I was 17 and looking for a first car. After coming across videos from EV West (an EV conversion company in the US), I couldn’t stop thinking about the idea of building my own electric car. At the time I had built a few electric skateboards so I had good knowledge of motors, motor controllers, batteries and battery management.

I bought the Beetle off gumtree and got straight into tearing it down and taking everything out of it to get it to the body shop so it could be resprayed. I restored the chassis myself and stripped it down until there were no more bolts to undo, it was just the floorplans. The restoration of the chassis included new brake lines, steering and suspension. The freshly painted body was bolted onto the chassis and we began installing the EV components.

After purchasing the kit from TractionEV located in Morayfield (North of Brisbane), the motor, battery boxes, contactor box, BMS and charger were installed with the batteries and custom water cooling solutions being added later. A new low-voltage wiring loom to power things like the headlights and speakers was fitted.

The seats were restored with new upholstery and new carpet was glued in. Custom fibreglass and 3D-printed speaker boxes became the home for the mind-blowing audio system.

After the completion of all EV components, I programmed the battery management system and motor controller, fine-tuning it to my personal settings.

While my dad was great in helping with the beautification of the restoration, I completed the low & high-voltage wiring myself. Soldering, crimping, following wiring diagrams, advanced fabrication and problem-solving were all skills that were heavily utilised throughout the entire 3-year process.