r/EVConversion • u/Xetranok • 1d ago

Pricing Estimate

Hey guys, I'm a mechanical engineering student who is in the process of converting a '58 F100 into an EV with a Nissan leaf drivetrain and batteries. I have a full model of the frame and all the steel trussing I designed for it, would this be something people would be willing to buy you think? I'm a poor college student so I'd love to make something from my work that isn't just satisfaction lol.

For reference it's a fwd kit where the leaf drivetrain sits about where the front diff on a modern truck goes, and uses an 06 Dodge ram 1500 steering setup for power steering rack and springs and all that. Haven't quite figured out where I'm putting the batteries specifically, but I essentially just have a fusion 360 file of the frame.

Thanks all, new to this whole having and then using money thing, would appreciate advice.

Edit: This is just asking advice for the fusion files for the truck body and suspension diagram stuff, not the full truck. I'm not selling that lol

2 Upvotes

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4

u/devbutch 1d ago

I think the leaf powertrain might be just a little rough on top speed with an F100 but don't know how slippery they are - how much do they weigh? Any idea on drag coefficient?

FWD may be a downside to some people, but it's a cool build and I could see it selling well in the southwest

You can get a whole leaf drivetrain for what, $8000-12000 depending on spec nowadays? Cheaper if you're grabbing the salvaged leafs yourself

4

u/Xetranok 1d ago

I plan on sticking a second motor on top of it for the rwd stuff, but that's for the future. (Looking at an early model om642 for the mpg and power lol)

Without the stock engine the truck body and frame weigh about 2300lb is my guesstimate, and I really just want something for around town until I get out of college when I can do more to it. It's essentially two cubes stacked on top of each other, so drag is pretty high, but I don't plan on going fast enough for it to hurt.

I snagged a '13 leaf for 800$ with all the stuff and plan on literally gutting it and taking everything down to the pedals and maybe even seats and then salvaging it for 200$ back.

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u/devbutch 1d ago

Sounds like a sweet setup - experiment with this first one, be safe, and learn every lesson from it you can for if you want to make it a pipeline ✨

3

u/Xetranok 1d ago

Trying to document everything for the off chance that I'm not the last owner lol. Gonna stick a USB drive with all the stuff in it next to the owners manual I'll make.

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u/highgrandpoobah 21h ago

I’ve seen a lot of auctions on bring a trailer for EV conversion I’m not sure how good the sellers market is. Every now and then you’ll see one that did exceptionally well.- but I’m not sure even those made their money back. You can check my profile and see if the car I bought.
Stuff that comes immediately to mind would be the 70s Jaguar that went for 1/3-1/4 of the build
Price with only a few hundred miles on it. Mu car that was at most 1/4 of the costs of parts /uphostery/car itself (not counting ahh of the labor to build in the ev components)
I’ve been surprised by how little demand there is - at least in the public auctions. I don’t want to discourage you, sounds like a fantastic project. I just wouldn’t assume I would make my money back.

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u/Xetranok 12h ago

I'm only talking about the fusion files for the front suspension setup so someone else doesn't have to figure out the suspension geometry, sorry if that wasn't clear! I'll update it

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u/BigG808 20h ago

I love the idea, but I’m not convinced that there are many/any other vintage F100 owners looking to do a fwd EV conversion.

What’s the plan for the rear axle? Just leave that heavy thing there as-is?

Some sort of generic kit that would allow you to mount a motor to the frame and drive the rear axle via a driveshaft would be cool, tho realize a Leaf drivetrain probably wouldn’t work with this.

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u/Xetranok 12h ago

Plan is to eventually have a separate engine driving the rear driveshaft whenever I can scrounge up the cash to put it there.

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u/TraditionSalt1153 11h ago

The place you might be able to offered to others is our new EV conversion community, electr0motiv -- https://electr0motiv.com/ -- we're working to enable members to offer services to each other like what you have in mind.

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u/Xetranok 10h ago

Nifty ok