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Thread: And now for something completely different.

  1. #1

    Default And now for something completely different.

    Golf carts are a popular neighborhood vehicle here in Florida, even though strictly speaking they are not street legal. I picked up this project cart for a song.

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    The "bones" of this 30+ year old cart - motor, differential, aluminum frame - are in good shape, but the rest not so much. I stripped the hideous homemade "body" from it, cleaned up and repainted the brake and accelerator pedals and linkages and electrical parts, replaced many rusted fasteners with stainless steel, installed new brake shoes and brake cables, new shocks, new batteries, new solenoid, new microswitches, and all new wiring.

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    I added a temporary seat base and floorboard to test the rolling chassis, which is working well.

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    I replaced the temporary floorboard with a new one.

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    Also added an under seat panel and shift knob. The black thing is a charging jack.

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    More to come, as this is a longer-term project.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Northern Colorado
    Posts
    7,962

    Default

    Get that baby all tricked out! Looking forward to seeing your process!
    RingNeckBlues
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    All patterns and projects that I share on the CarveWright forum are for your personal carving purpose. They are not to be shared, sold or posted on any other web site without permission from RingNeckBlues Designs.

  3. #3

    Default

    I want this cart to be unique.

    There are a few companies making fiberglass golf cart bodies of classic cars - '57 Chevys, Jeeps, Ford Broncos. I thought about getting one, but they are a bit pricey. I decided to make my own, out of wood of course. It will not be painted but will be a true "woody". I was looking for a body that would be recognizable and also have some interesting detail. I decided to go with the early Ford Bronco for the fender and grill details. Something like this.

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    In addition to Bronco photos, I got a plastic model kit of an early Ford Bronco to study. I tried scanning the hood, but the results were disappointing. The scan yielded a very irregular surface that the de-noise and smoothing filters of Pattern Editor could not overcome. I would need to build my own models. I don't have 3D modeling software per se, and no skills with such tools, but I do have some Designer add-ons.

    I don't have the 2D Designer add-on, but did something similar, tracing a nice side photo of a Bronco with a paint program to get the shapes of a front fender. The resulting line drawing that I made was imported as a pattern, and I traced that with the line drawing tools in Designer. I used a 1/2 size scale in Designer to make the fender model - about 11" tall and 19" wide, to fit a virtual single board, to scale up to twice that when carved. I used 3D tools to build up the fender shapes, staring with the Sweep- Rounded tool on the fender flare.

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    To taper the ends of the flare, I "bent" the flare around a rectangular carve region shaped with the Extrude tool using Merge Additive.

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    I made this into a pattern and loaded it into Pattern Editor. By lowering the pattern, I eliminated the rectangular carve region, leaving a taper in the lower part of the fender flare.

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    The process was repeated on the front of the flare with a different swept carve region. The top of the fender was built up separately. The whole fender with flare was also bent with an underlying swept carve region to produce the end result pattern. Pattern Sculptor was also used to smooth out and further blend the fender flare into the fender.

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    The final pattern was scaled up to size and placed on two 12" wide boards, ready for machining as soon as I get some lumber. To keep machine time down, I plan to run this carving with the 3/16" ballnose bit in Draft mode. Any vertical lines can quite readily be sanded out, as the fender is quite smooth.

    Looking forward to designing the grill.

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  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Western New York
    Posts
    899

    Default

    Awesome Project! I am looking forward to following this thread as the process continues! Thanks for the detailed updates!

  5. #5

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    Kiel, Wisconsin
    Posts
    273

    Default

    Very cool! Looking forward to your progress.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Western New York
    Posts
    899

    Default

    Looking good!!

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    2,877

    Default

    Wow! That is going to be the best looking golf cart in Florida.

    They are very popular here in Texas as well to get around the neighborhood.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Southern Delaware
    Posts
    1,039

    Default

    Amazing what you are able to build with the carver, love it
    Rick H

  10. #10

    Default

    Inner fenders and crossmember. I knew that the steering column would exit above the to-be-built dashboard, but it was going to be too high, I needed to lower the steering column a bit, so I made this angled plate from HDPE to attach the steering box at a slightly increased angle.

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