MOSS POINT (AP) — Norman White, 39, an air conditioning mechanic, has built his own electric car for use around town and to work.

He converted a 1988 Suzuki Samurai using a string of 6-volt, golf-cart batteries and a six-inch electric motor he bought off the shelf.

The project has been a labor of patience that has taken him more than a year, as he has extra money and time. But he’s a plodder and was determined to make it work, even when the first two ‘‘donor bodies’’ were unsuitable.

For the past month, he has been driving the little SUV, its rear space full of batteries and very little under the hood.

At this stage, it’s not about looks, but White, supported in his efforts by his wife Angela, said he plans to paint it and spruce it up for Cruisin’ The Coast in the fall.

By then, it will have an engine and battery upgrade that will allow it to go faster and farther on a charge. And it will have a completely contained, metal battery box anchored to the frame.

‘‘It looks like a mess, but it’s a work in progress,’’ White said last week. ‘‘I’ve only been driving it for five weeks.’’

He has $3,500 in the project, not counting the Samurai he bought for $1,200. But his cost includes books he bought, phone calls he had to make and every nut and bolt.

The first body he tried was a Geo Metro too small, with front-wheel drive and an automatic transmission that caused a 10 to 15 percent drain on the power.

Then he paid $200 for an older model Mazda pickup, king cab, that proved to be too heavy for his motor.

The Samurai was running when he bought it.

He had the engine pulled and began the adaptation. The whole project is recorded on 80 videos available on YouTube under ‘‘n2confusion.’’

Last week, the site had more than 220,000 visits.

‘‘I’m in contact with a bunch of people all over the planet, sharing information. Now we have an open-source project going,’’ he said. ‘‘There’s more people doing this than you realize.’’

To see examples, Google ‘‘evalbum,’’ he said.

‘‘When I first started, there were few videos, no one to say do this or do that. But when gasoline got to $4 a gallon, you’d better believe people got to thinking about it.’’

White likes the idea of being free of gas stations. He charges the car overnight for less than a dollar.

‘‘Basically it’s a giant golf cart,’’ he said. At this stage it does 45 mph at the best and has a range of about 40 miles.

‘‘Like a ceiling fan or a drill, it’s an electric motor,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s going to run for years. There are few moving parts. No tuneups, no spark plugs, no oil changes, anything like that.’’

‘‘And it’s completely silent,’’ his wife, Angela, chimed in. ‘‘You don’t hear anything but the tires crunching.’’

Still, it’s a serious vehicle.

‘‘It’s insured, it’s licensed with a tag. It’s street legal,’’ White said. ‘‘In the last couple of weeks, it has gone 250 miles without a drop of gas.’’

And by his best estimation, it’s the only zero emission car in Jackson County, maybe South Mississippi.

When he replaces the motor with a larger one, this motor will go to the riding lawn mower, White said. And with a bigger motor, the little SUV will be able to travel 65 mph and twice as far on a charge.

‘‘These are the only parts that wear out,’’ he said. Holding up a circular copper piece and a gray box the size of a small match box, he said, ‘‘This is a tune up. You should get 40,000 miles off a set.’’

His lights are on a separate battery.

So far, there’s no air conditioning or heater, but White said he plans to work that into the project.

Right now his electric car carries 900 pounds of batteries. A lithium battery would be considerably lighter and carry the car farther between charges, but would cost considerably more.

And chargers are expensive, he said.

White sees conversion to electricity as a better solution for clunkers because a lot of older cars are junked because of the engine.

He said any car can be converted to electricity.