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New sheets are in....upgraded contactors, upgraded main fuse, added some LED's and finished with plexi so you can see it from the cab.
Yes I did.....I think everyone on this forum worries about everything all the time though. Can you imagine telling someone that chopped a 32 Roadster that it might not be as safe as stock? Some way to serious people on here and it makes me not want to share. According to you all I am lucky to be alive, my shop got burned down, my car will never run, and now it's going to be unsafe?
Have you looked behind your carpet hcsharp? 1/16" sheet of CF is it!
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Kerios
Member
Well sure, folks do worry, that's the nature of being at the (semi) cutting edge
However, the Plexiglas does look fantastic, its just the somewhat reduced protection that it affords - the sheet steel chassis for the battery is dependant on all sides of the box playing together, Plexiglas for all it's delightful glory doesn't have the same structural strength as steel. So any impact, and indeed, any impact as all with a brittle polymer will lead to fracture.
However it's your car and your're trailing blazing on the ESS rebuild, so please don't take this as a critique per se of you and your car, just some observations from a material scientist...
Well sure, folks do worry, that's the nature of being at the (semi) cutting edge
However, the Plexiglas does look fantastic, its just the somewhat reduced protection that it affords - the sheet steel chassis for the battery is dependant on all sides of the box playing together, Plexiglas for all it's delightful glory doesn't have the same structural strength as steel. So any impact, and indeed, any impact as all with a brittle polymer will lead to fracture.
However it's your car and your're trailing blazing on the ESS rebuild, so please don't take this as a critique per se of you and your car, just some observations from a material scientist...
My point exactly......Sheet steel? This isn't aimed at you in particular but this forum people offer their opinion on things they really don't know about. You may be a materials scientist, engineer, chemist, whatever but you have probably never touched the front of the ESS. The original sales brochures say that the ESS is an integral part of the frame and so people reguritate that but they don't really know. When you get your hands on these 96lb sheets you realize it's the sheets themselves that offer any strength. Also, if you take out the ESS and take off the PEM you will see that the chassis would be 100% solid without the ESS. If you read the 100 page post of the guy who rebuilt a flooded S.....it's 85 pages of people saying he couk dn't, should't, and would't complete it and only 15 pages of people offering help or support right up to the point he drove the car for the 1st time!
Sheet steel? Try 3/16" aluminum!
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I agree completely. I wasn't trying to be critical. You're welcome to do what you want. Tesla advertised that there were at least 2 layers of aluminum between any flammable Li-Ion cells and the passengers so I thought I'd mention it. I appreciate your posts quite a bit. It would be unfortunate if you "decided not to share" as you put it.Well sure, folks do worry, that's the nature of being at the (semi) cutting edge
However, the Plexiglas does look fantastic, its just the somewhat reduced protection that it affords - the sheet steel chassis for the battery is dependant on all sides of the box playing together, Plexiglas for all it's delightful glory doesn't have the same structural strength as steel. So any impact, and indeed, any impact as all with a brittle polymer will lead to fracture.
However it's your car and your're trailing blazing on the ESS rebuild, so please don't take this as a critique per se of you and your car, just some observations from a material scientist...
I'm sorry you interpreted my post that way.
Actually I have looked quite carefully behind my carpet. There was a layer of soft sound-proofing (standard with the 2.5 model), then a couple squares of sound deadening glued to the 1/16" aluminum panel, not CF.
Both my Roadsters are the same single thin piece of CF behind the carpet. Doesn't look like CF till you drill it.
What is great about the roadster forum is that many have difference of opinions, aren't afraid to share, and are discussed.
My particular take is that I really enjoy watching the ESS rebuild by @twiersum. The plexi looks very, very cool. Just everyone has their own personal opinion. Would I do it..no. But I do very much appreciate it.
Personally, I view the importance of the 3/16" Aluminum as a a few minutes of a fire stop and heat dissipation when a battery blows. Plexi would be toast. We can get into the numbers but it is quite obvious. Likely one would never need that protection, its all about risks. It's just important that one knows what the risks are and then decide to take them or not. I liked the analogy by @twiersum to many of the ICE mods such as a chopped 32 roadster...and many other mods running around out there.
The intention by the others is not to criticize, but just share some risks others may see. It could be helpful. I know if I was positing something and missed a risk, it would be great if someone caught it. Please continue to share pictures of the final installation.
My particular take is that I really enjoy watching the ESS rebuild by @twiersum. The plexi looks very, very cool. Just everyone has their own personal opinion. Would I do it..no. But I do very much appreciate it.
Personally, I view the importance of the 3/16" Aluminum as a a few minutes of a fire stop and heat dissipation when a battery blows. Plexi would be toast. We can get into the numbers but it is quite obvious. Likely one would never need that protection, its all about risks. It's just important that one knows what the risks are and then decide to take them or not. I liked the analogy by @twiersum to many of the ICE mods such as a chopped 32 roadster...and many other mods running around out there.
The intention by the others is not to criticize, but just share some risks others may see. It could be helpful. I know if I was positing something and missed a risk, it would be great if someone caught it. Please continue to share pictures of the final installation.
Rest easy, The bulkhead is getting tempered glass which has a melting point 2x that of aluminum. No I don't want to become a piece of toast!
I learned today that you have to be careful wrestling the 96lb sheets into the ESS. Reinstalled the ESS and hooked her up and got a critical low & high voltage in two adjoining bricks. After thinking it through and doing some experiments on my old sheet, I figured out that one of the BMB wires got detached. On both the actual and my old sheet it showed as 1 brick being at 5.0 volts. The low brick valued varied.
Dropped the battery and pulled the offending sheet and sure enough one got knocked loose. It helps to use masking tape to tape up the plastic sleeves. Lesson learned.
Dropped the battery and pulled the offending sheet and sure enough one got knocked loose. It helps to use masking tape to tape up the plastic sleeves. Lesson learned.
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