New Here! Hoping to begin a car project after lots of reading the archives

Hello!

I am Will, here in Portland Oregon. My girlfriend is looking to buy an electric car (probably the Chevy Bolt, but maybe the Mercedes B), me, on the other hand- I'd like to get knee-deep in the DIY side of things, so, here I am.

Project-wise, I suspect I'll convert something kooky, like a Honda Acty truck or van. Well, maybe.

I'm mechanically proficient, mildly electrically proficient, and a complete entry level at fabrication... any machined parts or welding jobs will be a new adventure or farmed out to pros.

While reading the site, I had an idea. So, for example, Baratong's '79 Spitfire conversion- it followed a pretty usual pattern many of the projects do as far as I can tell- decide how to mount the motor, get the mounts or have them made, what batteries, etc.

Baratong takes his electrical know-how and designs battery management controller cards from scratch and builds them out! HOLY COW! So awesome.

Now, while I don't propose that everyone should just give all their work away for free, it may very well be that in some cases people don't feel like running a small business trying to sell battery management cards, and maybe they feel like kicking the schematics and parts listing out into public domain for the next person along the way who might want to build something similar. Is there any place to store that kind of info? Other than in a forum post, or maybe hidden somewhere on the designer's PC? I guess another question is- can you apply an open-source license to a circuit board design, so no companies sneak in and patent other people's work?

My point is, this site and these forums are great, but is there something more we can add to this so that will become a one-stop-shop for building an EV, eventually? If there isn't already something like that out there, maybe it's time to start building that.

That said, while I am here to get underway with my own project, I enjoy software development, so, perhaps I can help if a "DIY car project details archive" is something that can be added to the site.

(imaginary entry from future EV project site)
-'79 spitfire (project photos linked here)
-Warp9 motor (link to place to get that)
-48 100ah HiPower cells (manufacturer info and seller links)
-Baratong design battery management cards x48 (link to card schematic and parts list, or link to Baratong's online store, etc)
-other major parts in buildout continue below, with links
-notes on construction details, snags, and things learned
-general idea of what buildout cost at the time
-possibly a calculator pulling in prices for major components listed on page, as a gauge of what this project might cost now