Michael Richard's Journal

Well I drew, scaled, schemed, ranted, and cried, but finally decided on a plywood chassis. I built a somewhat to scale model of the main substructure to evaluate the stiffness on each axis and it's pretty much come up fine. Still some bulkheads to mock-up and seat back will be part of the bottom structure. I'm trying to get all of the structural strength built into the lower half of the car except for the dash/seat back and a solid support stringer between those. Also there will be sheet metal truss along the lengths of plywood which are lacking support. The flat end of the model will be the front. Remember this is only a proof of concept design and very rough. Now if I can just get the photo's over here..........

So while perusing I came upon this cyclekart with a wood frame similar to what I am trying to come up with. It's a little lighter than I dare build for around here, but the basic frame design has given me some great ideas. The simplicity of it has made my design a lot easier to put together as there is a minimum of wood bending. The suspension is much like where I am at layout wise although the axle set up will be quite different they are both straight axle. Interesting engine compartment also, but I would definitely reinforce that with metal.

I took a photo of Dennis Thomas' kart build and did a little (what might very loosely be termed) art work on it to get an idea of where this thing will be going. Now if memory serves his karts are around 66 inch wheelbase. The drawings I have so far are 72 inch WB. So the photo is kinda cramped lengthwise and it bothers me no end, but this does give me a visual reference to judge by.Still up in the air on the wheels but since I've made no concrete decision there should be no concrete discussion on that. It's merely something to get my head around the body shape which is almost a modified lake racer drop tank car. I can work aluminum a bit, but I have more knowledge and more friend resources to draw on with fiberglass, and have recently found a way to make the final resin coat look like real aluminum so there is that advantage. I have an E mail into a leaf spring manufacturer of very lightweight trailer springs of the slip variety and am hopeful they come through with a more weight correct spring. I'm kinda feeling I bit off more than I can chew as the internals are going to resemble a barn built Supermarine Spitfire. LOL I could throw the thing together and probably still smile from behind the steering wheel, but I just have to challenge myself on this after all those years of racing. No I'm not building it to race, but I do want to smile at the things hidden under the skin as much as those everyone see's.

OK finally I have settled on the wheels for the Jappic cyclekart. Believe me it ain't been easy. I kept going back to the scaling software I was using and came up with 18 inch wheels, so I looked some up and was watching them on Ebay, but something just kept nagging me. What nagged me was that magic number 17 that everyone is so hooked on. So in the spirit of the thing I started searching some more and found Honda cr80 17 inch front wheels for the front. They had a disc brake but the flanges for the disc mount can be machined off to give it that no front brake look, because the original had no front brakes. The rears were more standard fare so no need to go there. I have been scheming on a new way to mount the rears and will probably make my own flange mounts. I'll advise as time goes on, but I just can't feel comfortable with the standard mounting even though it is rather inexpensive, and torture tested. Unrelated, I have decided to incorporate a manual drum auxiliary rear brake/parking brake in the car making parking on a hill more comfortable and not having to prop it against something to keep it from rolling off. I don't run very fast anymore unless under direct fire, which seems to alleviate( although momentarily) all lack of speed and pain from old injuries.
I've pretty much got the front end sorted out on paper. Straight axle 1 1/2x.095 wall DOM tubing, bottom of said mounts to the forward spring ends and top mounts to the friction shocks via control arm and heim joints, which will allow me to tinker in the right caster angle. The KPI because of the mounting won't be much, and I've looked the original photo's over carefully and it doesn't look like it has any camber angle at all. Odd that by what I have read here so discussion is open on that. Toe in will be moderate because of the extended wheelbase, but I can tinker that in as needed. I have decided to step outside the original formula set out in the holy scriptures in a very few ways. Wheelbase is going to be long. It was in the original and I've cut it as much as I dare and keep the look that I love so much. O.A. length is outside the norm also because of this and that long swooping tail, again something I just love, long swooping tails, sounds nice doesn't it? I have also decided to ad a whiskey flask and holder for those moments when the driver will need comforting, or for medicinal purposes such as snow snake bites. More later.

Looks like no + or - camber in this photo. If there is it can't be much.

Well I now have both a table saw and a bandsaw. Not of the highest quality mind you, but I have finally reached a point where a space is cleared in the barn, saw horses are made, I've acquired a stainless steel medical table to do fiberglass work on and things are reaching a closing on the build supply parts list. So hopefully this project will actually see some fabrication going on soon. No hurry as the budget is small, but my scrounging abilities are legendary. LOL So now we will see if I have any woodworking skills.