The officially official Cougar Scooter build thread

[Furyous]

The cart has been stewing a while since my wife and I have been planning a surprise 50th anniversary party for her parents, plus she's 6 months pregnant so a combination of planning a big event plus a woman in "nesting" mode= a very busy husband. All went off without a hitch though.

I have been trying to loosen up the original accelerator pedal since it is rotted together with a rusty hinge pin. Liquid wrench, heat, nor hammer worked so I ended up just beating the mount off in pieces with a BFH. I then sprayed wd40 into the brass bushing and worked a drill bit around inside to clean things up. I put a wire brush to the pedal, then washed it, dried it, primed and painted it metallic grey. Now I have to figure out what to mount this with. I was thinking marine hardware might be a good point to try to find a stainless piece and hinge pin that might work. Sorry there is no before pic- I just wanted to get underway.




I ordered a blue led voltmeter for the dash and a heavy duty forward reverse switch from scottyb at carts unlimited. The guy is in California, and I ordered it on Friday and already have it today! Not only was it packed really well and got here fast, but this thing is a beast and has been tested by Scotty himself with. Sticker to prove it, AND full mounting instructions.




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[yamahag9er]

Very cool build. I cant wait to see more.

[Furyous]

Well, my night to work on the cart went all to hell when I had friends show up and I "DTMBNWD". Drank Too Much Beer No Work Done.
All that I was able to accomplish before these fools showed up was one battery tray. Here it is, and still 2 weeks before the ugly and running deadline.


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[Furyous]

Well, to make up for the lack of work last night and to help ease my new hangover, I took some time to work on the cart early this morning. While I have just been kind of "winging it" when it came to the layout of the frame, things started to get real when I realized how close I am to having the frame done and will be able to focus on wiring and getting this thing moving. I triple measured the area where the battery tray were to go, and I had an idea to lower 5 of the batteries from their stock location for three reasons- aesthetics, to create more room under the seat, and to lower the center of gravity. I welded in the crossmember that will mount the rear body, another crossmember for additional structural support of the battery trays, welded up two of the battery trays (one for a singular battery and the lower one for three together. Everything is fitting nice and tight, and just seemingly falling into place. The battery trays are going to look awesome with three above and the rest 3" below in front. It may give me enough space to mount the charger under the seat. Here are the latest pics:

My new heavy duty fr switch

The single battery holder

How the lower battery tray will be welded in

How each singular battery tray will be mounted

Tacking everything into place

Everything In place. Hopefully tonight I'll have time to take the body off again so I can make and mount the upper battery tray and final singular one, weld in some gussets, and finish weld everything. This frame is going to look awesome in stage 2- sandblasted, rust treated, and painted with POR 15, then coated with dark grey truck bed liner.

On another thread here a member posted that I should not use bed rails as they are heat treated, and the welds will break. I contemplated cutting them out and replacing them with angle iron, but then I load tested them. All 240 pounds of me can jump up and down on them, and even if they do break it only means that the fiberglass rocker panel will come off since all the structure for the floors and seats is provided by the steel crossmembers that are welded to the main frame rails. Plus, they are welded in 5 places on each side, so I think I'll risk it.


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[MOOSE]

I've used bed rails for everything including portable tree stands and I've never had an issue.


Love your cart

[Furyous]

Well, got just about as much as I can get done before a business trip that will take me to Vancouver over the weekend, so no updates until next week. I got three of the four battery trays tacked in, just need more time to pull the body off the chassis and roll it on the side o I can weld in some gussets and additional bracing for the extreme weight this thing will be expected to hold (up to 6 adults, 8 6v batteries, subwoofer, etc p etc.

Big difference from this:

To this:


I also put the body back on so that I can play with the photos to better envision the final product.



And the battery trays as they barely fit into the body.



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[Furyous]

I said no updates, but while on the flight I played with my auto desk sketchbook app some more, and I'm really getting better at using it. I now have a much better final vision of what has been in my head for so long. I opted for diamond plate for the floors- it looks good, is relatively inexpensive, and rugged. I may cover it with some carpet at a later time, but seeing it in the final drawing satisfies my need to make the cart unique still.

The before pic taken today:

And my vision, hopefully complete by Halloween:



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[Furyous]

Thanks everyone for the encouragement and compliments. I am obsessed with this thing and will be a man possessed to get it running this week. I may, however, be at the mercy of shipping as I am still waiting on my welding cable, solenoid, and batteries. I have a buddy who works as a GM at a marine store that can get me pretty deep discounts on batteries, and claims to have some great Crown 6v in stock- unsure of amperage. I will need all the help I can get monetarily to keep this thing under $3k.

Took a little time today to install my voltmeter in the dash. Love how the previous owner just doused this body in places with spray paint. My wife told me she wants it to be pretty if I get it running so we can take it on vacation next week, so I may bring some primer and masking tape with me just to make it one solid color.

I also tried out POR15's rust prep on the brake yoke and seat backs, and man did it clean it up big time. I'll put a coat of POR-15 on them tonight and follow it with a coat of primer since they will be coated with bedliner anyways.


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[Furyous]

I need some help here... My neighbor ( the handiest guy I know) came over while I was working on the cart to check on my progress. I talked to him a bit about how I am trying to use 2/0 gauge welding cable due to the high strand count and high amperage capability, and how I was following several eBay auctions for welding cable, and he had an idea. When he built his house, he was left with this 1/0 gauge Cerro wire rated for 600 volts, and that he would give the 25' he has left to me. My initial thought was that it would not work since it has a low strand count, is quite rigid, and flexing over time could cause some problems like broken battery posts and internal copper breakage due to repeated flexing and vibration, ultimately leading to wire failure. Your thoughts?


On another note, I took the rusty (on the surface) seat back brackets and brake yoke, wire brushed them, treated them with POR 15 rust prep, then a coat of semi- gloss black POR-15.


These are still "lumpy" from the heavy surface rust on them, but I plan to paint them with bedliner that will hide all the imperfections just like I plan to do to the chassis, so I'm not concerned therefore not much time spent grinding and sanding them.

It's pretty obvious that my "running and ugly" deadline of having the cart running by the end of this week will be missed, and we will have to rent a cart while on vacation. I am still missing a solenoid, wiring, a key switch, and batteries. The chance of me getting those and having the cart sorted out by Friday are less than me playing pickup sticks with my buttcheeks. My next hope is to make it presentable and reliable by Halloween.


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[Furyous]

Got a couple of uninteresting things done on the cart yesterday, but made a lot of headway in the design aspect. I found some nice 4x6" Infiniti plate speakers in the garage, and it occurred to me that they fit either side of the dash perfectly. Unfortunately this is where I already mounted the voltmeter, so the plan became to move the voltmeter to just above the key switch on the right side of the steering column. Then I discovered a cup holder unit from an older Jetta has a cool fold out feature so that it looks just like a panel on the dash but pops out and unfolds into two cup holders when you push on it. Sold. I'll be looking for one on eBay. Then I found a iPad mount that would allow me to slide my iPad onto the dash serve as my music and video, speedometer, and gps. I can also use a rectangular piece of Tupperware to serve as a holder for other things like phone, bottle opener, etc.

All this lead to me wondering what to do with the dash itself. Then it hit me. I want to try my hand at engine turning some aluminum panel that will cover the dash and wrap over the top of the body to just under the windshield.

I also conceived a great lock mechanism for the seats that will be 100% hidden from view. Basically, nobody will be able to access the electronics under the seat without knowing the trick. There is not even a risk if someone stumbling upon it accidentally! Obviously I do not want to post it online, but I assure you it is brilliant.

Anyway, I welded up the last battery tray for the cart power and cut out the pieces for the 12v battery mount. I may be able to finish up the chassis welding before leaving for vacation. Still need to mount the accelerator pedal, reinforce some of the welds on the bottom of the chassis, weld in some gussets, and weld in the battery trays. Then I can POR15 the whole thing, spray it with Berliner, then I will worry about wiring it all up and test driving it.


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