83 Mondial QV - EV conversion project using Tesla LDU

Today was a pretty successful day.
1)Since the A/C system will likely need to be overhauled anyway, I decided this morning to pull it and disconnect the hoses to give me added visibility to the underside of this panel. There, I found a rivet in the corner which hadn't been drilled out and two drilled out rivets on a bracket that need to be separated.
2) I was finally able to remove the front fiberglass piece of the spare tire well. This also gave me room to use enough leverage to pop the radiator out.
3) I then cleaned and painted the rest of the exposed metal bits with POR15. Plenty of room in the front for more batteries.
4) My bushing sleeve came in so my 8 control arms, 8 LCA-to-frame U-brackets, and 2 sway bars are getting powder coated.
5) In the process, I also noticed that one of my headlight surrounds is cracked. Another item to fix/replace. No big deal.

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Comments
Afterburner: thanks for the comments on the rivets and your thoughts on the A/C and vac booster.
theunissenguido: yup, I've seen this brake booster on EV conversion sites. From what I've read though, the ibooster from Bosch used by Tesla is a fully integrated master cylinder/brake booster that I would replace the stock brake master cyl/booster. It may be more efficient to replace the stock braking system but mechanical linkage aside, the weight would also require that I figure out how to secure it to the firewall.

My thought is to use something like this; its often used when your engine has such a lumpy cam that it doesn't pull vacuum reliably.
https://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS+Performance+Products/555/63016/10002/-1

ATSAaron: yeah, that exhaust didn't look stock to me. you want it? If so, it can be yours if you want though (along with the headers -> SS mufflers as I pulled it all off the car). Just PM me an offer or a request for additional pics.

MvT: thanks for the offer. I plan to corner weigh the car once the conversion is complete. I'm not terribly worried about shifting the weight too significantly or adding too much because of the EV conversion; at this point, I also suspect that I'm going to be within tolerances for the existing springs/shocks as well (unless they are blown).

All - BTW, I know that the horizontal crossmember is tweaked (like one of the previous owners ran over a parking block as they also cracked the back half of the spare tire well. As mentioned previously, this car isn't stock or a concours example but I'm okay with that.

 

Q: whats this module to the left of the AC acumulator/drier?

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Thanks. I don't think I need that

I get my control arms back from the powdercoat shop later this week and can finish the suspension rebuild then.

In the meantime, and while I wait for my mock up motor, I may start taking full inventory of the parts I have to sell and/or start taking apart my interior.

Q: About front seat headrests - what is the piece of the headrest that offers resistance so the headrest doesn't just fall down?

My passenger seat will stay in place at the various detents but the drivers side just falls down
The only piece that seems like it would address the issue is this bushing item #26 (Part Number: 20058905)

I plan to fiddle with this part just in case the PO installed it in the wrong position (in a rotated position) but do I just need to swap this part and call it a day?
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Thanks. Based on what you are showing me, im not going to mess with that unless i have to pull the seat.

 

While I'm waiting for my friend to ship me the mockup LDU.

Got my control arms back from the powder coating shop late this week.
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Two things came up.
1) One lesson learned: the fitment of the U shaped brackets between the frame/subframe and the LCAs is so tight that the few thousands additional thickness of the powdercoated "shafts" made it too hard to push into the frame (front) and subframe (rear).
- The solution is to blast the shafts of these U shaped brackets and realistically, not powdercoat them in the first place.
- I taped up the brackets and will take them back to have the shafts be blasted on monday. Should take 5 min

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2) The additional thickness of the powdercoating has also made it hard/impossible to fit all of the shims that came with the car between the UCA and LCAs and their respective ball joints. I'm not sure this matters if the ball joints fit snugly.
Q: Any opinions here?

I also ordered a replacement RH headlight surround and LH handle off a 400i to see if I can make it work with my Mondial. The door release on my driver's side interior of the mondial had broken in half so a previous owner had drilled 8 holes into the two pieces and screwed the handles back in place. It was functional but if I can make the 400i interior handle work, that will look better.

Instructions on door card removal can be found here.
https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/mondial-door-speaker.227812/

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The only issue I ran into with door card removal is that there was one screw in the lower RH of the door insert piece which the door handle fit into. It was not visible from the bottom and was actually "in the carpeted" triangle so I'm not 100% certain this is a stock mounting point. It wouldn't surprise me at all if some mechanic had implemented a simple fix (much like the door handle repair itself) AND an extra screw I found to hold the cracked RH headlamp surround in place (which I'm replacing).
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Question for you Folks - Direction of the front swaybar droplinks.
- All bushings installed into control arms with liberal use of the grease where the bushings would meet the bracket
- I started to reassemble the front suspension and the rear suspension until I hit the snag about the u brackets not fitting into the frame.
- In this process, I'm not 100% certain which direction the front swaybar drop links are installed. I've been pretty good about taking pre-disassembly pics but I'm not 100% certain on this one.
- I know which direction gets installed up but I'm not 100% sure which direction the drop link leans.
- According to the parts listing pic, the top of the drop link SHOULD lean outwards (away from the car and towards the wheel face). however, it seems like it could just as easily mount with the top leaning inwards to the frame.

Q: Which way is it?
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Thanks
The angle of the drop link makes more sense to me but the picture in the chart makes it look like its flipped around.

I found all the screw points. Just waiting on thr replacement handle before reassembly.

 

While i'm waiting for a few more parts to arrive/get cleaned up, I thought about removing the center cooling pipes.
I don't really need to do so but their removal would give me slightly more room to run the future battery cooling hoses and cables.

Q: Is there any easy way to remove them? I haven't taken apart the interior yet but is there access from the inside of the car or a clamp I need to remove?
Right now, the two hoses are just sitting there in the center channel (all the metal pipes from the front/back are removed).
https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/anyone-replace-the-center-pipe-coolant-hose-before.440201

FWIW, they aren't budging so my next plan is to poke two holes in the side of the hose at one tip, run a rope through it, and tug that way.
Any better idea would be appreciated.

 

Thanks. I'll tackle this after putting together my car's suspension.
-g

 

Tips for Reassembly and Central Coolant Tube Removal.
I really started noticing how hand built this car is after rebuilding the suspension; for starters, I never expected to use a mallet/block-of-wood/handheld sledge so much to reassemble this car. While some of the tweaked suspension might be attributed to something getting bent out of whack when I pressed out the bushings, clearly, some of it is just because things needed to be "nudged" into place.

TIP: when pressing the control arms with new poly bushings in place into position so you can drive the large bolts through, I found it was easier to remove the inner metal sleeve in the new bushing to give the control arm more room to slide in between bushings. Once you have things aligned so a bolt can slide through, you can reinsert the sleeve, put the bolt into place, and then tap things so it would go through. Otherwise, you and up cursing a lot while trying to work the control arm into place between the two new bushings and once that's successful, you have a second round of cursing as you try to align the bolt through the sleeve and through the hole in the control arm. Its a much narrower hole so things are tougher.
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TIP: when removing the two 1 5/8" coolant tubes running the length of the car, spray a bit of silicone spray on the outside of the coolant tubes. This makes removal easier.
- My solution for removal was to run a rope through two holes at the end and then using various bars run through this rope hoop to pull the tubes out.
- This was done with my back on the floor and going the equivalent of squats as I pulled the tube away from the car.
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Test Fitting Wheels
While I wait for my tesla LDU mockup and some other parts to come in, I recently bought a set of Fifteen52 Chicane wheels from because of their classic 80s Ferrari style and affordable price (4 for $1K). I didn't like the stock Ferrari options and these had the OZ Racing look from the F40LM (I stared a LOT of vintage Ferrari wheel pics before finding these). They are cast vs forged but reviews seem to be favorable on their quality and they were available in 18"x8.5" +45mm offset. FWIW, 18s offer quite a few more tire options than 19" or even 16" nowadays.
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PS. I'm not terribly interested in the fender badges and will likely remove them when I redo the car's paint.

Minor issues:
- My stock lug bolts have too large a head AND the longer 60mm m14-1.5 lug bolts were a bit too long; I'm going to need to buy shorter/likely stock length m14x1.5 bolts and return these.
- I didn't seem to need the hubcentric 67.1mm to 73mm rings NOR did I need the 9mm spacers so both will go back.
- The hexagonal base of the "Front Rear Brake Disc Centre Fixing Screws" part#104370 seem to be getting in the way of the new wheels sitting flush. The solution seems to be removing them as I'm not sure they perform much wheel alignment that I cannot do with the screw in m14x1.5 tire mounting pins.
Please correct me if they are necessary.

Q: Do these wheels stick out too much?
Even though the stock VR390 wheels are +55mm offset, I thought these new rims with their +45mm offset would fit nicely.
- At first fitment, it seems like these face of these wheels are right at the edge of the fender line. When viewed from above, they do not stick out from the fender but I suspect I may need to do something as the tires will likely flare out more than the wheels.
- I ended up taking some comparison pictures with a stock wheel and wanted your opinions.
- I tried to take all pics from the same position AND with the same orientation of the phone (my Pixel6 actually tells you the amount of pitch and roll in degrees so the second part was fairly easy).
- My plan is to use 245/40R18 tires which will have an overall diameter of 25.7" and a width of 9.6". In comparison, stock metric tires have a diameter of 26.2" and a section width of 9.8". These should be slightly narrower and smaller than stock.

What do you guys think? I don't want these tires to stick out like my baja UTV.

 

Let me redo that pic and confirm its sitting flush.
I thougut about milling the inner ring part last night but that seems a bit sketchy

 

On the front Wheels protruding out
- I took a new pic before starting work today and it doesn't seem has bad as the first version I shot; the angle and maybe the wide angle lens of the Pixel 6 makes it look like it sticks out beyond the fender line. I updated the original file


- From the top and the side, you cannot see the front face of the new wheel. Its RIGHT at the fender line though. You can see this in the third pic below by seeing the face of the new wheel in the gap between the fender and the front bumper.
- NOTE: the metal you see in the third pic next to the top of the fender is actually the rail of my garage.
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Milling the Wheel Down
- This is a cast vs a forged wheel so I'm not 100% certain milling is a great idea; I'll have to talk to some of my mechanical engineering friends about this topic
- I DID take some measurements and they don't look promising.
- Logic would dictate that the easiest operation would be to mill the raised extrusions seen in the first pic below; I believe the engineers left this metal around the lug bolt holes for increased strength so taking off 4.4mm of an overall thickness of 9.9mm (to the top top of the shank of a bolt/base of the seat of the bolt) or 17.6mm (to the top of the seat of the lug bolt) doesn't seem like a great idea.
- While this may be less of an issue for the fronts, I want to keep the ability to rotate wheels and any milling would be done on all 4 new wheels. Since this car will make ~2x stock torque, removing that much "meat" where the lug bolts meet the wheel seems a bit sketchy.
- As a side note, you can also see the narrowing of the hub hole in the new wheels. This is likely why I don't need the hub centric rings (they stick out by 1mm and push the wheel face outwards slightly).
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Question: Just checking for confirmation - do I need these wheel centering screws that screw into the rotor and stick out?
They interfere with the new wheels so if I don't absolutely need them, I will remove them and won't bother replacing them.

 

Yup, those are the items.
Thanks for the clarification of their purpose. my old 94 Acura Legend has similar countersunk screws. THOSE were "fun" to deal with getting off after 70 or 100K mi for a brake job (IIRC, I had to use a Vessel Impacta JIC screwdriver which rotates the head a little bit with every whack + PB Blaster) so I know what I would be getting into.
- Considering I'm not 100% sold I will keep these rotors (either replace them with new components or upgrade them), there's no point in me taking them and counter sinking the existing parts. You've convinced me just to remove them for now and will put it on my list of items to fix in the future ONCE I decide my brake plans.

 

Last night I decided to tackle removal of the brake and clutch box.
- Since I don't need the clutch pedal anyway and since both appeared to be mounted to a box that is easily removed as a single unit, i figured it could be modified more easily outside of the car. I may keep the brake pedal + booster and just remove the clutch pedal OR I may replace this entire assembly in favor of an aftermarket brake setup. In that case, I can just sell this whole assembly.
- Or, perhaps I can come up with a better use of the clutch pedal and let my imagination run wild. Two daydreams that come to mind are as a secondary brake pedal for just the front calipers like a line locker OR as a way to brake just the rears - to initiate a drift). Considering I'm neither into drag racing NOR am I a drift monkey, these are just engineering thoughts.

Removal was surprisingly straightforward (no hidden bolts, etc).
Here's what I learned
- Start by removing the hood release solenoid mounted on top of the assembly. Disconnect and label the single wire connector. You can do this by either a) removing the four nuts holding the solenoid on top OR by removing one end of the solenoid actuator by undoing one of the nuts at either end. I found it easier to take off the four nuts and leave the solenoid dangling.
- Disconnect the clutch line from the bottom of the clutch slave master cylinder. There are a few metal tabs holding the clutch line to the body. You can work them off and straighten the line so its lined up with the central tunnel. In the back of the car, there are ~4 more metal tabs and then the clutch line can be pulled straight out of the car. I had some problems at the end of the connector where it met the tab on the engine firewall but I just gut the line since I'm not likely to reuse it (unless I need an extra hard brake line. In that case, I'll flare the end I'll put a new nut and flare the end.
- Disconnect the hose from the slave master to the reservoir on top of the brake master cylinder/brake booster.
- Disconnect the two brake lines from the brake master cylinder.
- Remove the cotter pin and disconnect the brake master cylinder/booster from the pedal assembly.
- Unbolt the 3 nuts holding the brake booster to the pedal assembly and lift off to give yourself more room.
- Disconnect the vacuum line going to the engine from the brake booster.
- There is ONE electrical connection going to the pedal assembly that looks to be the brake pedal switch. I found it easiest to unscrew this sensor AFTER I had disconnected the pedal assembly from the car as my wires were epoxied (definitely not stock) to the switch.
- There is one bolt holding the vacuum line to a clamp on the pedal assembly. You can easily access this from the top.

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Next comes removal of the brake pedal assembly
- There are two bolts on the forward edge (closest to the front of the car) of the assembly accessible from the frunk.
- There are two bolts accessible from the driver's side footwell. They are right in front of the bar where the pedals pivot.
- While you are under there, I found it a good idea to remove the carpet (I have more stuff to do) AND the two springs that hold the pedals to the dash. This is honestly was less time than I expected to spend in this uncomfortable position.
- Now, the last thing holding the pedal assembly to the car is some gasket material. just pulling up wasn't working. Neither was trying to push up from below (that was also uncomfortable).
- The easiest way I found was to use a razor/knife to cut the gasket material/RTV/whatever from the frunk area. You can then gently pry the pedal assembly up and then its totally easy to lift up. Once free, don't forget to unscrew the pedal switch (if you haven't disconnected it already).

Now, once off the car, I did find this oddity:
- While the pedal box assembly was pretty straightforward, some italian decided to build this fairly complex pivot mechanism so they could mount the brake booster/master cyl closer to the edge of the car (behind the clutch) and the clutch master cyl to the right (closer to the middle of the car) behind the brake pedal.


- First time I saw this, I was like 'Wut'?
I have no idea why.
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Next Up:
- I need to take the center console apart and remove the shifter rod. I believe that will be the last (non-electrical) thing I need to remove off of this car for the EV conversion.
- Then, I just need to wait for some parts to arrive.

PS. I decided to keep the Fifteen52 rims. I returned the spacers + hubcentric rings and ordered shorter (stock 45mm shank length) lug bolts with smaller heads. While I don't need hub centric rings for now, I will likely fabricate my own on a lathe because the ones I bought stuck out from the back of the new wheels by maybe 1mm. I want them to fit flush.

 

Today I decided to take apart the center console to remove the shifter rod, central HVAC control panel, and while I was at it, I took out the shifter.
There are a few more hoses/wires I plan to remove from the car (or cut as I no longer need them).

This thread was useful to remove the central console top
https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/87-mondial-how-do-i-remove-center-console.27580/

These italian engineers couldn't give me just one more 1cm width, eh? I ended up just removing the entire shifter assembly and that gave me enough room to rotate the shifter and pop this retaining bolt out. The shifter could then be pulled out the back of the car.
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Next step, I plan to take apart more of the central console to remove the accelerator cable and the accelerator pedal.
This thread on radio removal should help me gain the necessary visibility. I have no idea how this stereo is wired up but there does seem to be an amp/preame under the aftermarket stereo so I suspect I will have some checking to do.
https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/mondial-radio-replacement.382958/

Questions on Parts Remaining to Remove (in order of priority to me; some stuff can just be left/ignored).
1) There are two metal covered wires from the rear engine area that go into the main cabin. For some reason, I didn't mark these wires but I did cut off the ends so I must have decided that they weren't needed/would be replaced with the EV conversion. Where do they go and what do they do? I plan to remove them.

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2) I probably won't need to reuse the main electrical wire for the starter.
Q: how is this starter cable routed? Will I just be able to yank it out?

3) I also don't plan to use the vacuum line that runs along the driver's side of the car from the engine to the brake booster. Should i be able to yank it out of the car from the rear? It's disconnected at both ends.

4) I have NOT taken apart the rear seats yet.
Q: What components/wiring are stuffed under there that I might want to remove?

5)Finally, I noticed a reverse switch on the shifter assembly. I assume it goes towards something to trigger the reverse tail lights.
Q: Where does this wiring go?