I am into mini-rods. I built a little T bucket out of mower components several years ago. You need to get the steering right. You should use Anglia or Crosley components for your front axle. They are very small and have the correct caster, camber, ackerman, ect. I may want to do some trading with you for that independent front-end. I'm wanting to build something like a mini early Indy car.
Cool, I saw an Anglia front end for sale at the Reunion in Bowling Green one year and wondered if it wasn't small enough to use for a mini bucket. Where do you get your mini bucket bodies?
I saw a while back on here, not sure which thead, a guy building a coupe or willys sort of cart for his daughter. It was metal bodied i believe and had the top cut out like those old altereds.
Man those things are too cool. I bet you could adapt one of those bodies to fit golf cart components.
You have to very careful with a MC powered go-kart ish (is that a word?) ride. They are too fast for the wheelbase and extremely dangerous, stupid fast. My nephews 5hp go cart does 10' burnouts and tops out at 40mph with me in it. Most of the time, the MC powered carts 1st and 2nd gear are useless, tire smoking third gear starts, and tire busting 4th shift at 50mph with no weight and no control. Replica digger may work well, scale the power to weight ratio as well as the size.
Im still exploring my options right now. Maybe a v twin backed by the 3spd in a coupe bodied dragster frame like the one in the "yea Ive gone to far" thread, I think thats how you spell it. I just want to buil something so over the top and bad ass Oh yeah, keep the pictures coming please! Awesome!
Next step up in size this is a bantam coupe, heavily modified, choped & sectioned with a cushman bed, powered with a toyota 4 cyl. MAS has a bantam coupe race weight fglass body
I think i need a towel.... im drooling all over! That bantam is sweet! To think, ive got a brand new (literally) toyota 20r bored. 60 over lying in my truck frame in my garage. I'd say fuck the truck and use it to build this hahaha!
http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Jeff_Motes%27_1938_Austin_Bantam Here is some more on that bantam
I wouldn't mind pics if you have any.....I'm putting together a car for my daughter now and could always use some ideas.
l'm putting a 750 magna motor in my 1960 cushman truckster,, modifing a 8 3/4 dodge rearend and removed the rear fenders to fit 33 X 18.5 mickey thompson street ET;s .. go to the google search and look up the cushman site,, go to trucksters,, there is an man in wisconsin who puts 1100 goldwing motors in his,, he also modified a 8'' ford rearend to fit,,, l talked to him and he stated his next build gets a 1500cc goldwing motor as this version has reverse,,,,,and then there is the V-8 sb chevy in a cushman truckster.. that's wild
LarzBahrs your engine should be middle 50"s and aprox 8 hp. I couldnt read the numbers on it, for sure . Those engines were used in race cars,too, along with others ,, and had up to 30 hp, if built correctly .. they do run a long time, and take quite a beating considering they dont have a normal pressurized oiling system. TOADFROG ,, what you have is a " CUSHMAN GOLFSTER " a golf cart , built from 60 to 64 .. it should have a twin cyl 18 hp engine . I have seen some of those with a truckster 3 speed transmission installed, and they can run 50 or better .. they do get a little hairy at that speed, with only 3 wheels .. I heard someone say something about a " death wobble " lol... JEFF
I need to learn to do some basic wiring, i need to put in a starter. kill switch, and a battery. Might be best to put an alternator to to recharge the battery??
Sorry ive posted nothing up or got nothing started yet. Been dicking around with other projects. Ive finally decided im making a half scale deuce coupe. Im getting the dimension s from pat on his coupe so i can scale them down and modify them to fit my components. Im also gonna try to attempt to build a half scale a frame instead of one of those simple straight bar types. Got to messing with the tranny and got it to shift now. I also found a zenith carb to fit the engine. Now i just got to make a intake manifold and exaust. Then ive got to start on the wiring part to figure out how im going to run an electric 12 volt starter and lights and what not. This is gonna be my hamb worthy project for now..
I dont have a picture. But i saw a golfcart at Daverport ,Iowa at the mc swap meet it had a Caddy v8 powering it . The drivebelt came off the crank pulley had a giant wench about 2 ' long hooked to a idler pulley that dropped over center to tighten the belt. I guess the guy had the engine and needed a rolling engine stand.
Here's a transaxle for 20HP https://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?UID=2009071616452273&item=13-1430&catname=engines
My axel works just fine. If i did a transaxel i would lose the spirit lol plus it costs ass loads of money!
I finally got a wheelbarrow! Time to get back on this project, sorry for such a long leave of absents!
Check out older copies of Popular Science - say 1949 thru the early fifties. It was very common back then for folks to build little cars like the one you are thinking about. They usually used a one-lung engine, model A transmission, and cut-down model T frame and axles. Bodies were usually along the lines of those in the pictures above, perhaps not as 'perfect' though. Suggest laying out the car along the lines of a speedster. Gives you a lot of freedom, should not be too hard to fabricate, and you will have enough room at the drivers seat to actually drive it.
Just another thought in a little different direction: Make this into a bumper car bodied hot rod. That'd be fun and about the right size.
We built a mini jeep body. I did it rough in wood paneling and had a metal shop do it in .050 aluminum. It is 35 inches wide , i forget how long. It was easier than i would have thought and not expensive. I realize you want something different than a jeep but the general concept is the same. Here is a couple of pics one of the grill which I cut down from a full size and one of the painted body sitting on the frame. The wooden model i made from glue and wood paneling was not pretty but the metal guy said it was enouf to work from. It took him a couple of days work to make it in aluminum. We are making an altered but the body is quite small , in fact would probably be close to your eventual chassis size. Don PS there is a pic of the wooden rough one on my website under hemi jeep
Hey Larz, Engine parts are available from Dennis Carpenter (makes early Ford panels etc.). He can supply you with an original type intake manifold and also a late motorcycle carb upgrade + much other stuff (clutch,ignition parts and wiring).Try Google. If you can't find him, I will go down to the garage and dig out the info. I used to belong to the Cushman Club of America. They have a mag. with classifieds with many parts available. I agree with what was said before that your engine looks like an 8hp M-6(?). I always wanted to do the project you are starting. If you can get one or more buddies to build them also, some great dirt track fun will follow!! Keep us posted and have fun!
Cool project Personally, I'd make the body with foam so it could be carved into something wild. A little bit of fiberglass resin soaked cloth laid on the foam and voila! One-off body. My vote is tiny dune buggy. Good luck
The Jalopy Journal
