[ausev] I finally own an electric car! (GEM E4)

[Vern Graner]

Hi everybody! :)

I recently (well as a few hours ago) became the owner of an electric 
GEM car, AND a four-passenger golf cart! :)

I bought them off of Craig's list and according to the seller, they were 
modified for use in the movie "Jackass". The GEM car was modified to 
have a whole new body and a swing out side door. It was driven on-camera 
during a scene with cop cars chasing it (I haven't seen the movie so I 
don't know for sure).

The golf cart was also used in the movie, but it was modified to have a 
flat bed to hold beer coolers and rails to hold a canopy of some kind 
(missing now)?

The GEM car is in pretty rough shape as its been sitting outdoors in a 
field for gawd knows how long (4-5 years I guess?). :( The car does not 
have any batteries, but the seller assures me that the GEM car worked 
before the batteries were removed.

The golf cart is in worse shape as it appears that not only was it left 
exposed to the elements, but the wiring harness has been completely cut 
out of the vehicle! (arg.) I've posted a gallery of pictures of both the 
GEM car and the golf cart here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/VernGraner/GEMCarPictures#

Also, they had a CDROM that came with the GEM car that had all the 
service manuals, brochures and even tax credit forms! I've placed the 
content here in case anyone needs them:

http://www.notepad.org/GEMcar

I'm pretty sure under all the foam body is a GEM E4 (the four passenger 
version). The wiring (when you see the pictures) looks pretty mangled, 
so I'm thinking it will need a pretty extensive check-up before any 
power is applied.

We plan to pick the GEM and the Golf Cart up on Monday afternoon and 
(heres the thing) I was hoping to get the GEM car up and running and 
give it to the kiddos for x-mas (shhhh! its a big surprise!) :)

I'd love to hear any advice and/or see if anyone here is interested in 
helping get the GEM running.

Vern

-- 
Vern Graner CNE/CNA/SSE    | "If the network is down, then you're
Senior Systems Engineer    | obviously incompetent so why are we
Texas Information Services | paying you? Of course, if the network
http://www.txis.com        | is up, then we obviously don't need
Austin Office 512 328-8947 | you, so why are we paying you?" ©VLG