This morning, an exciting thing happened. The Project, and Ben and I were on the front page of the Virginia Gazette thanks to Susan Robertson, the inquisitive reporter that came and interviewed us on Monday. We are extremely pleased and hope that the publicity will drum up some more support for the project. The article can be found on the front page of any Wednesday, July 14th edition of the Virginia Gazette, or online at
http://www.vagazette.com/articles/2010/07/14/slide_show/doc4c3cfb90c2f23254210886.txt
- Aidan

The Rest of the Exhaust Removed and Electrical Problems Solved

The lights, windows, locks, and radio didn't work all day!  No Village People!  After an entire day of fiddling with the wires, Aidan discovered that we had forgotten to reconnect a chunk of wiring harness.  Problem solved!

Engine Removal Attempt!

This is a sad first attempt at engine removal.  It's out now, but it was incredibly frustrating.

Drive Back From the Airport

This is after we borrowed tools from the airport to remove the axle nuts.  Apparently, I drive too quickly.

Publicity

This week, the electric corolla has gotten its first morsel of publicity. Desiree Parker from the Williamsburg-Yorktown Daily came to see the car last week and to talk to the two of us. This week, her article for her weekly Ecofreak blog was about the electric corolla. Check it out at www.wydaily.com and feel free to post your comments.

On Tuesday, the engine was removed from the car. Also, the reporter from the Williamsburg/Yorktown Daily came to interview us. We must've had a lot to say because the lady wrote over 3 pages of notes in her notebook. Our project will appear on both the Tide Radio 92.3 FM and the reporter's Eco Freak blog. Yay for publicity.

Weekend

Over the weekend, my grandfather came down from Pittsburgh with his mechanical expertise. He and I did some work on the car and completely prepped the engine and transmission for removal from the car. On a different note, after sending some emails to some local press outlets, a person from the Tide Radio, 92.3 FM, and the Williamsburg-Yorktown Daily is coming on Tuesday, tomorrow, to interview Ben and I about the electric car. Hopefully this will generate some publicity and maybe some much needed sponsorship from the local community. That's all for this weekend.

-Aidan

Strong work Ben, that is technically correct.

-Aidan

Removed the Power Steering and Air Conditioning

Today we removed the power steering and air conditioning.  First, we tried to disconnect the axle, but we broke the ratchet.  Then, we tried lift the engine after detaching the transmission, but it didn't work.  Guess we'll have to disconnect the trans. from the axle and lift the entire thing out tomorrow.

Sweet Paint!

While Aidan removed heat shields, I busied myself painting with our can of fluorescent green spray paint.