First Go Kart

[OzFab]

Thanks for the praise, I tried to keep everything as simple as possible & still make it look good & work well

since you have front steering, you might want to but another reinforced bar directly in front of the steering and let the first front bar absorb any impacts without crushing your very nice looking homemade tie rod ends.

There's a really good reason I set the front wheels back from the front of the frame... & that's it I've been tossing up the idea of a brush guard type setup that extends out in front of the wheels & I WILL be putting a cover plate under the front.

Oh, & I had to change the brake setup, it interfered with the seat; I'll put up some pics of the new setup in the next day or two

 

[OzFab]

Brake Relocation

As mentioned earlier, I had to move the brake master cylinder as it interfered with the seat where it was so, drill a few holes, 2 new bolts and...


You can see from the arrows where the old holes are.

 

[OzFab]

Frame is stripped, welded & primed, ready for paint.

I haven't been doing much on the kart lately as the weather has been lousy & I've been working on another project: the trailer the frame is sitting on. When I got it a month ago it looked like this:

 

[OzFab]

While tinkering around with nothing to do (waaaay too cold to paint) I wondered what the sprocket would look like if it was polished...

 

[landuse]

WOW. Nice. How did you get that shine?

 

[OzFab]

Through a series of steps that make the metal flatter each time. Here's some step by step pics but, to get a better idea, checkout some of these videos:
http://www.polish-up.com.au/pages/gallery-videos.html

Pic 1. Before
Pic 2. 80 grit on random orbital sander
Pic 3. 400 grit on random orbital sander
Pic 4. Sisal mop on power drill
Pic 5. Cotton buff on power drill

 

[falcon1]

holy crap that is shiny! can't see how it would help things though

 

[landuse]

holy crap that is shiny! can't see how it would help things though

It just looks cool. There is no benefit, except that you can see the sweat on your face when replacing a fallen off chain

 

[OzFab]

It just looks cool. There is no benefit, except that you can see the sweat on your face when replacing a fallen off chain

Bahahahaha

True, there's no benifit apart from reduding the risk of rust & looking good. If I didn't want this kart to look good It would've been finished 6 weeks ago.

 

[OzFab]

Almost done

Well, the little princess's birthday is in two days, but it's almost done. Just a few little things left to do & I'll test it before delivery on Saturday...

Pics of finished product coming soon.

 

[landuse]

I like the yellow

 

[OzFab]

I like the yellow

My daughter picked it, which is good coz it has red highlights for hot or dangerous bits.

It's almost done...

 

[OzFab]

It's finished!

Finally, It's done &, as promised, here are the photos...

 

[benvui]

Nice job! I hope you don't mind but I think I might steal a couple of things from your to stick on the one I'm building for my kids.
I hope mine turns out as nice as yours

 

[OzFab]

Go right ahead: what did you have in mind?

Oh, & thanks

 

[souperman000]

looks good, good build

 

[benvui]

I like the way your throttle and brake lines run through the floor. I was also thinking about how you hooked up your throttle and that I could use the way you hooked up the throttle to the pedal, but I would make it so I could adjust where the throttle hooked to the pedal to "govern" how fast the kids can go.

 

[rcarteraz07]

I love how you painted the pedals red and green!! Great idea!

 

[OzFab]

I like the way your throttle and brake lines run through the floor. I was also thinking about how you hooked up your throttle and that I could use the way you hooked up the throttle to the pedal, but I would make it so I could adjust where the throttle hooked to the pedal to "govern" how fast the kids can go.

Yep, I thought of that too. Have a look at the pics in post #11. There's an adjuster on the throttle & the brake at the other end of the cables: that way they're in the line but out of the way.

All the parts (cables, anchors, adjusters, etc) are bicycle parts.

You probably can't tell from the pics but there's a 1" gap between the floor & the belly pan; the main reason is for somewhere to hide the cables. If you need any help or plans let me know.

Oh, I discovered one little design flaw the other day: due to the short length of the pitman arm the steering joints jam the pedals when turning. ie: you can't accelerate when turning right & you can't brake while turning left. It's not that big a deal, I'll simply reverse the pedals so that the bars are on the outside.

 

[OzFab]

I love how you painted the pedals red and green!! Great idea!

Lol, even kids know what those colours mean.