So I somehow ended up with ANOTHER Beetle, a 74 Super Beetle. I traded some of the parts in the boxes I found inside the dune buggy for it. I need another car like I need a hole in my head, but the price was right. Beetles are somewhat classic cars now, so it was too hard for me to pass up. Cars are my weakness. In two days I start working full time at the middle school and then on Monday I also start being a full time student as well carrying 14 hours. I won't have a minute to spare on projects.

I scored two group 31 batteries from my local Napa Auto Parts. They read 12.64v and 12.59v. I traded 2 of my dead batteries out of the electric Geo.

I have a new car to convert! I traded my neighbor his VW Bug for my trailer plus $150. I paid $75 fore the trailer, so I paid about $225 for a 1972 VW Bug.

I haven't been driving my electric Geo that much because it gets really hot in Oklahoma during the summer, and putting A/C back in is a challenge. I do need to drive it occasionally to keep the batteries exercised. To that end, I drove it about 3 miles a couple days ago. What is interesting to me is that the only new battery in the pack took a VERY long time to charge. I find this very odd. The other batteries took a few hours, but the new one took over 12. Also, I decided to treat one of the batteries in my pack with the ECO2 battery reviving product I received from Korea. I treated the battery that showed the lowest voltage after the 3 mile drive: it showed 12.11 volts (the other ranged in voltage from 12.22v to 12.73v after the drive). I also connected the electronic battery desulfator to it.

I have been stalled in my battery testing because of the theft- and frankly the stall may be more emotional than economic. There's something about a theft that is so demoralizing; it kind of gives me the sense of "why bother, if all my efforts just get taken away". I have also been experimenting with Prius cells and 18650 laptop batteries as potential sources for powering an EV. But on the lead/acid front, there has been some great progress made. My car broke down very far from home, so I ended up renting a truck to tow it back. As it turns out, the rental place sees many vehicles come and go: part of the business is auto body work. Sometimes, when an insurance company deems the car a total loss, the vehicle just gets sent to the junkyard. As luck would have it, the owner offered me any battery out of those vehicles for $2 each. I took him up on his offer, and right off the bat I got 4 batteries from him. One of them took a charge and was good to go just like that, the other three are very old and likely unrecoverable. It seems as though they would be good candidates to see if they can be revived. I look forward to that....

I just had most of my batteries stolen. I am pretty crushed by this. I had two good semi truck batteries stolen that were going to go in the 86 Corolla conversion, and one spare group 24 for the Geo.

I have treated another battery Saturday July 3rd. It had a resting voltage of 10.63v. I added 10ml of product to each cell. Interestingly, when I put on the charger (Duracell 12 amp "smart" charger), it did not go into "bulk" charge mode. I took it off the charger yesterday. Today, 24 hours later, it still has a voltage of 12.78v! This is a very good sign. Now that i have the electric car back in the carport, I can more easily test batteries in it.

I also have another battery that I began testing on. This battery has a dead cell. Supposedly, a battery with a dead cell cannot be revived. I added 10ml of product in the dead cell only. I put it on the charger for 24 hours, and when I took it off the charger the voltage immediately dropped to 11.17v. I put it back on the charger, and today (24 hours later), it had a voltage of 13.01v right off the charger. What I have done with it now is I have put it in parallel with a known good battery that has a Wizbang desulfator on it that is on float charge.

I'm not sure what to do with the original battery I tested. It had 2 bad cells. After treatment, the voltage dropped a little. I think I will put it on an electronic desulfator later.

I anxiously want to get to work on reconditioning batteries!! Unfortunately, I have been hit hard with bronchitis, so things are on hold right at the moment.

Battery rejuvenation

I was fortunate enough to have a Korean company get in contact with me about testing their product. It is a chemical based desulfator using non-harsh ingredients. They sent me 10 boxes of the product. Each box has two bottles. Each bottle can treat one battery. They sent this all free of charge. They have also sent thorough instructions for use and an MSDS data sheet. I have already began testing the product on one of my batteries:

Resting voltage: 9.44v
After adding 10cc to each cell: 9.46v
Shook battery:9.56v

Note: I had to use 4cc's from a 2nd bottle to get the full 10cc in each cell. So one battle was slightly underfilled.

I put the battery on the charger for 2 hours last night. Today voltage is at 8.47v

Electric cars at affordable prices

I wanted a place where I could post my thoughts on electric cars, and how ANYONE can drive one regardless of their knowledge, abilities, and economic status.