What is the deal with you Japanese men and bondage.

 

Rui, how is it going?
You haven't made any updates in a while.
Are you still alive?

 

Sorry I've been quite busy traveling to places with my job.
(I only got back to Japan from Germany and Spain yesterday!)
Unfortunately, Not much has changed other then preparing for the engine bay paint job. (Alot of sanding...)

I will get my head into a gear and get it going in March!
(I've also purchased Chademo* and J1772* compatible Charger fast charger. )

*Chademo and J1772 are the world wide standard charging inlet for the EV

 

As promised, I've finished stripping the engine room and scraped as much paint as possible...The original paint job was surprisingly thick!
So, Here are photos of before and after (still in middle of Priming layers...)

Will try to get it done by the end of this month!

Before




After(halfway through base coat)

 

Yeah! She keeps moving onwards!

 

Thanks for the update, keep going you have many of us very intrigued with your project!

 

More update with a paint job!

Got more done this weekend but yet to finish...(will finish this week)

Got all primer done and wet sanded with 2000grit. (silky smooooooth!)

i've started with the black paint(Honda colour code: NH731P) but only first layer is on it for now.
i've done my research and as it turns out, this honda's black is the deepest and gorgeous of all backs I can find!


2nd layer of Promer




3rd layer of Promer




4 layers of Primer.
wet sanded with 2000grid




Beginning of 1st layer of black paint!

 

Dear Rui-san,

Thank you for writing up your very interesting project. Keep the great work going!

I regret I'm unable to buy your V8 because of the exobitant/prohibitive shipping regulations and costs.

I wish you the best of luck to completing your XK8 EV.

 

No problem, I will find home for it.

So, Update:
Let's just say Its DONE!


2nd layer done




3rd and final clear coat!
Yes, the headlight housing in green still(now I wish I did it as well) but hey, once the headlight is in, you wont see any green-ness!



Can you believe this is done with a Can spray?

PS: Technique I've used is to dip the can in hot(45 degrees C) water before use. And to make sure you have good light shining on where you are painting to see the reflection of the coating!

 

Very nice, good to get details like this out of the way early, makes for a much nicer result.

I've always had good luck with rattle cans also for small projects but you have exceeded my diffinition of a small project!

 

Apart from being wowed by the project, I have to be very impressed by the way the walls, window and floor aren't black as well now! I sprayed bits of the TR6 in the garage and then spent twice the time cleaning overspray off everything...

 

still watching with interest... keep up the good work!

 

Very good point there but since my garage already had layer of dust(I guess the new paint just sat on top), it was easy to clean! (used vacuum cleaner!)

slight delay...I was going to hook up the coupler to the flywheel but light problem has surfaced...coupler has wrong bolt pitch...Original flywheel comes with M12 1.75pitch bolts where as the couple is threaded with 1.5pitch.
Already made the order for them...

original bolt only goes in for about 2mm....


Another problem...I was gonna put the shiny motor mount to the engine mount. However, engine mount bolt is too short...so I'm gonna need to make slightly larger hole on top of the current one to make them fit!

engine mount arm is way too thick!


Oh I've also cleaned the engine mount rubber thing. (They are shiny!)

PS: Do you guys prefer big pictures or small ones like this?

 

Love what you're doing here Rui. Brilliant execution. I wonder if there's another XK EV anywhere..

I don't mind how you roll the pictures:- just great to see them

Mike

 

ルイさん、がんばってください！

 

If I understand it correctly, this is Rui's day job:

 

Hey Rui, I hope the recent earthquakes did not cause trouble for you, your friends and family.

Scary.

I am very excited to see this project come together.

I hope all the little things (like TCU commands to transmission, etc.) don't cause too much trouble.

Good luck!!!

 

Oh know, you know my secret! lol. Spot on, my friend. I'm their hybrid system support.

And thanks, my close ones are all well.

as of the project, I am still working on getting the motor mounted to the trans. I will do a little more work and give you guys an update!

 

I'm glad to hear that your friends and family are fine. I am praying that the big earthquakes stop for a while.

I was concerned about the TCU's signals to the transmission but found some good news. You probably already know it.

Someone did an EV conversion that uses the same ZF 5HP24 that you have (I think), and he already figured out all the issues for you, and took care of them. Sounds like he had a friend do software coding for him or something.

Even better is that he made YouTube videos of the whole process.

Just in case you were not aware, here is a sample:

 

I've been following him. and yes, he is one of the reason why I've decided to keep the AT for now.
I am planning to run MT in future tho. I'll try to solve the TCU troubles as I go. ( I can use 4th gear and Reverse and park without TCU anyway )