Bolt conquered

So the engine is out and the wheels are back on the ground. After less than an hour of labor I had it free. The bolt was the easy part once I jacked up the car some more and the frame was high enough that I could get to the bolt from above. Getting the engine free from the frame area and from under the vehicle w/o denting/scratching it was the tricky part. I then removed the clutch disk from the vehicle and mailed it to NH where the motor coupler and adapter will be machined for my vehicle. I gave a few dimensions of the drive shaft so that the fit will be snug. In a week then, hopefully I'll be able to install the motor. In the meantime, I'm going to get the controls and battery placement figured out, if not complete.

Shocks, cleaning, painting the underside would be nice, but I may skip that the painting for now as it would take a good deal of time to do so and seems like a lot of cleaning of rust and taping of rubber parts. I also tried to remove the front seats and couldn't get the seats off the runners nor find the wingnut to loosen the back cable (Clymer seems a bit spotty on pics and instructions for the '73). I want the interior to be free of impediments right now as I want to be able to consider wire runs and the existing electrical for tieing into it, but again, this might be the old cart before the horse.

Now that I have the rear cavity of the vehicle open w/ the transmission drive shaft exposed, I am able to move around the rear area quiet easily. Now is the time to consider battery and controls placement. After much consideration, I am (for now at least) skipping the most elegant solution: to have someone weld a frame around the motor area for 6 12v batteries, three on either side going parallel w/ the axle (T-1275 Trojans). For now, I'm going to place 5 or 6 batteries in the rear compartment in some fashion and then 2 or 3 up front, hopefully where the spare tire is/was. Which means I'll need to figure out a windshield washer fluid pump solution as the Squareback uses the pressure in the spare to force fluid onto the windshield (ingenious solution I'd say). Maybe a small bike innertube would work...

Then is the control board, but that will follow battery placement design given that the parts organization are more flexible. So, hopefully the motor, controller and some other essential parts are coming in the mail tomorrow. I am going to build some cardboard battery cutouts to help w/ layout and then start considering the materials for the battery box. Also, tomorrow (or actually today) I should change out the shocks, they definitely need it. The wheels too need to be lubed and checked over. To avoid another cart/horse swap, I should probably make sure this vehicle can move well before I worry about how to organize the components that will power it. So much to consider and think through, which is why after being woken up at 1245pm (went to bed at 845pm due to persistent jetlag) I couldn't sleep...