1973 Club Car / Vanguard Sport, SN99
 

Finally... After waiting for a crazy amount of rainstorms to go by the Vanguard makes it to my house.

So the story is the guy I got it from bought it in parts from an auction. He put it back together, painted it, did some other work, and been trying to sell it since. Cart was just minutes from my house.

Technically these were built as electric cars. If you dont know the history of these, its worth the research. Quite interesting little cars.

Seems to be mostly stock. Frame is in good shape. Lid for trunk is not original. Glass needs replacement. Most of electrical seems original but at some point the traditional directional switch was added under seat.

Ive already got work to do just to ride it around neighborhood. Battery cables weren't tight and melted some terminals. Ordering up some 2ga cables to replace as much as I can. Going to look into changing over to an ESC.

I was a pro auto mechanic by trade and been in electrical work of some sort all my life. This ought to be some fun!

(Sorry about sideways pics. I did NOT shoot them that way but website is showing them that way.)

Re: 1973 Club Car / Vanguard Sport, SN99
 

Cool GC! What is "ESC"?

Re: 1973 Club Car / Vanguard Sport, SN99
 

ESC, Electronic Speed Control.

Im educating myself on them. I think I can put together everything I need to convert it for half of what most vendors sell as a package.

Re: 1973 Club Car / Vanguard Sport, SN99
 

Nice! Some "innards " photos turned the correct way would be appreciated by many folks here!

Re: 1973 Club Car / Vanguard Sport, SN99
 

actually i shot the pics in the correct format, they looked fine on my laptop (didnt have to rotate them) but for some reason they end up sideways here. i dont get it... maybe its a sign i better not drive this thing too fast

Re: 1973 Club Car / Vanguard Sport, SN99
 

so anyways.. some updates.

in prep for total rewire i've disconnected everything not required by the traction motor. got new tires all the way around. replaced a bunch of questionable looking battery cables. commercial UPS units that have been scrapped are a great source BTW for free heavy gauge cables and they have brass terminals.

I tried to revive the old speed control but its just garbage. i have low and full speed. thats it. some of the solenoids are just fried. going with a curtis retrofit kit for speed control.

all the lighting, horn, wipers, stereo, etc are going to be moved to a standalone 12v agm in trunk. trunk lid is not original so i dont feel bad about mounting a 20w solar panel on it to keep 12v battery up.

waiting to go on "maiden voyage" with new tires to see what i get on gps. its the deciding point if i'm staying at 36v or going to 48v.

I'm going to do some custom stuff to it but it will all be under the shell so as not to detract from the carts original look. just got two strips of outdoor LED lighting for undercarriage and a 100w PA speaker like whats used on cop cars.

the PA speaker will be run off a class D amp board tied to an old cell phone running a soundboard app. this will let me have all kinds of fun sound effects like a dixie air horn, fog horn, etc.

--------------------------------------------------

update - got 20mph on gps

Re: 1973 Club Car / Vanguard Sport, SN99
 

w4thm,
Congratulations on your new ride.

I have Vin R94, and I have done a complete rebuild with lots of help from the guys on this Forum.
Here is the link to my thread if you want to see my project:
https://www.buggiesgonewild.com/show...ghlight=Aflyer

If you decide to upgrade to a solid state system contact David at Revolution Golf Cars, he is TahoeDawgZ71 on this Forum.
Welcome to the forum, and World of the Vanguard Sort Coupe,
Aflyer

Re: 1973 Club Car / Vanguard Sport, SN99
 

:iagree:

Re: 1973 Club Car / Vanguard Sport, SN99
 

Been out for a few rides in the Vanguard. It's great to see how many people look at this thing going down the road. It's a real life Mr Magoo car!

I picked up a 1985 club car locally for $400. Has a complete and intact speed control that looks like what's in the Vanguard. May just transfer that over so I can enjoy the Vanguard in the meantime.

I also picked up a 500A shunt and analog meter that fits the factory cutout on the dash. I'm going to wire that in to see what this thing actually pulls. I'm thinking I may not need to go for that bigboy 500A electronic controller. That will save me some cash. We don't have any hills down here, just long flat roads.

Re: 1973 Club Car / Vanguard Sport, SN99
 

W4thm,
Glad to hear you are cruising in your Sport Coupe. Mr Magoo car is a good name, my wife calls mine the Danny D car. That comes from American Pickers Tv Show. I just call it the Clown car.

I have been looking for a gauge like that to replace my original, but only ones I found were 3", and I wasn't sure I wanted to cut the hole in the dash bigger. Can you post information on it?
Flyer