the gearbox rebuild.

Pete
 
It makes it appealing to hotrod though .... As realistically its unlikely to be restored!
That's my thought. I didn't want to cut up a survivor.

Really no idea on the wood. It was fabric covered so it wouldn't have been seen but still.....
 
That floor replacement is quite straight forward the seat tunnel and the floor pan are available as repro parts in Europe. I would recommend either CAS or CTA in the Netherlands.
Thanks Gerry,

I have spent a bunch of money with CTA already on the factory tools. I'm excited about using them to break down the front end.
 
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