Board: Accomplished! Paint: Accomplished! Time for Senior Symposium!

Today has been extremely productive. Fernando and I did a great job on our board. Along with that we touched up all the welds and made Templar as sturdy as ever, as well as finishing all the paint. Today has been great. 

Symposium is the next stop.

She's a Beauty

Wow...Templar looks amazing. The new color really makes our car complete. The painting process went smoothly. A couple more changes and everything will be done and ready for symposium.

Say Goobye!

We have decided to give our child (Solar Templar) an extreme makeover. Silver is soooo last year, black is in now a days. This is a picture of the car before the painting commenced. Take your last look, because in a few short hours, everything will be....dark.

We Are Now Charged

Today we built the battery box and it looks great, it fits in perfectly with the car and is optimal size. In other news, we were able to obtain 6 fresh batteries that will power us to symposium!

ELECTRICITY!

It looks like Emily and Jason did some quality electrical work over the week. They wired the motor control and set up the grounder. We have really made a lot of progress over the past couple weeks.

Roll Cage Time

With a combined effort from me, Fernando, and Chris B. we were able to successfully install the roll cage. We all took turns on the welding, it may be a bit amateur but it is functional. 

Next step is to set up all the electrical wiring as well as present our project to Krauss and Dr. Culpepper.

The Presentation

We decided to utilize Prezi for our presentation. It is a great program that maps out all the different groups for the solar Templar. This is what we will be showing during our presentation instead of a PowerPoint, along with our blogs.

Driver Seat: Installed

As you can see the driver seat has finally be installed in the Templar. We took it from SKII and was installed successfully. It will obviously to be able to support me considering Arthur is in it now. 

SUCCESS!

Chase was a great teacher and I picked up welding quite quickly. I even helped in welding the battery box and did a pretty decent job. Welding is a lot of fun and I look forward to getting even better at it. This will really help with progress on days Chase is absent. 

Time to Weld

So today chase is going to teach me how to weld, I am going to practice on miscellaneous pieces of conduit until I get my technique better. 

I'm excited to learn how to weld, I know it's going to be a great skill.

Also this week we are going to finish the battery box and start working on the driver seat.

Battery box time

This week we are working on adding the battery box to solar Templar. It should be a relatively easy task to accomplish. We just need to cut 3 new bars and create the box. Jason luckily told us about this handy dandy pipe cutter that has made our lives a lot easier.

Rear wheel: MOUNTED!

Today we worked on mounting the other plate for the back tire (the one without the brake caliper). We decided as of now, that we aren't going to put a brake caliper on this side. It was an easy job but progress none the less 

The ball is rolling again!

So two great things happened this week: the 2 FREE I-beams came in and we got the brake calipers attached to the plates. 

This is great news for all of us because we are able to continue our work on the solar Templar 

Brake Adjustments

Another project we need to begin is mounting the brakes onto the the back plates. This is a picture of SKII's back wheel, so we need to model solar Templar off of this to get it's brakes set up.

So hopefully we get this done soon 

Progress progress progress!

GREAT NEWS! 

With the help of Josh we finally got the plates we needed. Immediately after receiving the plates we successfully mounted the back wheel on the car.

This is a huge step for us. 

Next goal: install driver seat 

Finally!

It has finally happened.... The. Plates. Are. In. The long awaited day has come, and progress can finally be made. This week we will be working on mounting the back tire and getting the car rolling!

Good Things are Coming

This week we made great progress.

Between testing all the solar panels and checking their functionality, as well as receiving great news that the plates have been cut and most likely delivered early next week. 

Next week we will most likely be able to completely mount the back wheel and start working on the driver seat. 

Significant progress will be made next week!

Plate return.

So the guy we had to cut out the plates to mount the rear wheel had a mishap with the machine, and it turns out it's broken. We are awaiting his return so he can give us the uncut plates so we can give them to Jason from the electrical team to take them to a guy he knows that will cut them for us.

Panels on Panels

So all week we worked on removing these panels from the giant metal frame so we can make a new frame and put them on the solar Templar. It was quite a task and took a decent amount of time but all in all was a success. Unfortunately there may have been some solar panel casualties because some people were too rough while removing them. 

Lets hope for the best!

Waiting, waiting,....and more waiting

Arthur just got word that Josh should be getting us the plates on Wednesday. Hopefully his predictions are correct because the waiting is starting to get to me. Progress has been so slow without the plates, and it is really putting us behind.

Today we are going to work on the driver seat. It will be an important job to occupy us with until we get the plates.

Alternatives to transmission

So Chris and I were discussing the dilemma of getting a transmission, so the car gets some major speed. This is what Chris brought up to me to replace the transmission. But as we discussed with mr. Martin we found out that it is just a clutch and does not replace the transmission. 

That was unfortunate news but it does give us an option if we find a transmission without a clutch. 

We're are also hoping we get the plates in soon so we can progress solar Templar.

Batteries on batteries

Today we are working on the battery area. We have to make it large enough to hold all the batteries but small enough to fit me as the driver. We are attempting to have a reclined seat so I am laying down rather than sitting up right. 

Progress is becoming very difficult without the plates, I can only hope that we can get them early this week so we can make real, useful progress.

Time to motor!

I was not in school today but I was told that the mechanical group worked with the motor. They sketched out where the motor is going to go in relation to the plates. 

We should be getting the plates sometime next week. 

Slow as Molasses

The past two weeks have been extremely slow do to us not being able to get a hold of the rear wheel plates. But once we receive them the show will get back on the road.
Our goals to complete by next week by next week include:
Installing the Hammock style driver seat
Mounting the back tire
Completely connecting all steering mechanisms
I think after we get past the plate road block we will be going down a good path at a strong pace.

Fixing up the cockpit

This week has been a bit slow because of the lack of plates to mount the back tire. But we were able to mount the full steering system which was good progress for the lack of supplies this week.

Hopefully we get the plates this weekend 

Back at it!

After a very good winter break it is time to get back at it. Today we attached the steering system, minus the steering wheel.

Goals: attach back wheel once we get the plates and work in a seating system for me.