[brucepick]

As a 15-year driver of Volvo 240's (I also did most of the "smaller" maintenance jobs on them), and with 65k miles on my current Civic, - - -

I'd definitely recommend a Civic basic shell over a 240 for this project. Reason: The civic shell will weigh far less than the 240. My '97 Civic is 2340 lbs; the '80's Volvo wagons are 3000 lb (sedans a bit less). The previous generation Civic (through '95) was even lighter and the one before that was probably lighter still. You can look up the various generations in wikipedia (search "Civic generations"). Look up the weights on autos.com.

Weight becomes critical in an electric car. It tends to become a race between adding batteries, which are either very heavy or very pricey, or both - and thus increasing the vehicle weight, making it harder to move it, needing more batteries, etc etc. Any extra weight in the basic shell means more battery power you have to carry around to move the heavy shell and it's possible to keep adding battery weight and not get increased range or speed, due to the weight.

Just my .02. I'd go with a Civic, or another lightweight body.