1971 GMCe Lexus GS450H BMW 530e Tesla Model S Electruck [Upgrade]

[Gregski]

then I went on weighing other junk, here is the AC and heater delete

35 lbs Air Conditioning and Heating System

[Gregski]

weighed the front bumper as well

38 lbs front bumper - to be replaced with a fiberglass roll pan

[Gregski]

and here is the rear bumper

30 lbs rear bumper - to be replaced with a fiberglass rollpan

[Gregski]

decided to weigh a stripped down door just for funsies, I think maybe those of you outside these Independent States will get a kick out of our 'merican steel trucks (mind you they don't build them like this any more)

PM me if you come across any carbon fiber ones, ha ha

[Gregski]

thinking about going in different direction in terms of getting straight cuts on my angle aluminum battery brackets, gonna give my trusty 10" Delta Shopmaster miter saw a go

thank you Artur for the $50 dollar DIABLO Freud D1084L 10" Diameter 84 teeth TCG Saw Blade w/5/8" Arbor recommend

[Uppertown]

Yes generally you use coarser blades (low TPI) on softer materials but watch the thickness too, you should always aim to have at least 3 teeth in contact with the material.

[Gregski]

Yes generally you use coarser blades (low TPI) on softer materials but watch the thickness too, you should always aim to have at least 3 teeth in contact with the material.

Awesome, thank you so much, really appreciate the advice.

[Gregski]

since I only replace the blade on this saw once a decade it only took me 9 hours to figure out [again] how to do it, YES IT IS A REVERSE THREAD BOLT, thank you Delta for not putting a sticker on the saw stating that, makes for much more fun

[Gregski]

like a hot knife through buttah

[Gregski]

you can check out this setup in action here, the pause in the cut is do to me stopping to take a peak at my phone to make sure it was recording

[Gregski]

if you are into straight cuts, precision holes, super clean EV builds and other such time wasting festivities then you may want to check out my friends Artur Kustusch Jaguar [ alphabet soup something something model ] build here, he recommended this blade and has been my mentor throughout the build so far, thanks be to Artur!

[Gregski]

just spit ballin' the BMW 530e battery placement

[Gregski]

like Sardines

[Gregski]

and here is the entire first six pack mocked up, I think it needs to go forward sum towards the bow more but for now I just laid them on the flatest part of the frame [and yes flatest is a word, I just made it a word]

[Gregski]

second verse, same as the first

[Uppertown]

Looks good, does the rear pack leave room for the gearbox? It looks like you have a few options for adding more layers etc too.

[Gregski]

Looks good, does the rear pack leave room for the gearbox? It looks like you have a few options for adding more layers etc too.

this truck has a rather unique and rare rear suspension made up of these two long trailing arms and coil springs instead of leafs, and I love it for it, but it sure complicates battery installs under the bed, here are some random pics of trucks like it

so I'm thinking rearward of the rear axle/differential where they have the fuel tank in one of them pics (of course on these trucks the OEM fuel tank lives inside the cab behind the bench seat)

[Gregski]

Looks good, does the rear pack leave room for the gearbox? It looks like you have a few options for adding more layers etc too.

oh I think you meant the second front pack that's closest to the cab, yeah all the batteries will move up and forward about a foot

[Gregski]

so here we go, another one man slow dance

this was my first attempt with the stock transmission crossmember, it just makes the tail end sit too high, so out it came

[Gregski]

just increased my chances of injury by 400%

[Gregski]

took a bit of back and forth, and for some odd reason Lexus decided to use two different sizes of bolts on this bell housing, the red circles mark the larger ones which in SAE or American standard sizes equate closer to a 1/2" and the smaller ones are roughly 7/16s

it may take another round of nip and tucking to get the plate to match that weird shape it happens to be

[Gregski]

cutting 1/2" aluminum plate a mil at a time using my FREE Craigslist Craftsman Radial 10" saw with a Diablo 84 tooth non stick blade, yeah baby

thrilling I tell yah!

[Gregski]

so we've reached the part of the project when it's time to do some zigging when you thought you would be zagging

what I mean by that is this is where all your initial plans go out the window, I initially wanted to stay true to the Lexus two different bolt hole size bell housing design and went out and bought six 1/2" bolts and six 7/16ths (yes using standard sizes on a Japanese component, sue me, ha ha)

but I never could get all 12 bolts to fit in the holes there would always be that one [or three] that were slightly off, so I said screw it and went with all of the smaller 7/16ths

[but I'm just being honest with all you all]

[Gregski]

just a drill.jpg (12.89 KiB) Viewed 4019 times

[Gregski]

so what are the odds one of my existing trans crossmembers will work (couple more on the floor not shown)