Conversions

Builds

Customer cars, client work alongside partner shops, and our own R&D platform. Every one runs BuckWired parts — most of them ran the prototype versions first, which is how the parts ended up worth selling.

12+Cars wired
2017In EVs since
6–12 moTypical build
OceansideCalifornia
Client project · Delivered

1969 Karmann Ghia

Built with Sonoma County Street Rodz. Seven Tesla S/X modules split between the rear seat area and the front trunk give a 180V top charge and over 100 miles of range. The engine bay carries the contactor box, both coolant reservoirs, the Netgain motor and inverter, and a fuse and relay panel running the show.

A Ghia is a small car with nowhere convenient to put anything, which is exactly the case the contactor box was designed around — one sealed enclosure doing pack switching, precharge, fusing and accessory outputs instead of six separate assemblies competing for the same space.

MotorNetgain Hyper9HV
ControllerNetgain X1 isolated
Pack7× Tesla S/X · 180V
Range100+ miles
StatusDelivered
1969 Karmann Ghia electric conversion, side profile in green with whitewall tires
Ghia engine bay: Netgain Hyper9HV between twin radiators, high-voltage cabling and coolant plumbing
The bay holds the motor, both radiators, the coolant reservoirs and the contactor box. Everything had to fit where an air-cooled flat four used to sit.
Netgain Hyper9HV motor mounted in the Ghia
Hyper9HV on a Netgain X1 isolated controller, driving through the original gearbox location on custom mounts.
1968 VW Type-2 Bus electric conversion
Customer project · In progress

1968 VW Type-2 Bus

A 16-module, 85kWh Tesla pack for serious range, watched by an Orion 2 BMS with CAN thermal monitoring. A Tesla small rear drive unit sits where the air-cooled engine used to, on custom CV axles, for 220kW.

Pulling the transmission, shifter, heater tubes and cables freed enough underside room to move the charger, radiators, coolant heater and both pumps out of the cabin entirely. It drives. We are on the creature comforts now — the part that turns a converted bus into one you would actually take across a state.

Pack85kWh · 16 modules
Output220kW
ControllerEV-Controls T2-C
BMSOrion 2 + thermal
StatusCreature comforts

Parts used

T2-C Drive Unit Harness HV Contactor Box Chassis Tie-In Panel
1968 VW Type-2 Bus electric conversion
Customer project · In progress

1975 Ford Bronco

A first-generation Bronco receiving a Revolt Systems CR-43 motor and an 85kWh Tesla pack, monitored by a Vero BMS. The original engine is out and the bay is stripped, cleaned and painted, ready for the CR-43.

Cabin AC and a heater are in the plan from the start rather than bolted on afterward. That is the part of a conversion that decides whether a truck gets driven year-round or only on nice days, and it is far easier to find room for the compressor, the heater and their high-voltage feeds while the pack is still going in.

MotorRevolt Systems CR-43
Pack85kWh Tesla
BMSVero BMS
GaugesSpeedhut
CabinAC + heater
StatusIn progress
1975 Ford Bronco electric conversion, side profile
Speedhut gauge panel for the Bronco dash
Speedhut gauges for the dash. State of charge and pack data in instruments that look like they belong in a 1975 truck.
The Bronco’s original engine before removal
What came out. The original engine, before the bay was cleared for the CR-43.
2005 Mazda RX-8 electric conversion project
In-house · R&D

2005 Mazda RX-8

Our own car, and our test bench. A 48-module, 24kWh pack on an Orion 2 BMS, with the manual transmission kept on an adapter plate to make use of the chassis’s 10,000 RPM character.

Keeping a manual is the reason the tie-in panel handles a clutch switch in series with charge enable — it protects the gearing on shifts and stops regen overcharging the pack. That circuit exists because this car needed it. Anything we develop beyond the current lineup gets proven here first, on a car we have to drive ourselves before we will sell you the parts.

Pack24kWh · 48 modules
BMSOrion 2
TransmissionManual on adapter
Redline10,000 RPM
StatusDevelopment platform

Parts used

HV Contactor Box Chassis Tie-In Panel

Why this matters

The parts came out of the cars

Nothing in the catalog was designed in the abstract. The contactor box, the harnesses and the panels all started as something a specific car needed, and stayed in the lineup because the next car needed it too. That is also why the compatibility lists are as narrow as they are — we list what we have actually wired, not everything that might work.

Proven before sold

Every part ships only after it has run in a car we were responsible for. The RX-8 is where the next ones get tested.

Built for tight spaces

A Ghia and a Bus are opposite problems, and both had to work. Packaging constraints shaped the enclosures more than anything else.

Real edge cases

Manual gearboxes, LED lighting, phantom voltage on AEM PDU-8s. The odd circuits in our panels exist because a real build needed them.

Your car

Thinking about a conversion?

Whether you need parts for a build you are doing yourself, or you want to talk about handing the whole thing over, start the same way — tell us about the car.

Tell us about your build Find your parts