Sounds like a good car, other than the automatic transmission.
If you can toss a manual one in there, it should be good. Converting from automatic to manual usually requires adding a clutch pedal, stick shifter, etc, but if you only need an in-town run-about, you could just about put it in one great and leave it there.
(I did drive my car for a few days WITHOUT THE STICK HOOKED UP. It was when I put the motor and tranny in the first time and didn't have everything lined up, so the gear selector rod just didn't reach!)
Depending on where the transmission lines up compared to the automatic gear selector, you might be lucky enough to just repurpose it. 3rd gear is straight up on the manual. At a bare minimum, you really want to at least mechanically be able to put the car into neutral. I would guess you might be able to get the D and N on the automatic selector to move the manual transmission between 3rd and neutral. That might be all you need. Use a clutchless coupler, and you don't need to add a clutch cable.
The Open Revolt is a good controller. It's more or less "paint by number" with electronics. I'm sure if you know anyone who has worked on electronics before, you could just have them put it together for you. (If you get the kit from
Paul and Sabrina's, it makes it all very easy, all the parts are labeled, etc.)
Again, for a low-speed/basic vehicle, you could use a 72V controller. You could find one of those on Ebay for $300 if you look around.
The actual wiring of the controller is very easy. It's a simple circuit, you just have to use really beefy cabling (welding cable) to handle the current.
A person really needs to know very little about electronics to build an electric car. (It's fun to know electronics, and you can add some cool features, but it's not a requirement.)
You really just need to know the basics of completing electric circuits, the difference between parallel and series connections, and how to recharge batteries.