11/28/08
Working on the front-end of the car. I have cut out what will be the hood of the Bradley. Bradley's have a very small hood so I'm making it larger to allow access to the batteries that will up front. I will be using the race car hold downs to hold the hood in place. Things are proceeding well.

11/08/08
I have moved the car outside. I'm going to sand the car over all to help speed things up. The entire car must be sanded and with nothing else really going on with it and it's something I can do to help out.

10/30/08
This month I have been working out all the electronic system that will run the car. It is working great but I need to find a smaller PC to make it meet my needs for the car better. I will be looking at something like the Dell Hybrid it appears to be very compact and is loaded with disk space and USB ports. I'm using a touch screen in the car and this system really works well. I have also show the system to my EV car club. I'm in my world now....

9/30/08
We have completed the new look for the backend of the Bradley. I think it looks great and will be very functional. We have rounded off the back end added in the lights and sanded and sanded and sanded... LOL My hats off to my friend the Paintball Man... I will tell you I'm learning a ton about fiberglass and how to shape it and mold it. Check out the pics of the back end of the car. wow it looks great! Thanks Batman

8/06/08 - 7pm
Wow we are going to town on this project more done... I'm also learing how to setup the digital control system for the car. Everything for this car will run off a PC. Scary huh! not really its just what one gets use to really. All the gauges all computerized it's looking great and I'm getting lots of help from people all over the world... Now that's what I call networking... I have posted a lot of new pitures of our progress... Take a pic it's getting there. Thanks for the support as well to all you out there donating funds... It helps out more than you know.. Thanks Batman

8/01/08 - 10pm
Well we have been busy working on the body of the car. The backend of it is really coming together great. It's looking like what we want. I have had all the glass taking out and begun sanding the body and working on all the body work. We have ordered more parts for the chassis and I went to Pete & Jakes to look at door hindges and stuff. I have tons of pictures to add... Its a great time work all day and then work all night. It will be worth it all in the long run. I have a great time so far learning from the Paintball Wizard. He knows his stuff that's for sure.

7/24/08 - 9pm
We worked on replacing the chassis floor panels last night. This is something I have never done and I was able to see why that is. It takes tools of all kinds to work on a car. From a drill bit sharpener to a 3500 lbs metal bending device. lol I had a great time took lots of pictures and well get them up as soon as possible. I have all the other chassis parts coming in next. I hope to be completing the chassis done and moving on to the body in the next week or two. We are doing small things to the body to make working on the chassis more fun. Stay tune tons more to come... Don't forget to toss me a buck to help keep the project on schedule. It takes a lot... Thanks

7/20/08 - 9pm
Well I have been working all week on my new software for the inside of the car. I have found what I have been looking for and it’s great. It’s good that I’m a software developer because it’s coming in handy for this part. LOL.. Let me tell you a little bit about it. It’s called RoadRunner no not the cable company. It allows for devices to talk in a digital world. I have added some new pictures of what I’m doing it will better describe it I think.

It uses a touch screen in the place of all the gauges and accessories pretty cool. I will be getting a XM radio and a GPS to work with the system.

7/16/08 - 9pm
Ordered a ton of parts for the chassis. They will be getting here next week sometime. I'm looking to putting it back together.

7/09/08 - 9pm
Spoke to Global e Power about getting the Curtis enGage IV instrument panel.

The Curtis enGage™ IV is a microprocessor based instrument panel that can be programmed to monitor, display and control numerous vehicle functions in a single integrated package.

7/08/08 - 9pm
On Tuesday July 8th the Paintball Wizard comes over to make templates for the car body. He is making a metal cart thing to sit the body on. This will allow us to move the car around easily. There are pictures of the cart on the photo gallery.

7/07/08 - 10pm
On Monday July 7th evening the Paintball Wizard came over to survey the chassis and tell me what I need to plan on for the next few weeks. We are doing this the correct way and basically rebuilding the entire car from the ground up. One it's needed and two it was something I wanted to do to learn how the car works and operates.

7/06/08 - 10pm
Sunday July 6th morning 5am I know it's a little early for most but Batman happy to finally have the project underway. I begun by taking out the seats and the interior then moved to break time. The interior was not as easy to take out as expected. I have never done anything like this but the TV shows make it look easy. Those guys must have a ton of experience on this stuff. Come about noon a friend dropped by to help out. I use those old style tools you know the ones that take manual labor to operate. LOL Well it was not long before the Paintball Wizard decided enough with the manual stuff and we headed out to get the power tools. Wow what a difference these things make. The next thing you know I have my son and his friends there wanting to help out. The Paintball Wizard looks at me and said so you want to dismantle it? I said well sure what does that mean? He tells me that a kit car is just that. So I ask the kids and they were up for it so away we went just tearing out everything. Removing body bolts and gas tank and I think I seen the kitchen sink go out the door too… lol Well at 9pm we invited a few neighbors over to help lift the body off the chassis. Wow what a day we completely took the car down to parts. I was hurting and the Paintball Wizard was hurting just as much. At that point I knew the he was really a pretty good friend and really loves cars.

7/05/08 - 10pm
I was able to get the car a day early July 6th. So I and a friend took off to go get it. It was a three hour drive and along the way we discussed what kinds of things we were going to do to the car. The ideas we toss out and some of them we are going to try and work into the car.

We make it down to get the Bradley GTII and things were going great. We used a come along to wench the lifeless car onto the trailer. I took along a roll of duck tape and tools just in case we might need them. We were able to just strap it down real well and headed back to Lee's Summit. We returned to town at about 6:30 pm. It was 340 miles round trip and it took $140.00 in gas to get us there and back. We unloaded it and started looking over the car as anyone would do. Finding all kinds of little things that will need to be fixed and of course many of them were not in the budget. LOL at this point I think 24k will not be enough to do the entire thing but with Dirtybird trying to get more sponsors on board to help out I think we will be ok.

7/01/08 - 10pm
Found the digital display panel for the dash. Spoke to a company in Chicago and they will be gathering the information they need from me to construct the digital panel. It is really going to help set the car off on the inside. More to come on this topic...
I have also been getting everything in place to go pick up the car. I live to get Sat or Sun after the 4th.

6/24/08 - 10pm
This evening I have been going over what things I will be doing to the inside of the car. Gauges were on the list after some research I think just basic gauges will be easier to get a hold of.

6/15/08 - 9pm
Well I have returned with good news indeed. It appears that I now own a Bradley GT II. We drove for about 3 hours one way. To get to meet and see the car and yes it is what I was looking for. (Check the gallery for the pics.) But I got a little more great info today. I receive the Manual for it… Wow what a find. It is hard bound and will give me and the team some great information about the car. I have made plans to pick it up on the 6th of July. The person I'm buying it from needed the time to get the motor out and it really meets my project plan. Well I'm tired for this evening. Round trip was about 6 hours.

6/15/08 - 7:00 am
Today begins the journey of building my EV I hope. I'm heading out of town to go look at my donor car today. If the information that has been provided to me about the car is correct I will be purchasing the car and setting up times to return to pick it up. I have been able to work out a deal with person I'm buying the donor car from. He is going to take out the engine and sell it to someone else. It works well for me. I do not need the motor. It will make it lighter when it comes to hauling it back here and look at the time I'm saving not having to remove a motor.

I'm building an EV and I wanted to share the progress and everything I learn both good and bad.

Finding the right car, the Bradley for most people, is not going to be the right car. I will be honest with that but for me it just fits well. According to a few of the books I read, a kit car makes does make a great donor car for the simple reason that it has less parts to have to mess with and it's lighter in weight.
Everything I have been able to read tells you to pick something that will hold your interest. I'm taking a different approach to building my car. I want something that I can show off. I'm finding sponsors to help with the overall cost of the car. It will be fun to spend my weekends showing off all the work that the team and I will be putting in to the car. As I have talked with many people about the car it seems to draw a lot of attention. I will be driving the car everyday to work which is about 40 miles round trip.