Chevy Volt and Electric 3 series BMW (Ev-36/46)

I added the supports for the batteries on the tray that goes above the motor. That finished of my Argon gas for welding and had to get a refil. I think I'll use less now that I know what i'm doing. Started making battery cables. I played with soldering them on. I had thought of soldering AND crimping. However the fit of the lug to the wire was snug so inserting the wire with a heated lug didn't work well. So I'm just crimping. Using the hammer crimper in the press works very easy. Seems to be working well but I have no other experience with this type of work to compare it with. I also cleaned up or rather filed off some of the ugly welds. I need to re weld some of the bad ones. I'll also add some gussetts and some minor touchups. A real nice part is I won't have to paint it

More progress on the front battery tray. Added most of the upper tray above the motor. Spent most of saturday on it. Seems like I should have made more progress but it takes time. Also learning a new skill of welding aluminum does slow me down some. Some welds are great and some are horrid. I'm having a hard time telling what makes the difference. More practice is needed. Took a picture of my helper standing on the battery rack. Thought it would make a funny picture. Of course he reminded me that he only weighs what one battery weighs. So I stood on them. Seemed plenty strudy and so far the rack weighs less than 15 LBS. The mail man dropped off the fuses and heat shrink tubing. The wire lugs arrived earlier this week so I now have enough parts I should be able to make the car drive around the yard. Just some assembly required. Thaniel

Since I wanted to build battery trays out of alumiunm I purchased the materials needed to convert my MIG welder over to weld aluminum. After an evening of frustrating attempts at welding I did some more reading and found I had the heat setting all wrong. Today I managed to actually join some metal. Made a little progress on the front battery tray. There will be 4 batteries on the lower level. 2 on the passenger side of the motor one on the driverside and one inbetween. I need to add a tray to hold three batteries above the motor and more car to tray supporting structure. The lugs I ordered are suppose to be here monday. The fuses I ordered I have no clue. Maybe in a few weeks it can move under it's own power.