Peppermint Pattie Conversion — Powered by OZDIY

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Converting a classic petrol-powered car to electric is a time consuming and expensive business. CleanTechnica has published many articles about the practice. Here’s a recent one about a Mazda Bongo van conversion. Some begin the process and never finish. Peppermint Pattie is a love story, true romance told in the narrative of a restoration and conversion. I had seen Peppermint Pattie at EV exhibitions, but had never heard her story before. Thank you for sharing your story with us, Jo.

Peppermint Pattie is a restored and converted 1967 Toyota Corona. Jo and her husband Brad began the work a couple of years before Brad’s sudden passing. The cancer was only discovered at autopsy. It was a shock that Jo and her family are still coming to terms with. Initially, Jo’s main job was to crochet a blanket for the car, Brad was the mechanic turned software engineer who could handle all the rest. Jo taught herself to crochet and then took 12 months to make the blanket. After Brad’s passing in 2021, Jo decided to continue the project, helped by her mechanic father-in-law.

As we sat at the Royal Queensland Yacht Club, enjoying a coffee and admiring the view, she told me her story. You can see the yacht masts in the background.

Peppermint Pattie (named after her colour obviously) is a Japanese-made shovel-nosed Toyota Corona, originally with the RT40 petrol engine. Jo tells me that as an import, it has lasted better than the versions built in Australia at the same time — “they’re all rusted out.” When she and her husband started the project, they joined the Facebook page for Shovel Nosed Coronas. When they explained to the group what they were planning to do, they got an overwhelmingly positive response. It will give the car another 50 years of life.

Jo likes old cars. In fact, her first car was a ’70s Corona. She and Brad bought the car in 2017 to use as a Sunday driver. When Brad started up the car, he found that it had poor compression. Doing up the petrol motor was impeded by lack of parts. “It was block after block. Was this the god of Coronas telling us to go EV? We had no trouble sourcing body parts — they can be sourced from various places around South East Asia, but we couldn’t get motor parts.” They had heard of Graeme Manietta at OZDIY and turned to him for advice. Brad did Graeme’s one-day seminar in 2021 and the project commenced!

Jo and Brad originally didn’t plan for a full restoration, but one thing led to another, and that’s what ended up being done. The car was stripped, dipped, and painted in September 2021. The upholstery was replaced. “We wanted the car to look new and original.”

“All that is missing is the exhaust pipes,” I quipped.

Brad had the manual gearbox reconditioned and OZDIY made up an adaptor plate for the electric motor to bolt onto. Then out of the blue, Brad passed away. “He would have wanted the car finished. I did it in his honour. I just couldn’t let it go and wanted to finish it to a standard he would have been proud of. I had to learn a lot and get help from experts.” Brad’s father helped out with the mechanics and the chrome work.

Jo bought the kit prepared for Peppermint Pattie by OZDIY but had difficulty working out how to fit it into the car. In the end, she gave it to Graeme to finish off. He was able to work out the right balance and battery placement to get the best weight ratio.

Peppermint Pattie is probably the only shovel-nosed Toyota EV in Australia. If any CleanTechnica readers know of others, please let me know. Jo and Brad paid AU$5,000 for the car, then another AU$65,000 for the conversion and restoration. A reasonable price to pay for the nostalgia and love that this car embodies. Plus, this EV conversion means this old girl can now be Jo’s everyday drive. The biggest part of the cost was the battery and drivetrain. Jo stressed that Graeme did all he could to keep the costs down. “You don’t restore an old car to make money — but I do believe that Pattie will hold her value,” Jo says.

The car is mainly driven around the Bayside suburbs of Brisbane and has been exhibited at the AEVA displays and Carmagedon. I asked Jo if she would go further afield to show off her car (we have a few regional EV displays coming up in June). But she said, “Only if I get a car trailer.” Although Pattie gets about 200 km of range around town, that reduces to 60 km on the highway. Jo charges at home from her 10 kW solar array, feeding into a 15 amp power point. The car charger inlet is behind the number plate, where the petrol tank filler was located.

Peppermint Pattie has had regen braking fitted and an additional leaf spring added to the suspension. Future plans might include work to improve the suspension and quieten some of the squeaks from the old girl. She might even consider fitting a radio! Even though the diff has been reconditioned, she says she can hear it over the quiet EV motor. I heard no evidence of this on the short drive we took around the car park.

And the crochet blanket? It has pride of place draped over the front seat.