{"id":8146,"date":"2022-12-04T14:11:17","date_gmt":"2022-12-04T14:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/?p=8146"},"modified":"2025-01-31T13:05:54","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T13:05:54","slug":"seven-part-2-the-victim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2022\/12\/04\/seven-part-2-the-victim\/","title":{"rendered":"sEVen Conversion &#8211; The Victim"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Well it&#8217;s about time for an update. The victim has been purchased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After searching on and off for a couple of years, not particularly rigorously it must be said, I started looking seriously at the end of the summer (2022) for a &#8220;host&#8221; car to be the basis for my EV conversion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m calling this car the &#8220;host&#8221; car at the moment. It didn&#8217;t seem right to call it a donor, as it&#8217;s donating most of itself&#8230; perhaps donee then?? Perhaps with the donor paradigm then it could be thought of as the patient. But &#8220;host&#8221; seems to be about right&#8230; that may change if someone comes up with a better, or more widely accepted term. Obviously, some people will call the car &#8211; The Victim!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What to buy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In my deliberations about what to buy, I&#8217;d come to the conclusion that I needed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>An SV (series five, wide body) for the extra space inside the chassis &#8211; for the EV stuff but especially batteries<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I didn\u2019t want to be butchering someone\u2019s pride and joy &#8211; so I wanted something that was perhaps a barn find, ex-race car or similar<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Uprated brakes and suspension would be useful for the possible extra weight<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Engine and gearbox were optional, and so their spec weren&#8217;t important either &#8211; if they weren&#8217;t there or not in &#8220;good nick&#8221; then that wasn&#8217;t a problem. Though both working would give me more flexibility later perhaps.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>So after coming back from our summer holidays I started to look properly for a project car.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Hunt<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>And in the end it didn&#8217;t take too long. Within a week or two of &#8220;putting some feelers out&#8221; I got a bite from a CL7C leadership team member, Andrew Edney, about some cars advertised on Piston-heads. A couple of calls later and I was heading down the M4 to PT Sports Cars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1182\" height=\"665\" data-attachment-id=\"8156\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2022\/12\/04\/seven-part-2-the-victim\/pt-sports-cars\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/PT-Sports-Cars.jpeg\" data-orig-size=\"1182,665\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"PT-Sports-Cars\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/PT-Sports-Cars.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/PT-Sports-Cars.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8156\" srcset=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/PT-Sports-Cars.jpeg 1182w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/PT-Sports-Cars-600x338.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/PT-Sports-Cars-768x432.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1182px) 100vw, 1182px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">PT Sports Cars Workshop<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>And the car I eventually bought was tucked away in their racking system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1182\" height=\"665\" data-attachment-id=\"8157\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2022\/12\/04\/seven-part-2-the-victim\/seven-hunkering-at-pt\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sEVen-hunkering-at-PT.jpeg\" data-orig-size=\"1182,665\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"sEVen-hunkering-at-PT\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sEVen-hunkering-at-PT.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sEVen-hunkering-at-PT.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8157\" srcset=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sEVen-hunkering-at-PT.jpeg 1182w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sEVen-hunkering-at-PT-600x338.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sEVen-hunkering-at-PT-768x432.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1182px) 100vw, 1182px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Number two was hunkering in the racking<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>PT Sports Cars had acquired three ex-drift cars from Want-2-Race and were selling them with the intention that they could be put onto the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I went up to PT at the end of August and had a chat with Iain Paine to see what was what.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By the time I&#8217;d got to PT, they only had one of the three cars left, and so I didn&#8217;t have much choice in terms of the condition of the car to chose from &#8211; each of the three had had a different journey and so had a different state of dilapidation. The cars had all been used for drifting since they had been sold by Caterham in 2013 and so definitely came into the category of &#8220;not butchering someone&#8217;s pride and joy&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The car they had left was not in a great state and was well and truly unloved. They were offering to get it &#8220;ready for MOT&#8221; by adding a catalytic converter, fixing the electrics and generally giving it a tidy up. But that wasn&#8217;t so interesting to me. I hadn&#8217;t decided if the car was going to be put on the road first as an ICE or whether to wait for the full EV before registering it, so wasn&#8217;t desperate for them to get it fixed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was pretty much exactly what I was looking for though and so we agreed a price (given that they didn&#8217;t need to do any work on it) and I stumped up for the car and arranged for it to be delivered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"909\" height=\"512\" data-attachment-id=\"8159\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/coming-off-the-trailer-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Coming-off-the-trailer-edited.jpeg\" data-orig-size=\"909,512\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Coming-off-the-trailer\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Coming-off-the-trailer-edited.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Coming-off-the-trailer-edited.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8159\" srcset=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Coming-off-the-trailer-edited.jpeg 909w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Coming-off-the-trailer-edited-600x338.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Coming-off-the-trailer-edited-768x433.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 909px) 100vw, 909px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Specification<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The car&#8217;s specification is as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>2012 Roadsport SV<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>1.6 Sigma Engine<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>SV (series five) wide body<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Uprated brakes and master cylinder<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Limited Slip Diff<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Knackered<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, this car had never been registered for the road, and as far as I knew at this time, it didn&#8217;t have an IVA test performed and so would need a full Individual Vehicle Approval test and all the paperwork associated with it. That was going to mean more time and money, but in the scheme of things neither was going to be a huge problem considering the scale of the rest of the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The question then became, in what order should I get all this done? I think I had two options:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Do a full EV conversion and the get the IVA and V5 sorted on a completed car<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Get the car road legal with the ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) still fitted and then do the conversion afterwards &#8211; hopefully without needing a further IVA test<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>So, we&#8217;ll come to the &#8220;getting it on the road&#8221; bit in a later post, but for the moment the plan was to get the car into the garage and see what sort of state it was in. I knew it ran but a lot of the electrics seems to not be playing ball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Weird Stuff<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>It also had no ignition switch and could be put into &#8220;ignition position 2&#8221; using the battery cutoff switch and then firing the starter with the regular starter button to get the car started. Crude, but very effective if you have a drift car that you don&#8217;t want to deal with the hassle of losing keys all the time. It also seemed to still have the mobiliser connected, but bypassed, by the looks of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1440\" data-attachment-id=\"8171\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/img_0439-3\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_0439-edited-1-scaled.jpeg\" data-orig-size=\"2560,1440\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;2.2&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;iPhone 14 Pro&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1670157015&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;2.22&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;125&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.01&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"IMG_0439\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_0439-edited-1-2048x1152.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_0439-edited-1-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8171\" srcset=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_0439-edited-1-scaled.jpeg 2560w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_0439-edited-1-600x338.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_0439-edited-1-2048x1152.jpeg 2048w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_0439-edited-1-768x432.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_0439-edited-1-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_0439-edited-1-1200x675.jpeg 1200w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_0439-edited-1-1980x1114.jpeg 1980w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Battery cut off switch now acts as ignition switch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>And this is the mess under the dash&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1440\" data-attachment-id=\"8170\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/img_3199-3\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_3199-edited-scaled.jpeg\" data-orig-size=\"2560,1440\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;1.5&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;iPhone 13 Pro&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1663293867&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;5.7&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;500&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.03030303030303&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"IMG_3199\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_3199-edited-2048x1152.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_3199-edited-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8170\" srcset=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_3199-edited-scaled.jpeg 2560w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_3199-edited-600x338.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_3199-edited-2048x1152.jpeg 2048w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_3199-edited-768x432.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_3199-edited-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_3199-edited-1200x675.jpeg 1200w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_3199-edited-1980x1114.jpeg 1980w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Wot no ignition!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>There were some other oddities too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The fire suppression system had been yanked out. Various switches, brackets, cables and hoses were left in place but the suppression system was definitely not there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The odometer is reading 1005 miles. That&#8217;s very unlikely to be the true value and will definitely cause some problems getting it road registered I&#8217;m sure. I don&#8217;t know at the moment if that means the speedo doesn&#8217;t work, but I presume so. So that will need fixing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There&#8217;s also a weird digital clock thing wired in under the dash. This is currently showing 905 hours and I presume it&#8217;s some sort of service interval indication. Seeing as the speedo isn&#8217;t working, I guess this is some way of determining how many &#8220;hours&#8221; the oil etc has been running for. I can imagine these things weren&#8217;t well loved. And so nobody was particularly keeping count of how grotty the oil was getting with no odo. So a simple hourly reading allowed the service techs to determine wether they needed to do anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1811\" height=\"1019\" data-attachment-id=\"8163\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/img_0422-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_0422-edited.jpeg\" data-orig-size=\"1811,1019\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;1.78&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;iPhone 14 Pro&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1669725308&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;6.86&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;50&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.25&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"IMG_0422\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_0422-edited.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_0422-edited.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8163\" srcset=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_0422-edited.jpeg 1811w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_0422-edited-600x338.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_0422-edited-768x432.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_0422-edited-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_0422-edited-1200x675.jpeg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1811px) 100vw, 1811px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> Running time, I presume<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;ve seen cars described by how far away you have to be before it looks ok. Some are measured in inches and some in feet. This one&#8217;s a 20 footer. It sort of looks ok at 20 feet. At 3 feet, it&#8217;s a shocker. It&#8217;s clearly run over too many slalom cones in its life and there&#8217;s something very weird going on with the paintwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Looks aren&#8217;t everything<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The car has a base white wrap applied all over &#8211; and then decals applied on top. The documentation I&#8217;ve recently acquired shows that it was supplied from Caterham as a white body. But it&#8217;s clearly been wrapped since. There&#8217;s also some signs that all&#8217;s not well under the wrap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" data-attachment-id=\"8165\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/bad-wrap-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Bad-Wrap-edited.jpeg\" data-orig-size=\"665,374\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Bad-Wrap\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Bad-Wrap-edited.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Bad-Wrap-edited.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8165\" srcset=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Bad-Wrap-edited.jpeg 665w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Bad-Wrap-edited-600x337.jpeg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 665px) 100vw, 665px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Bad wrap &#8211; that line is a ridge under the wrap<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If you look on the driver&#8217;s side body panels there&#8217;s a ridge running along the length of the body under the plastic wrapping. My assumption at the moment is that the harness buckles have been thrown off so many times that the original paint has been worn away for a few inches below the sills and so a wrap has been applied to &#8220;tidy up&#8221; the car. I&#8217;m in no rush to take the wrap off, probably won&#8217;t even think about that until the full conversion has been completed, so it&#8217;ll stay with the current white wrap for a while. I will take some of the decals off at some point, but there&#8217;s no rush to do that either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some good news though is that the car starts easily and the battery (though flat when it arrived) does seem to hold some charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1440\" data-attachment-id=\"8167\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/img_3171-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_3171-edited-scaled.jpeg\" data-orig-size=\"2560,1440\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;1.5&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;iPhone 13 Pro&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1662727947&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;5.7&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;50&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.0025706940874036&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"IMG_3171\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_3171-edited-2048x1152.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_3171-edited-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8167\" srcset=\"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_3171-edited-scaled.jpeg 2560w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_3171-edited-600x338.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_3171-edited-2048x1152.jpeg 2048w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_3171-edited-768x432.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_3171-edited-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_3171-edited-1200x675.jpeg 1200w, https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_3171-edited-1980x1114.jpeg 1980w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Host is in its new home<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>So, with the car in the garage it was time to figure out what to do next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well it&#8217;s about time for an update. The victim has been purchased. After searching on and off for a couple of years, not particularly rigorously it must be said, I started looking seriously at the end of the summer (2022) for a &#8220;host&#8221; car to be the basis for my EV conversion. I&#8217;m calling this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The host car is now in the garage.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[51,38],"tags":[42],"class_list":["post-8146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-caterham-blog","category-electric-vehicles","tag-seven"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_3171-edited-scaled.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8yl38-27o","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8125,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2022\/09\/30\/seven-index\/","url_meta":{"origin":8146,"position":0},"title":"Putting the EV in sEVen &#8211; Index","author":"John Martin","date":"September 30, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"In this project we're converting a Caterham Seven Supersport SV from being powered by an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), into one powered by an electric motor and batteries (BEV - Battery Electric Vehicle) This page is an index of articles relating to Putting the EV in sEVen. You can find\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Caterham Blog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Caterham Blog","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/caterham-blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Cartoon-Seven-Vector-with-EV-Purple-Bumper.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Cartoon-Seven-Vector-with-EV-Purple-Bumper.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Cartoon-Seven-Vector-with-EV-Purple-Bumper.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Cartoon-Seven-Vector-with-EV-Purple-Bumper.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Cartoon-Seven-Vector-with-EV-Purple-Bumper.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Cartoon-Seven-Vector-with-EV-Purple-Bumper.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8177,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2022\/12\/09\/seven-tradoffs-and-comparisons\/","url_meta":{"origin":8146,"position":1},"title":"sEVen Tradoffs and Compromises","author":"John Martin","date":"December 9, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"A cut down version of this post appeared in the December 2022 edition of Lowflying. This full version is a little more wordy but\u00a0contains more detail, images and with hyperlinks. Putting the EV in sEVen - Part 2 : Conversion Tradeoffs With my sEVen conversion car now purchased, I\u2019m well\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Caterham Blog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Caterham Blog","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/caterham-blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Banner.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Banner.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Banner.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Banner.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Banner.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Banner.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8262,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2023\/03\/21\/putting-the-ev-in-seven-lowflying-part-3-ev-bits-and-pieces\/","url_meta":{"origin":8146,"position":2},"title":"Putting the EV in sEVen &#8211; Lowflying part 3 : EV Bits and Pieces","author":"John Martin","date":"March 21, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"This article first appeared in the February edition of the Caterham and Lotus Seven Club's Lowflying magazine. I also created an animated overview of all of this in this video below: https:\/\/youtu.be\/8tDo6ezOMu0 What's in an EV Conversion A more detailed version of this video will be coming soon. And here's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Caterham Blog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Caterham Blog","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/caterham-blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Test-Cycles-250W-with-Lineart-Exp-0.25-Gamma-1.4.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Test-Cycles-250W-with-Lineart-Exp-0.25-Gamma-1.4.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Test-Cycles-250W-with-Lineart-Exp-0.25-Gamma-1.4.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Test-Cycles-250W-with-Lineart-Exp-0.25-Gamma-1.4.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Test-Cycles-250W-with-Lineart-Exp-0.25-Gamma-1.4.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Test-Cycles-250W-with-Lineart-Exp-0.25-Gamma-1.4.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8548,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/02\/25\/the-electric-in-electric-vehicles-youtube-ptevis-2-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":8146,"position":3},"title":"The Electric in Electric Vehicles &#8211; YOUTUBE PTEVIS 2.1","author":"John Martin","date":"February 25, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/LEBzMDAg6gE The Electric in Electric Vehicles This is the first of two explainer videos I\u2019ve created to help YouTube viewers understand the concepts, terminology and physics of what\u2019s going on in my Caterham Seven EV conversion. I\u2019ve made the videos so I don\u2019t need to keep explaining each concept every\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Caterham Blog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Caterham Blog","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/caterham-blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/PTEVIS2.1-002-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/PTEVIS2.1-002-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/PTEVIS2.1-002-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/PTEVIS2.1-002-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/PTEVIS2.1-002-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/PTEVIS2.1-002-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10931,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2025\/09\/07\/putting-the-ev-in-seven-progress-3-3d-scanning-the-project-car\/","url_meta":{"origin":8146,"position":4},"title":"Putting the EV in Seven: Progress #3, 3D Scanning the Project Car","author":"John Martin","date":"September 7, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Time for another video. This time on one of the first jobs that needed doing once the project car had been stripped down... to 3D scan what remained. A scan is an essential part of an EV conversion these days. It allows you to accurately measure all the odd angles\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Caterham Blog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Caterham Blog","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/caterham-blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/PTEVIS5-001-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/PTEVIS5-001-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/PTEVIS5-001-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/PTEVIS5-001-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/PTEVIS5-001-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/PTEVIS5-001-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8510,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/02\/12\/3d-scanning-my-ev-conversion-project-car\/","url_meta":{"origin":8146,"position":5},"title":"3D Scanning My EV Conversion Project Car","author":"John Martin","date":"February 12, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Excuses, Excuses Ok\u2026 so\u2026 I\u2019ve been distracted. Since starting this EV conversion project I\u2019ve got a bit distracted by a couple of other projects. The first was the Caterham and Lotus Seven Club, in general and specifically the move to the new website. But I also found I was getting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Caterham Blog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Caterham Blog","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/caterham-blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Frame-12-02-2024-09-14-24-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Frame-12-02-2024-09-14-24-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Frame-12-02-2024-09-14-24-scaled.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Frame-12-02-2024-09-14-24-scaled.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Frame-12-02-2024-09-14-24-scaled.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Frame-12-02-2024-09-14-24-scaled.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8146"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8202,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8146\/revisions\/8202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}