The Frame Is Painted. It has been over 100 degrees in this shop everyday for most of the summer. At least it is good for the paint drying. Now I can start to put the cart back together. The hood seems to fit relatively well. i will just need to trim it up some and reinforce the edges. Next thing to do is sanding and painting. i am not looking forward to sanding fiberglass.

This next photo is something you don't see everyday. I bet some of you old Air Dogs will recognize it right away. It is the B17 Flying Fortress from WW2. It is on display at the Flight museum in Galveston Texas.

I can only imagine what a couple of dozen of these must have sounded like converging on selected targets across Europe and who knows where else. I know a few people who personally flew missions in this type of plane. It was known for it's ability to sustain major damage and still limp back home.

Now that the cart is back together it is time to do all of those tedious finishing tasks like being sure all the nuts and bolts are secure, fine tune brakes and drive train, adjust shocks and front suspension, and various other things. For some reason the hydraulic storage tank seems to have a small leak that must be fixed. All of the other hydraulic connections appear to be tight.
I discovered a few changes that needed to be made after the first test run. I could hardly steer the cart because both rear wheels are under power and pushing at the same time without benefit of a rear differential. You can steer the front wheels all you like but it mostly just goes straight ahead.

I was able to correct this by removing the
key from one of the universal joints in the rear drive train. This makes for sort of a make shift differential so steering is no longer a problem. Hopefully the cart will not be ridden a lot in the mud and should not miss the positraction. Now I need to put in the floor and figure out some kind of bed for the rear.

Modified hood form. I got the form for the hood straightened out and it is almost ready for the fiberglass overlay.
All of the open ends in the frame tubes need to be plugged. Just a small piece of 1/8" thick metal is all that is needed for this.

Now comes the fun part of sand blasting the frame. I am setting up a crude sand blasting cabinet at the back of the warehouse. A portable sand blast unit is all that is needed. It was well over 100 degrees the day this picture was taken. I was more concerned about avoiding a heat stroke than getting a good sand blast job.
Use of a plastic tarp will aid in capturing the sand blast media for recycling.

The hood form has been covered with plastic packaging tape to keep the resin from sticking and is now ready for fitting the fiberglass cloth. The cloth is draped onto the mold and I am using a magic marker to show where the cloth needs to be trimmed.

The final step before applying the epoxy and glass is to coat the surface of the mold with paraffin to help keep the epoxy from sticking to the mold.

Just mix a small amount of resin at a time so you can thoroughly wet the surface before the epoxy sets up. You can simply mix another batch and start where you left off. Just a little bit goes a long way. I got about half way with the first batch and it was almost too much to work before it stated setting up.

Holy Guacamole! Why didn't someone tell me how much that insulating foam expanded. It blew the pattern apart. I guess we will just have to file this under Things not to do. Meanwhile back at the finish welding farm, I have added the gussets to the suspension pickups.

Supports have been added to the front roll bar landings.

I added another piece of 1/8" wall square tube to the bottom of the frame. I don't think there will be very much flex in the frame unless the girls decide to try and pile on 10 more kids.

I am trying to support this model so that it will not move when the fiberglass and epoxy is applied.

OK. I have an idea to speed this up. The can that you see on the left in this next photo is a can of that expanding foam that they use to fill in spaces between pipes and crevices in the foundation and plumbing. I will just fill in the remaining holes in the model and make it more stable.

Well just one can didn't go very far. But it should be enough to really solidify the model.

The fiberglass hood will be my first real try at making a plastic part. The first thing to do is draw out a sketch of the area to be covered on a solid surface.
Next you will need to cut templates out of chipboard or similar material for the model frame.

Next I prefer to start at one end and start building up the model using the foam insulation I described in an earlier post. The nose of the template seems to be a logical place to begin and work backwards. The foam needs to be glued up a little thicker than the overall dimensions so that it can be trimmed to the finish dimensions.

There are probably better ways to do this but I prefer to cut the sections and layer them up to the needed thickness.

You can make the model completely out of foam if you like and it would work just fine. But I prefer to use chipboard templates to help shape the model because I am not that artistic. ( I just remembered that I dreamed about making this model last night.)

I am going to try to use a solid piece of foam for the top contour so I am cutting 5/8" off of the inner templates to accommodate the thickness of the foam.

In order to keep the contour constant you will need to cut off the inner ribs at the same length as the outer framing.

Now that you have the outer dimensions defined it is just a matter of reinforcing the model so that it can be covered with fiberglass and resin without distortion. ( I now recall the dream I had last night about the model. I dreamed the model was complete and the first layer of fiberglass had been set smoothly in place but I had not put on the epoxy resin. Someone had come along and put a bunch of junk on top of the model and messed up the fiberglass. )

There are a few simple tools that can aid in finish welding the frame and component parts. Pictured below are the angle grinder with a flap disc, Drill with a wire wheel, a wire brush, slag hammer and pliers to cut the welding wire when necessary. A bright light can also help. I find that my welding greatly improves when I can see the weldment clearly.

I have finished priming and painting the suspension parts. They are glossy black.

I suppose it is about time that I get started on finishing the go cart project. There are a number of projects that have consumed most of my time for the last four months. I now have a truck that runs on natural gas and have just installed a compressor at my house so that I can fuel the truck from home overnight. But the most demanding project physically has been the tower project. At our cabin on Tenkiller lake in Oklahoma we once Had a tree house look out tower that got blown over a couple of years ago. I know very little about constructing wooden structures but my brother Carl knows plenty. So he came up with plans to build a 3 story free standing wooden structure which is no small feat for weekend warriors. Trying to drill holes for the posts in this rocky soil is next to impossible even with the skid steer that I rented. There is a jack hammer mounted in this picture. I would drill until I hit rock and then switch over to the jack hammer to break up rock and then switch back to the auger. It looked like a war zone when I was through drilling.

We cemented the posts in as far as we could get them down then started laying the foundation.

We did not have time to finish the railing on this trip but it will be secure enough that even small children cannot slip through.

Here is Brenda atop her new tower.

I am trying to figure out a way to put a Zip Line on this thing.

Ok back to the go cart. I have been taking it apart so that it can be fully welded, sand blasted and painted. I really will not have anything new to show until I get a little farther along in the finishing process.