It really feels good to have that old golf cart out of the way. I am taking the component parts I salvaged up to the shop at work where I have some spare space and put them back together so I can further trouble shoot the electric components and see why it is not working.

Now we can move to the rear of the cart and work on getting the shocks in place. Here is another tool that saves a lot of time and effort. This pipe bender uses hydraulic force to contour pipe of a given size into a given radius. I am by no means an expert at using one of these. But I like to learn new things and try to improve my existing skills. This is a very simple and efficient machine. You can spend thousands of dollars for fancy precision bending machines that are used in producing custom race cars. You will notice that the bending die is located in the center of the press. This press comes with 8 dies for 1/2" through 3" diameter pipe. You can control the radius of the bend that you require by moving the hitch pins inward or outward along the pre drilled holes that you see angled on either side.

We will need to bend some 3/4" pipe into a radius so that it will accept the lower shock mounts on the rear swing axles. Why? Well we just want to be sure the brace does not interfere with the axle when it pivots upward. How do I know which holes to insert the hitch pins into? I don't! I just know that it will need to be a fairly tight radius because it is spanning only about a 4" width. This is all just trial and error. Is that a bad thing? I don't think so because it forces me to pay attention and try to visualize and anticipate the outcome. It is just like any other kind of skill. The more you do it the better you become. But how many of us bend pipe enough to really get good at it. I know I don't.

So the point is don't get frustrated if it does not come out right the first try. I made several pieces before getting the hang of it.

The good thing about bending pipe is that you don't have to bend it all the way at once. When you are making more than one piece just get the first one bent to where you want it and then use it as a pattern for the rest of the parts. In the next photo I am visually comparing the finished part at the bottom to the second part I am bending. You can tell that the radius is not quite bent enough yet. So what do I do? If you said just bend it the rest of the way by hand then I would say you have me confused with Popeye the Sailor. Put it back in the bender and bend a little more is the answer. And what if I bend it too much? Well if you put the the pipe back in upside down it will also unbend it. However this only works for small corrections as the pipe tends to begin to distort if you bend it too much in reverse.

That looks about right. Now the ends of the pipe need to be contoured to fit the radius of the pipe on the swing axle. I would like to say that all you need to do is stick the pipe in the notcher and it will perfectly contour the ends. But since the pipe is not straight it is easier to just notch it by hand. Just get it as close as you can using the bench grinder and it will be fine.

Now we have a place for the lower rear shock mounts to call home.

Now we will need some structure that will allow for the attachment of the upper shock mounts. At this point the design is pretty much wide open as long as it provides for solid pick up points for shocks, counter shafts, sprockets, brakes, motors, lions, tigers and bears. Some thought must be given to reinforcing the frame in order to make it as stiff as possible. With a little forethought, structural reinforcement may serve double duty as a connecting point. Allan Staniforth suggests that we put up a sign in our work shop that says, "I will never never, NEVER put bending loads into the middle of a tube or panel". So here I am trying to connect the upper shock mounts into a stretch of tube. Well I have an idea in mind of how to support it so let's get started.

The first thing to do is tack on some uprights. Now we want these to be level in the horizontal and vertical planes. In this photo you will find a level I had forgotten about that makes the job much easier. It has a magnet on it and therefore frees up a hand to straighten things up. I am going to get another one so I can free up another hand. If I buy three of them this project just might build itself.

Now we can plan where to put the upper shock mounts.