Just the rear battery rack

Up to now most of the conversion has centered on the front end of the car. Today I'm going to talk about the back end.

The cargo compartment of the car is going to be used to carry the bulk of the batteries and the battery charger. Here is a picture of the cargo bay prior to the conversion:


This is the cargo bay under the floor:


Of the twenty-four batteries used in the conversion, fifteen will be carried in the rear cargo bay. At ~62lbs per battery that's over 900lbs of batteries.



In order to hold all of these batteries a box needs to be constructed. Supporting the box is a steel platform. I've decided to use 1" x 1", 11ga tubular steel. Here's a picture of the steel pieces cut and in place.


The steel is sitting directly on the sheet metal floor of the cargo bay. Although not shown in the picture the steel is bolted to the sheet metal and sits directly on the frame. Below is the rough location of the frame:


On top of this structure will sit the battery box. The will be constructed of 1/2" thick plywood. The interior will be painted with an epoxy paint to resist fumes released by the batteries during charging. Here's a picture of the floor of the box laid in place.


Under the box and steel supporting structure is where the wires to and from the batteries will exit. It is also where the battery box fumes will be vented. The cavity below the box will be filled with insulation.