Learning to weld on the rear battery box

My first mig weld

I think this picture shows for itself my welding skill level, which before this, was none.

After two or three days of practicing on random bits of steel I'd gotten comfortable enough to start cutting out the metal frame lengths for the rear battery box and weld it together.

As i only had an angle grinder to cut the metal, none of my cuts were exactly perfect, but close enough to where i could weld over any small gaps.

The pictures below show the rear battery box being tack welded in place then welded in properly and the batteries being test fitted in the boot to check clearance which was perfect.

Designing front and rear battery mounts

I will be designing the basic look and measurements of the mounts using Autodesk Fusion 360, a CAD program, the completed designs will be used to determine the approximate amount of materials needed. Then the metal will be cut and welded together and any minor changes needed will be made during that process.

So first off is to make rough CAD drawings to get the approximate amount of materials required and to measure all the clearances needed for the bonnet, frame rails, etc.

First up, and the rear battery mount for the boot

and the front battery mount for under the bonnet

Now to buy the metal needed which, with potential mistakes in mind, came to

Description	Length
Batteries
Angle 20mm x 20mm x 3mm steel	6m
Box 20mm x 20mm x 3mm steel	6m
Box 20mm x 20mm x 3mm steel HALF	5m
Flat 20mm x 3mm steel	4m
80 bolts, 80 nuts/washers for batteries
Motor
Tube 15mmDiameter x 4mm	231mm
Flat 60mm x 5mm steel	1m
Flat 300mm x 100mm x 6mm	1m

All that, except for the nuts and bolts, came to $120NZD from STEELCUTS LTD.