Project Strangeangel's Shite-tastic Shenanigans 12/12 NEW MOTOR - ACHIEVED.

[strangeangel]

Meanwhile, back in the Ami the n/s floor pan is looking all the better for two coats of black over the two coats of Zinc 182:

 

 

Time to start on the next bit...

 

[Zelandeth]

Just went looking at eBay for tiny electric things like that and the G-Wiz.  Apparently this owning tiny cars thing is a degenerative condition..had expected them to be worth pocket change.  Apparently not!

[LightBulbFun]

20 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Just went looking at eBay for tiny electric things like that and the G-Wiz.  Apparently this owning tiny cars thing is a degenerative condition..had expected them to be worth pocket change.  Apparently not!

have you thought about an electric Tippen Delta or AC Model 64?

(there was also an electric version of the Harper Mk6 but none are known to survive AFAIK)

[Zelandeth]

16 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

have you thought about an electric Tippen Delta or AC Model 64?

(there was also an electric version of the Harper Mk6 but none are known to survive AFAIK)

No.

Weatherproofing, heating and the ability to do at least 40mph without the world ending are essential. Being able to carry at least one passenger is kinda essential to given I've already got one single seat vehicle...

[strangeangel]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

Just went looking at eBay for tiny electric things like that and the G-Wiz.  Apparently this owning tiny cars thing is a degenerative condition..had expected them to be worth pocket change.  Apparently not!

 

I think the niche market that Aixams and the G-Wiz etc. enjoy (giffers with motorbike licences who used to drive Reliants) is what keeps the prices up. That said cheap ones do turn up if you look long enough - the bid I placed on mine was really no more than a cheeky punt, as I was fully expecting the price to end up around two grand (the seller paid £2800 for it two years ago).

 

[djimbob]

12 hours ago, strangeangel said:

 

Wasn't your one a Microcar?

 

 

Yeah, little bastard, ended up losing my shirt on it and selling to Michael's of Selby for spares ?

[Zelandeth]

On 10/19/2019 at 6:20 PM, strangeangel said:

 

I think the niche market that Aixams and the G-Wiz etc. enjoy (giffers with motorbike licences who used to drive Reliants) is what keeps the prices up. That said cheap ones do turn up if you look long enough - the bid I placed on mine was really no more than a cheeky punt, as I was fully expecting the price to end up around two grand (the seller paid £2800 for it two years ago).

 

Well I've set a saved search up on eBay now to keep my eyes open.

Probably 80% of my travel is trips of <10 miles, and at least three or four times a week I have to sit in a queue for 20 minutes waiting to get to the pickup spot at the train station to give Abby a lift home.  She's got a bad hip so if it's been a busy day the mile up hill is painful for her.  Having something like this would be absolutely perfect for these runs and would make the guilt free...

...Would really need to be a few hundred quid though to make sense.

I've checked though, and yes - if cleared out properly you could fit both a G-Wiz and the Invacar in the garage together.

I really want a shot of at least driving one now.  Miss the electric Pug 106s we had at work years ago...rest of the staff hated them but I thought they were an utter joy to trundle around town in.

[strangeangel]

4 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

...Would really need to be a few hundred quid though to make sense.

 

 

It can be done. The cheapest one I've seen was a Mega City like mine with ruined batteries for 300 quid, but that requires you to find a decent 2nd hand set of batteries or shell out 1200 or so for new ones, making it somewhat less of a bargain. I have seen allegedly functioning but battered G-Wizs for as little as 700 albeit with absolutely no provenance on the batteries whatsoever. Mine was only a bit more than that, but the batteries are OK, there's a new auxiliary battery and new charger and an MOT, and the thing looks reasonably tidy.

 

[somewhatfoolish]

On 10/18/2019 at 6:35 PM, Dave_Q said:

Seems to be 3 kinds of electricity/plug, but nowhere to plug in your phone charger.

I guess your options are trailer, or 3 day collection featuring overnight charges via extension leads dangled out of shiter windows in approx Derby and Sheffield (or Stoke and Stockport?)

You need one of these(other vendors of type 2 to 13A adaptor things are available)

[jonny69]

Assuming the 12x 12V batteries in the Aixam are wired up in series, the battery is about the same voltage as the Gen 1 Insight and the Gen 2 Civic Hybrid. I was eyeing up the Aixam motor as a source of additional hybrid power, by adding it to the Insight's rear axle in parallel with the IMA motor. It could* be just as simple to use Gen 2 Civic Hybrid NiMH batteries in place of the Aixam's lead acid ones. You can pick these up for £not much and there's not much that goes wrong with them. A conditioning discharge and slow charge usually revives a weak battery. You wouldn't stress it much with only 4hp being pulled out of it.

Edit: though if the Aixam's battery is around 8kWh you'd need 8x Civic hybrid batteries @ ~£300 each...

[strangeangel]

1 hour ago, jonny69 said:

Assuming the 12x 12V batteries in the Aixam are wired up in series, the battery is about the same voltage as the Gen 1 Insight and the Gen 2 Civic Hybrid. I was eyeing up the Aixam motor as a source of additional hybrid power, by adding it to the Insight's rear axle in parallel with the IMA motor. It could* be just as simple to use Gen 2 Civic Hybrid NiMH batteries in place of the Aixam's lead acid ones. You can pick these up for £not much and there's not much that goes wrong with them. A conditioning discharge and slow charge usually revives a weak battery. You wouldn't stress it much with only 4hp being pulled out of it.

 

 

Interesting! Well, the transporter s booked and djimbob and I will be collecting it on Thursday, so I will have a look and report back after that.

 

[LightBulbFun]

21 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

I've checked though, and yes - if cleared out properly you could fit both a G-Wiz and the Invacar in the garage together.

 

wont have been the first time you have seen an AC Model 70 and a G Wizz parked next to each other  (well more at 90 degree angles to each other LOL)

[strangeangel]

It's been a long day, but a good one... cheers @djimbob for invaluable collectioneering assistance once again.

 

 

Handy access for both driver's seats and still room to get to the front door! What more could you ask for?

 

Wonder what I'll be doing with my day off tomorrow...

 

 

 

[strangeangel]

Here's an odd find - I've been trying to root out a manual for the Aixam, and in doing so I turned up a cached Gumtree advert for another Mega City+ not far from here. It's registered consecutively with my one!

 

 

Sadly, a quick DVLA check reveals that it's dead, like most of these   Howmanyleft says there are just 11 electric Mega City+ still on the road.

 

[egg]

Dead maybe.....but if not actually crushed....could be useful parts!

[strangeangel]

3 minutes ago, egg said:

Dead maybe.....but if not actually crushed....could be useful parts!

 

 

Indeed! I was wondering if it might still be in a yard somewhere nearby, as the MOT history (still online even though the car itself has gone from the computer) shows it passed an MOT in March this year.

 

 

[Dave_Q]

Here's an odd find - I've been trying to root out a manual for the Aixam, and in doing so I turned up a cached Gumtree advert for another Mega City+ not far from here. It's registered consecutively with my one!
 

 
Sadly, a quick DVLA check reveals that it's dead, like most of these   Howmanyleft says there are just 11 electric Mega City+ still on the road.
 

REAR OPPORTUNERTIY TO BUY WON OF THESE, GETTING RARE NOW, NO SILLY OFFARS I KNOW WOT THESE R WORF

[strangeangel]

Half day today, so time for some Aixam fettling. Now that the issue of opening the boot has been resolved, and not without some hilarity, stuff can get done. It was great* to see that the two hydraulic rams were totally incapable of holding up a tailgate that weighs all of about 15g...

 

 

Good start. Anyway, out with the optional (and useless) rear seat, as it - and the associated seat belts etc. - are just extra strain on the batteries that I don't need.

 

 

Like in the Microcar Virgo djimbob briefly owned, where are the rear seat passengers supposed to put their legs? No, out it comes.

 

 

Mary Jane? Sticker remover took care of that!

 

 

Opening the bonnet revealed an interesting feature*

 

 

And, slightly more worryingly, what the actual fuck is this?? The ad said it had had a new charger fitted, but that's not quite what I had in mind...

 

 

We'll come back to that. As for the bonnet... y'all know what time it is:

 

 

 

Sorted. While I was waiting for the Araldite to set I decided to clean up the cloudy plastic headlights:

 

 

A rub with Farecla, followed by a vigorous polishing with Simoniz lookey-likey T-Cut worked wonders.

 

 

The light started to fail then, otherwise I would have had a gander at that wanky charger... more soon, most likely at the weekend (subject to weather, natch).

 

[vulgalour]

The Ami looks particularly sour about this new arrival, and who can blame it?  What a dreadful car*.  I look forward to more updates, naturally!

[ETCHY]

I like the little Aixam, ok they're shit but it's cool electric shit.

Nice to see somebody doing their bit for the environment. As it'll probably travel about 20 feet on a full charge you'll spend most of your time walking & that's very eco friendly

Well done on buying it & I look forward to the updates !

[strangeangel]

On 10/30/2019 at 6:37 PM, vulgalour said:

I look forward to more updates, naturally!

 

 

Not long to wait for this one! The car smelt strongly of dog, something I wasn't particularly fond of. A visit to Home Bargains yielded a can of something called Neutradol, at just 95p. This was chucked all over the carpet and the (fairly grim) seats. I left it for half and hour, and then vacced it up.

 

It didn't say you could use it on seats, so I could have no complaints when the stuff wouldn't come off, no matter how hard poor old Henry tried. The only thing for it was to break out the wet'n'dry Vax - a job I envisaged for a drier day than today - and give the seats a proper clean. This was well worth the effort; the contents of the Vax's waste tank looked more like oxtail soup than water. Inside the car looks, and smells, better already.

 

There's no chance of it drying naturally, so to avoid the reoccurrence of foul smells I've left it with an oil-filled radiator in and one of the windows slightly open. Apologies for lack of pics, but the weather was shite and I couldn't be bothered.

 

 

[vulgalour]

Neutradol is good, for a time, but I've found dog and greasy takeaway smells can come back after a few weeks or months.  If this happens, try chucking a lot of bicarbonate of soda all over the fabric and carpets and leaving it for 24-48 hours (depending on severity of smell), vacuuming up afterwards.  Normally, this gets rid of unwanted organic smells pretty comprehensively and since it's pretty cheap stuff, repeat applications won't break the bank.  The only thing this doesn't seem to work fantastically well on is tobacco related odours, that tends to need a good scrub of all surfaces and a thorough shampoo.

If the dog smell persists, pull out the seats.  Sometimes you get a conglomeration of dog hair and such under the seats and in the edges between seats and trim which gets particularly ripe when the interior warms up,  There's no reason for cars to smell so badly of dog, regular cleaning prevents the build up of hair and grease from the dog and keeps the odours at bay, it just seems most people that travel with a dog in the car frequently don't want to, or haven't the time, to bother cleaning the car out once a week.

[strangeangel]

On 10/21/2019 at 3:13 PM, jonny69 said:

Assuming the 12x 12V batteries in the Aixam are wired up in series, the battery is about the same voltage as the Gen 1 Insight and the Gen 2 Civic Hybrid.

 

 

I've just looked and they are in series. It has 12 x Lucas LSLC85-12 batteries (85Ah). The seller was telling me it had an auxiliary battery to run the indicators and suchlike, but I haven't found that yet. Amazing how easy it is not to be able to find things in a car that's about 4 foot long ?

 

[Zelandeth]

8 hours ago, strangeangel said:

 

I've just looked and they are in series. It has 12 x Lucas LSLC85-12 batteries (85Ah). The seller was telling me it had an auxiliary battery to run the indicators and suchlike, but I haven't found that yet. Amazing how easy it is not to be able to find things in a car that's about 4 foot long ?

 

It's because your brain has a tendency to expect things to be in certain places, and presented with a vehicle which breaks the rules confuses it.

You'd be astonished how many times I found myself going "Where the hell is...?" during the first few weeks of meddling with Invacars.  Which are similarly diminutive, but similarly have stuff scattered seemingly at random throughout the vehicle.

Wouldn't surprise me if that Halfords special charger had something to do with the auxiliary battery, just set up to charge it whenever the car is plugged in.  Wouldn't make sense to faff about with inverter based chargers to keep it topped off from the traction batteries really on a car which is only going to have such a limited range before a recharge...

[strangeangel]

While it's raining here I've been usefully employed getting insurance quotes for the Aixam. I've tried the three main comparison engines and they keep coming back with the same insurer at a gnat's over £300 FC. I have tried it with a named driver (even though Our Lass has clearly stated she would not darken the Aixam's floppy, badly-made door) which made no difference. TPFT comes back as about £250. I expect the main problem is that I don't have any NCB available to put on it...

 

[egg]

Have a go with Direct Line. They've been cheap for my shite for a while.

[strangeangel]

So the day has finally come - insurance begins, taxed car (£0 - yay) and it's time to see what the Aixam can('t) do.

 

First impressions - it's slow, but of course I expected that. Still, 30 on the flat is OK for what I need. I was having great trouble with keeping the ECO light off though, previous owner gave the impression that it only came on if you were caning it and I didn't feel like I was. Anyway, we have hills on my way to work, so let's try a few of those, eh? Not great, dropping to 18mph and after about 4-5 miles of hilly, village motoring it started to smell.

 

Of burning... oh, shit.

 

Despite having plenty of bars left on the battery, I turned round and headed for home. I dumped it on the driveway, where by now the thing was wreathed in grey smoke. CO2 extinguisher in one hand, I opened the bonnet with the other. No smoke... must be coming from somewhere else. By now the smoke had dispersed, so I placed a hand on each of the wheels, suspecting a seized brake. The N/S rear was too hot to touch...

 

It's pissing down now, but hopefully I'll be able to strip that and clean it up this weekend and then see how it drives without the brakes permanently on!

[Tamworthbay]

4 minutes ago, strangeangel said:

So the day has finally come - insurance begins, taxed car (£0 - yay) and it's time to see what the Aixam can('t) do.

 

First impressions - it's slow, but of course I expected that. Still, 30 on the flat is OK for what I need. I was having great trouble with keeping the ECO light off though, previous owner gave the impression that it only came on if you were caning it and I didn't feel like I was. Anyway, we have hills on my way to work, so let's try a few of those, eh? Not great, dropping to 18mph and after about 4-5 miles of hilly, village motoring it started to smell.

 

Of burning... oh, shit.

 

Despite having plenty of bars left on the battery, I turned round and headed for home. I dumped it on the driveway, where by now the thing was wreathed in grey smoke. CO2 extinguisher in one hand, I opened the bonnet with the other. No smoke... must be coming from somewhere else. By now the smoke had dispersed, so I placed a hand on each of the wheels, suspecting a seized brake. The N/S rear was too hot to touch...

 

It's pissing down now, but hopefully I'll be able to strip that and clean it up this weekend and then see how it drives without the brakes permanently on!

It’s a pain but a lot better than it could of been. Once the factory fitted smoke escapes from electric motors they are never happy again. We fried a few when we were racing the electric cars, one race was finished with the plastic brush housing pretty much liquid and held in with gaffer tape and crossed fingers.

[Dave_Q]

Are you taking bets on the performance?

 

My guess is that up the climb from New Mill to the Sovereign it will be faster than a pushbike but slower than a ped - 22mph.

 

 

[strangeangel]

25 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

Are you taking bets on the performance?

 

My guess is that up the climb from New Mill to the Sovereign it will be faster than a pushbike but slower than a ped - 22mph.

 

 

Ah, I've changed locations now... the hill I will be worrying about is the one from Kirkburton to the top of Shelley. But yeah, not expecting much in the way of speed going up there. After a week this thread'll be all CAN U MAKE AXIAM FASTER M8?