Anyone know where I can get a workshop manual for an Excite 64

[kiwi]

Mate, I know you’re dead set on powering up that old Kombi but have you thought about just fixing what you have? You haven’t treated us to a picture yet but one stuffed corner is probably pretty fixable. Is the engine and rear axles OK?

 

[leonkernan]

He said right at the start it's a stat write off.
It's not able to be registered in Australia again in that case.

 

[kiwi]

You blokes often export fixed stat jobs to the poor relations in NZ… And I hear that around Melbourne a stat job can be had ready for the road for the right incentives…

 

[Rolfe]

A picture or two would be nice, regardless. Of both cars.

I'm interested to know how you fit the MG4's battery into a car that wasn't designed to have a battery across the bottom of it.

 

[Archev]

A picture or two would be nice, regardless. Of both cars.

I'm interested to know how you fit the MG4's battery into a car that wasn't designed to have a battery across the bottom of it.

It’s a fascinating project and a lot of folks seem to say similar. I’m addicted to the stuff they do in “Electric Classic Cars” down in Wales.

 

[dsimpkins]

A picture or two would be nice, regardless. Of both cars.

I'm interested to know how you fit the MG4's battery into a car that wasn't designed to have a battery across the bottom of it.

A VW camper (or Kombi) has a large relatively flat space underneath between the two axles that the battery could potentially fit into. Often get auxillary tanks and other stuff slung underneath the floor on campers.

 

[T1 Terry]

Some photos

Mate, I know you’re dead set on powering up that old Kombi but have you thought about just fixing what you have? You haven’t treated us to a picture yet but one stuffed corner is probably pretty fixable. Is the engine and rear axles OK?

Not a huge job to repair, but it would require a new dash, steering wheel air bag, seat belts replaced (self tension and lock when the air bags go off) and the right hand guard, headlight, bumper, lower control arm, ball joint and crash module.
Then the cost of shipping it to NZ, dodgy WORV clearances still show up on a history search .... and where would I get such a perfect donor for my Kombi project?

If it comes out like I picture it in my head, the finish project will be worth more $$ than what I could get by repairing the MG4 and selling in NZ and the full restoration cost for the Kombi (not cheap) and selling it ..... but I'm not doing this as a resell project, I have had Kombi since '98 and was the daily driver for me and part of my scoring the winning points to get the wife (a good thing, took three tries, but finally found a keeper)

T1 Terry

 

[Rolfe]

That car is a mess. If Terry wanted an MG4, well, they're ten a penny. He could get an MG4. But what Terry wants is his beloved Kombi converted to electric power, and it seems a far better fate for the MG4 than simply being patched up and put back on the road! He can always sell left-over parts he doesn't need as spares for other MG4s too.

Terry, that story about your wife is now something you have got to tell us, now you have alluded to it!

Happened across this.

Jason Momoa Converts Classic 1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom II to an EV

Jason Momoa breathes new life into a classic! Dive into the details of his stunning 1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom II transformed into a powerful and sustainable electric vehicle.

myelectricsparks.com

 

[T1 Terry]

That car is a mess. If Terry wanted an MG4, well, they're ten a penny. He could get an MG4. But what Terry wants is his beloved Kombi converted to electric power, and it seems a far better fate for the MG4 than simply being patched up and put back on the road! He can always sell left-over parts he doesn't need as spares for other MG4s too.

Terry, that story about your wife is now something you have got to tell us, now you have alluded to it!

The mate who lived next door to the mystery lady (who recently bought the house) said I had to meet her ... yeah yeah, another woman was the last thing I needed in my life by that stage .... but I pulled up out front of the mates house, saw this woman in her corporate gear and thought, this is punching well above my weight, might as well get the put down over with and the mate will stop annoying me. So I walked up to the fence and said "g'day" like a typical Aussie yobbo, and her eyes lit up and she responded positively rather than the usual being sent to sit in the gutter where you belong that someone who looked like that would have said.
Turned out, she met her ex through the Sydney VW club, became the secretary, married him and they owned a number of Kombis over the yrs. Later she told me, if you had turned up in a flash car, I wouldn't have given you the time of day .... been together over 20 yrs now, I think it's the 19th wedding anniversary coming up next mth.


Back to tie this into the thread, it was saying that I bought the MG4 to convert the Kombi that allowed me to still live and still live in the house :lol:

Sadly, I don't have any photos of the Kombi, they were all on my computer and hard drive when this happened mannum lithium battery fire - Google Search

T1 Terry

 

[Rolfe]

OMG that's terrible! I hope your insurance covered it. Did you ever find out what caused it?

 

[T1 Terry]

OMG that's terrible! I hope your insurance covered it. Did you ever find out what caused it?

Nothing that can be verified, either someone didn't like us, or it was a robbery and by burning the place to the ground, there is no evidence of just what was stolen.

All the gas bottles were turned on and a fire lit in diagonally opposite corners. The fire started with an explosion, LFP cells don't explode and they were the only cells we used, so ...... The explosion was big enough to blow the front windows through 3 rows of vehicles parked in front of the building and glass was embedded in the vehicles and the hedge across the front fence area. The heat was so intense it melted the aluminium window frames and sprayed them around like melted solder and cause 5mm thick square hollow uprights to bend over a 45*, or simply compact and bend if they were thinner. Aluminium ladders and scaffolds simply burnt with only ash where they were and a few puddles of aluminium in other places.

Insurance covered the building and workshop materials, but not all my electric vehicle conversion gear or $10,000 worth of LTO cells I had bought to experiment with building a long range battery for my Prius .....

Anyway, all gone now, life goes on and more projects to keep me occupied ....

T1 Terry

That incarnation Youtube channel had something similar, there was a module that detected it had been in a crash and from then on it couldn't be reset.
Removing that module made everything else forget about the accident.

It was only a couple of videos back.

btw, that was @siteguru 's site I linked to, he's the one who grabbed the stuff from MG.

Finally found the YouTube channel inCARnation you mentioned, about a bloke in Sydney putting a ZS into a 928 Porche .... hopefully the MG4 will be the same, but an unknown at the moment ....



T1 Terry

 

[Rolfe]

I suppose at that point you can only be thankful nobody was hurt, but it's horrible to think that someone would deliberately do that to you.

 

[T1 Terry]

I don't understand the Statutory write off v repairable write off rules in Australia. There was a 2023 model ZS with the sunroof up for salvage auction in Melbourne less than an hr ago. It has the same damage as my MG4, crumpled front, air bags gone off and seat belts locked, yet it was marked as a repairable write off and sold for $8,100 at the fall of the hammer, so probably a shade under $10,000 by the time they get it home if they live local.

T1 Terry

I suppose at that point you can only be thankful nobody was hurt, but it's horrible to think that someone would deliberately do that to you.

That was one of the harder things to get over. The only people who might have had a grudge against us actually owed us money, so unlikely they would do it, and they all need our ongoing assistance to maintain their systems. Just because the business is no more, doesn't mean we abandoned our customers, we are still only a phone call or email away if they have problems.

So that leaves the robbery angle. Kinda easier to take, but still, insurance would have replaced what was stolen and we would still have all our other gear ... and a great workshop with all the gear required to do this conversion .... such is life .....

T1 Terry

 

[Rolfe]

Sometimes there is no explanation, and you just have to figure out how to move on with the least distress to yourself.

 

[T1 Terry]

Found a few photos of Kombi, the hopeful recipient of an MG4 transplant
This was the "prize" kombi that won over the wife, I think this is around March 2005

 

[T1 Terry]

Well, things have taken a rather disastrous turn. Returned from a 10 week plus trip in our motorhome, parked up in front of the house between the front veranda and the garage at around 9:30 pm on the Sunday, Monday was a non event day, Tuesday off for doctors appointments, and received a phone call around 12:45pm, house and motorhome are on fire ...... made drive for 40km or so home .... to watch everything go up in smoke. We were left with the clothes we were wearing, the dog and the '06 Prius we were driving ...... but the firies did save the Kombi, bless their souls.
It will take a while to get our feet back under ourselves, all the computers and back up hard drives were either in the house or the motorhome, so all the research into the MG4 to Kombi info went up in flames.

T1 Terry

 

[Ian Key]

Well, things have taken a rather disastrous turn. Returned from a 10 week plus trip in our motorhome, parked up in front of the house between the front veranda and the garage at around 9:30 pm on the Sunday, Monday was a non event day, Tuesday off for doctors appointments, and received a phone call around 12:45pm, house and motorhome are on fire ...... made drive for 40km or so home .... to watch everything go up in smoke. We were left with the clothes we were wearing, the dog and the '06 Prius we were driving ...... but the firies did save the Kombi, bless their souls.
It will take a while to get our feet back under ourselves, all the computers and back up hard drives were either in the house or the motorhome, so all the research into the MG4 to Kombi info went up in flames.

T1 Terry

That's .
At least no one was injured and your dog was OK. Best of luck for the future and hope the insurance pays out.

 

[siteguru]

This wasn't another arson attempt, was it? (I recall you posting about your workshop being set on fire).

 

[T1 Terry]

I don't think this one was, the timing would have required someone to be watching the place to know when we arrived back from our travels and when we drove off in the Prius to go to the doctors some 40kms away. We left the house at 10:30am and received the phone call at around 12:45pm, 2 1/4 hrs later, and fire was engulfing the motorhome and house by then. I'm guessing the smoke must have been so intense at that stage, it wasn't possible to see the garage ..... and the power box on the side near the motorhome that I suspect the fire started.
The direction and strength of the wind would not have carried a fire in the motorhome to the garage, but by the fire front path evident from the burnt trees, the wind direction would have carried the fire to the motorhome.
The palm tree near the power box is burnt to a stick, and they just don't burn because they are full of water in the trunk, and two spare wheels from the Prius and one from the Ford, all alloy mags, are burnt, one only has the legs of the star in the centre remaining, the tyre and rim are nothing but wire and ash.

Just poor timing I think, if the motorhome hadn't been there, unknown if the fire would have reached the house, but there was only walking room between the garage and the motorhome one side and the same to the timber veranda the other. With the strength of the wind coming across the river, the whole lot was gone within an hr or so, but still kept springing up again for hrs after and into the night. When I went over there to have a look after lunch the next day, there was still a timber upright in the back patio area that was smoking, when I went to take photos the next day, that pillar was gone completely ..... not that made much of a difference, everything in the fire's path was totally destroyed. Thankfully they saved the Kombi, one of the firemen must have been a Kombi lover, so he remained with a hose at that side of the house and kept the flames away from coming through that fibro wall and dropping the carport onto the Kombi ..... to make it worse, Margaret informed me the Kombi insurance had lapsed a few mths ago

T1 Terry

 

[Rolfe]

Oh, Terry, I don't know what to say. And after all that happened previously.