BMW e46 with GS450H Chevy Volt Battery [DRIVING]

[TonyV]

Got into all of this while I was surfing through YouTube and stumble across on of Damien's videos.
After seeing Damien turn a spanner (wrench for us north Americans) glowing RED hot dead shorting a calb battery and shoving 1000amps through it, I knew then I had to subscribe and check this guy out.

And that's how I found Open Inverter forum, and got started with my conversion.
I've been on the forum for about a 12months now.
After reading a lot of posts, gathering parts, more reading, testing, I realized how little I knew about Electric vehicles,

Watch ALL the videos …3 times

So I went and bought the GS450H Transmission(still not sure if I can call it a transmission) Lexus inverter, Damien's V2 Board and a Prius battery for testing.
and while I was at the junkyard I picked up a gen 2 and a gen 3 Prius Inverter and I was going to use those as a battery charger in the future. (they are still sitting on the shelf)
Took another 3 months just to figure how to make the GS450 trans. turn on the bench,
I'm still struggling with CANBUS but I'm sure that will come.

I wanted something kind of sporty, modern, comfortable, and something that was fun to drive.
So I went out a bought a e46 and it helped that Damien converted a similar one.
below are some pictures of my progress...still not complete but getting there

This is work in progress... But may give others some ideas.

[Jack Bauer]

Excellent work. And of course good choice of car:)

[Domt177]

Is that using the original driveshaft? Interesting how far back you got your gearbox to sit as with my e46 touring it was sat a lot closer to the front of the car (also using original driveshaft) so much so the inverter could sit on top of it

[TonyV]

Is that using the original driveshaft? Interesting how far back you got your gearbox to sit as with my e46 touring it was sat a lot closer to the front of the car (also using original driveshaft) so much so the inverter could sit on top of it

I used original e46 driveshaft but cut the end off and used the end from a 2006 7 series.
the length is within couple mm's from the original e46 driveshaft,

I made a video on how I did it. But again i'm sure it wasn't 100% the right way, it was just my way.

[lsh3rd]

Please do keep more videos coming on this project. That shaft looks really nicely done for basic shop tools. This swap caught my eye because I've always had an affinity for the E46 wagons and I thought the GS450H transmission would be ideal. It's one possible direction I'm considering.

[eCRX]

Cool Project! I'm down the road from Toronto. Nice to see local yokels doing conversions with their own hands and tools.