The HV bench test is finally happening. I’ve got most of the components I need, half of them are wired up, and getting to this point was more of an adventure than it had any right to be.

I spent yesterday pulling the old MP3 CD player out of the Bug and installing a 7-inch Android Auto head unit with a pair of 4-inch speakers.

The good news: it works.

The bad news: it’s stuck at 90% complete and I had to walk away.

Work on the bug stopped in February because of all the birthdays and sickness in the family, but this weekend, I got back to work on it! It was mostly cleaning, organizing, testing, and research, but it’s finally moving again.

Removing the seat didn’t feel like a milestone, but it was a thing I did this weekend. It didn’t feel like a big deal until I was done and realized that the car was now empty of all the things that made it a car. It was just a shell. I also got the batteries and adaptor plate in the mail this week–and it’s starting to feel like a real project now.

Today I took a closer look at the Beetle’s 12V electrical system. Using a bench power supply with 12.5V and 8A (also tested at 12.8V), I ran a preliminary test to see what would come alive and to check for any unexpected current draw. Even with nothing on, the system drew only 0.060A, which is within normal limits and indicates no major shorts.