Kart Rods

[Doc Sprocket]

You do realise that I'm just pulling your leg, and I know the transformation will be stellar, right? Since we're here- are there any other karts you'd like us to make fun of before you buy?

 

[Kelly Wood]

LOL, funny!

Yup, I realize it.

Um... Here's one, er... two.

1. So pricey they had to chain it to a pole. Comes complete with lower lumbar support office chair back and no floor

and

2. one failed attempt at putting shocks on their ride. It turned into a giant hinge. Comes complete with that crap on the ground, half a roll bar... and school lunch chair.

Don't worry, I'm not buying these. Way too much for my tastes.

 

[Doc Sprocket]

Good lord...

Umm- are you sure they're not trying to keep the pole from being stolen? Those are worth something, y'know!

 

[Kelly Wood]

Lunchtime mockup!

Update:

Meet the proposed "Unit 51"

And what I have for it... dunno where to put em yet though.

MUA HA HA HA HA

 

[Kelly Wood]

Does anyone happen to know where an old pedal car similar to any of these might be? Not that I want one... (I do) but I need to know the width of your typical pedal car like these.

In particular, the bottom one.

I gots an idea.

 

[DaiSan76]

If this website is to be believed, which seems skinny to me, it's 16 inches.
http://pedalcarplus.com/mustangweb.html

 

[Kelly Wood]

Thanks. Really, this is a call to anyone anywhere that has one of the three seen in the pic. I need to know the actual width of the body at the front at the widest point.

 

[Metalbender]

all I can say is OMG! that kart was a train wreck before you got it! glad to see somebody take a pos and turn it into something both SAFE and nice...keep up the hard work!

 

[Kelly Wood]

Thanks!

Continuing on.

With a few days of work behind me and getting back to the ole' grind, I hadn't done much until tonight.

As before, it's like writers block. I got stuck in thought but quickly pulled myself from the funk and got out there to continue on.

First up, the cop. I burned through all my remaining sticks welding and sured up this jalopy.

So, picture 1 & 2 show it's progress. Some scraping & a quick flat black paint job and the frame is pretty usable. I stared at it for a bit wondering what wheels to use but drew a blank for an hour.

I cleaned up a bit and it came to me. As usual, in the process of building these things I commonly "upgrade" others as I go. Take the crappier stuff and put it on the new projects and make the existing ones better... it's part of the "build a hotrod" game.

So, sitting on my shelves were these wheels I would never use. They were for my vintage ride but I know who I am... and that person will never get to doing a vintage ride, it's not what I do.

Down with this set of wheels. A gnarley set of 5" fronts and a killer set of 6" backs. 6x6x12 backs that is.

Time to take the wheels from the starflite V ride and give it something beefy. These wheels just make it, don't ya think?

Pictures 3 & 4 show the outright kicka$$ stance this thing has.

Having done that, this freed up some wheels for the cop.

On with them and I had my daughter hold the police lights (or light) in place while I took a pic or two. I mocked it up on the computer to show the red one (the one I can't find for some reason) to give an idea of what I'm goin for. As I think about it, it may not have any predominant body parts. Dunno yet. We'll see.

Pic 5 & 6 show that.

more soon.

Thanks for watching.

Kelly

 

[Kelly Wood]

Continuing on...

With another race day over it was Sunday morning and I do what I always do... Clean up the racing stuff and put it all away...

Then it's on one of my rides.

On today's menu, the cop car. While at the races I sorted out what I was going to do as I cruised Sarge around at Miller Motorsports. Between races & lunch are sometimes lengthy so the time is great to cruise the whole facility & see all the other stuff going on. Millers is a first class place with some of everything.

Anyway, time to make a solid roller. Everything seen up to now was only tacked in place basically.

Pictures 1-4 are the rolling chassis.

I had enough spare stuff to put on a brand new band brake, fab up a mount for it and use the original post on the rear piece I used for it. So, brakes are good, just need a rod now.

Sprocket is a basic thing, not split just basic & black.

Engine will be the briggs with the updraft carb for now

The engine plate isn't put on yet but will sit slightly tilted forward.

I managed to find a kind of old brake pedal that seemed to fit the theme so that's clamped in place.

And the steering is a thing of beauty really. It's not ackermannnnnnnnnn but close. I wasn't trying for it but it turned out pretty good. The front axle is welded to the top side of the frame and wedged under the front cage and should work well... plus it goes pretty far. Far enough to actually scrub the frame if you go that far. The axle is all that's left from an asuza kart frame so it's welded with a degree or two of positive caster.

In the last pic here, I took it with the bare frame sitting and turned all the way to the left. We can see here that the left wheel is off the ground slightly. This means that it should kick pretty good and steer well by my standards (which aren't that high)

So some overall thoughts:
1. It's low to the ground and looks like it's bent, but it's not. The paint scheme kind of makes it look that way.
2. The front end on this is different than any I've done yet because your feet (heels) aren't right on top of the front axle.
3. The front end will get some sort of treatment and we'll fit it right inside the front cage giving it a bit of a look. Probably put some push bars there too to resemble older cop cars. It's only 16 or so in wide in there so if I can find one, a junker pedal car body, (the one called a "flat face") would rule here. We'll see how it goes.
4. The overall stance of this thing has a wide rear end 36" rear axle while the front width is only 30. The front end is more narrow than others I've done but it looks good for now.

Anyway, more soon.

Thanks for looking.

Kelly

 

[Kelly Wood]

whoops! Forgot a pic.

I know, it's goofy. Like: "Look mom! Look where I am!"

whatever.

 

[Kelly Wood]

and the 6-beer mockup...

 

[itsid]

you're right!
That'd be nice

So, next task.. find a cheap flat face murray...

'sid

 

[Kelly Wood]

Yup, I got 16-18 inches inside that front cage and 3 ebay sellers have confirmed that the body at the front, at the widest point is 16 in. As you said, time to find a flat-face murray... hopefully with some dents & rust.

Onward.

 

[itsid]

There was a pretty rusted one just the other day, but it wasn't exactly cheap ($130 pickup only, somewhere in florida AFAIR)

If you're lucky you can try to get this for cheap (26h remaining):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Fir...utdoor_Toys_Structures_US&hash=item2c71ea5773

'sid

 

[Kelly Wood]

Thanks, I've seen that and the sheer number of these Murray's tells me that somewhere there has to be one locally.

I know a guy that owns an antique store and that's the place to start. I'll ask him about them & see where it goes. They made a lot of these.

Who knows, maybe there's someone around here with a whole junkyard of them... then what'll I do?

More soon.

 

[Kelly Wood]

Update:

The geese are flying over now and although that doesn't mean the end of this adventure, the building is now on hold for a while.

Why?

With only a carport and a small area that I stack these things, I must make room for the return of my race kart. At the beginning of the season, I sold it to someone to give them a chance because they'd wrecked theirs and I wanted to just watch my daughter.

With her doing spectacular (only 100 pts behind the leader) and a real knack for driving, I don't worry much about her now so... and with her permission mind you... I've got my old racer back and I wanted to get back to racing for a bit. I typically don't race in the middle of the summer here because I simply hate the hot weather. Plus, her class and my class are on track together so I get to take a different perspective of this (and try to catch her... I think she's better than me now... plus I'll be on track if something goes wrong)

Anyway, projects on hold and put up in the shed. Sarge is left out and on the bottom of my kart stand for my racer... due back tomorrow.

I'm not a pro but I've done a 3rd place here and there's like 10-20 in my class... wish me luck.

Thanks for watching all this time. I'll be back after the racing season is over. (2 months)

Kelly

 

[Desertduler]

Good luck Kelly and have fun! Remember this fall we have to hit the lake bed for a weekend

 

[itsid]

An italian race kart?
Don't tell me you can also find Mach1's on your side of the pond.

Well, have fun and let us know how you're doing.

'sid

 

[souperman000]

I'm sure you'll find some time here and there to tinker.

Good luck on your season!