Control Box

As things are pretty well broken-in after 3000+ kilometers driven it was time to make one important addition to the car. The electrical controls in the front compartment were originally installed in a temporary fashion and I was always intending to contain most of the components inside a control box in order to shelter them from the elements (water, salt, road dust etc). I wanted to get this task done before the first snowfall but I knew this was going to be difficult now that I don't have access to an indoor work space. So, I decided to take the car to Richard's place so that he can put together a custom control box that would fit nicely up front and that would be easily removable to facilitate servicing the car.

All the wiring leading into and out of the control box can be disconnected using Anderson and Molex type connectors. The pot box was left outside of the control box for easy access without having to open the control box. At the same time, the Charger was slightly repositioned for added hood clearance and the power steering pump was lowered for a better control box fit.

Here is a shot of the custom bracket used to support the front of the control box and charger.

The power steering pump is seen here after it was lowered to make room for the control box.

Another shot of the front bracket (driver side).

Control Box (empty).

Control Box (with components mounted inside).

Control Box mounted inside the front motor compartment (uncovered).

Finished look with control box covered.

During the making of the control box, I commuted to and from work on public transit and was anxious to get the car back. I spent plenty of time watching and reading about conversions and keep finding some very interesting material. Here is a project presentation recorded on video entitled "Customizing Commute Ecology" given by a Carnegie Melon University professor named Ilah Nourbakhsh. The project is named "Charge Car" by the "Create Lab" at the university.