Golf Cart Restoration

The other day I picked up a golf cart off of craigslist for $300. I didn't have my trailer with me and it happed to fit nicely in the back of my minivan with the seats out. I brought it home and had a hard time pushing it into the garage apparently the previous owner tried to put a lift kit on it without putting a wider front axel on it and so the lift kit was rubbing on the tires. This is probably why the input shaft and coupler got stripped. I pulled out the batteries and looked at the battery box. It was in pretty rough shape and I didn’t have a welder. I figured I would just build me a new one since it didn’t look that difficult. Emma said that Jay Draper up the street had a welder and so I walked up there and got to talking to him. He said I could barrow his welder and that he have a friend named Van Watson down in Kyle that restored golf carts for a living. From what I read online, if you had a bad coupler, you had to replace the whole motor. I figured that I could just weld a nut onto the bad coupler and pop the if off the motor since they did sell coupler online, I figured there must be some what to get it off of there. Sure enough we were able to separate it from the motor. I called Van and got a new input shaft and coupler. My input shaft has the 21 teeth on it.

I also noticed that the frame was in pretty rough shape and so I talked to Van about getting one from his scrap pile. He sold me the input shaft, the coupler, and the frame for $250. Great deal! The input shaft is $100 online the coupler is $30 and I couldn’t even find a new frame. I would have had to build it form scratch.

New $300 Golf Cart

Rusted out frame

Battery Box has seen better days, but there is enough of it to use as a pattern for the new one.

Front lift kit. Guy forgot the wider axel and stripped the input shaft from the wheels rubbing.Good batteries are worth about $100 a piece and there are 6 of them. That alone was worth picking up the car

Coupler that I welded a nut to so I could get it off the motor and Stripped Input Shaft

Left Over Parts form both Cars

I decided to use the rear springs off the fist cart since they were in better shape (not flat)Rear axel out of the new cart all painted… sure hope the the differential accepts a 21 tooth input shaft.

Just finished up welding the new battery box
Applied the rust converter and all the spots where rust was is now black. So that means everything

Put the rear back together and now it is the front ends turn.
Could not get the rack and pinion off for the life of me so I am painting around it.

Finished with the rust-x now to the final coat of black high gloss

Nearly forgot the seat rack.

Shot of the front end off for painting

I stopped by Van’s today to pick up a new F&R Switch, but his mechanic used the last new one he had on another car a week ago and didn’t tell him they were out. Have to wait a week to pick it up so I can start installing the electronics. I figure I will put the front end back on tomorrow and finish putting the battery box in place. I lined the batter box with truck bed liner to try and keep it from corroding from battery acid. Wish these were sealed gel batteries. I guess those are a bit more expensive. Also wish I had taken some more shots of the cars before I took them all apart. I remember where everything goes, but it would have been nice to see what they looked like before I started. I will probably finish stripping the car with the bad frame and and toss it. It is more rust than frame at this point. Not sure where I will be putting all the extra parts. Maybe I can see if Van wants them in trade for another project car when this one is done. :)

SpringBreak 2009

Spring break was fun this year. We pitched a couple of tents out in the back yard and camped out for 2 days. We recently acquired a fire pit and cooked all of our food on it. You see, campsites in Austin are extremely hard to come by if you dont make reservations a year in advance for spring break. I checked all the state and local parks in the area and everything was full. Probably just as well, the kids had lots of fun and we had the comforts of home close by. The rules were:
No playing in the house
Use the house if you need to go potty
Cook everything outside
No electronics
No eating the local wildlife
I spent both nights in the tents with the kids and Emma joined us on night 2.
Day 3, Emma did a home schooling experiment and you would have to ask her what the verdict was.
Day 4, we bought the parts for our water bottle launcher.
Instructables - Water or Soda Bottle Launcher

Water Bottle Rocket Launcher

Power

DetonatorMechanism

We also hiked to a nearby part about a 2 mile hike.

 

Zilker Kite Festival 2009

Zilker Park Kite Festival Austin TX is a really big deal.

It is a good excuse to show off your bling.
If you take the CPR course, you get a free kite!!

The Yellow Cab of Austin is one of the sponsors.

Big Kites and weird people who like their picture taken. I charged him 5 buck for a copy.As you can see, the squid is chasing the purple monster and is about to eat him.We also have big caterpillars here in TX.Olivia is a "Super Star!""This kite business is a piece of cake.""Lets see... I don't think I need this stick thing..."A Plethora of Kites"The Kite Festival is so FUN!!"Biggest Kite Contest"Man I wish I could run out there during the demonstration."Seconds before the eminent collision...
I can hardly believe my eyes! They are not fighting! :)An Old Car Picture for Grampa

As you can see, I did not get any pictures of my kids "flying" thier kites. It was a strange wind day. It would blow for about 2 mintues and then die for about 5. It did this all day so I spent most of the time trying to get the kids kites up in the air and by the time I had 1 or 2 of them up, the wind would die and we spent the next 5 mintues finding and winding up the kites. Just when you get them all ready to go again, the wind picks up and you have enough time to let out the string and hand it to a kid before you start over again. Lots of fun. Seems to do this every year. The kids enjoy it though.

Sketchup Is the Best.

Just thought I would post my favorite FREE cad program. Sketchup is the best CAD program I have used. It is open source, and a lot of people write Ruby scripts that expand the abilities of the program beyond that of any other 3d cad program. This is the tutorial that started it all for me: (Tutorial by Gary Katz)

As a result of viewing this video I created this computer desk in about an hour:
I now do all of my projects in Sketchup before I realize them. Here is where I post all my ongoing projects:
ThePalsRus Sketchup Projects
I only wish that I could manufacture the project in as little time as it takes me to create it in Sketchup. I understand they are making some headway in 3d printers, but I think there is still a little work to do when it comes to printing good hardwoods. :-)

Levi's New Treehouse Bed

I am debating on whether to put a small roof on it or not. Problem is that if he stands up on his bed, the ceiling fan will decapitate him. And I just installed a metal fan with razor sharp blades. If I raise the fan more than 6 inches, it will hit the sloped ceiling in his room. He is really excited about the new bed.

This is the ultimate design for his room. The benches are replacing his dresser. Fake campfire just in case you were concerned. :)

BSIT Finished!!!

Wooo Hooo!!! I have finally finished my BSIT degree program with University of Phoenix. Now I do not have any excuses left for not finishing up that "Honey-Do" list. First item on the docket is finish Levi's tree house bed. So I am off...

Honey Do List:
Clean Garage
Levi's Tree house Bed
Clean office
Install coat hooks in front closet
Office furniture
Deck Part 2
Install 2nd floor on house and a 3 car garage or detached workshop