lifted club cars - lifted ezgo
Home FAQDonate Who's Online
Go Back   Buggies Gone Wild Golf Cart Forum > Modified Golf Carts > Restoration
Restoration Early 70's and older restoration projects



Post New Thread  Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 07-25-2014, 04:29 PM   #1
Travcojosh
Not Yet Wild
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 16
Default 1971 Harley Davidson Electric Cart Build

Hello everybody. This is going to take a bit so sit back and grab your favorite cold beverage and enjoy the start to this journey.

Well the wife and I have been firmly bitten by the Cart bug....well, first we were bitten by the motorhome bug (bought a 1967 Dodge Travco)....well, actually first we were bitten by the Disney's Fort Wilderness bug. Trust me this will all make sense in a minute.

In 2013 my family rented a 5th wheel at the Fort that came with a golf cart. We all had a blast bombing around the nearly 3 mile loop in the electric little cart. For vacation this year it was decided that we should go again, but now we have a 5 month old little boy to go along with our 6 and 5 year old daughters.

Not wanting to fly with a 1 year old we decided to drive down. We have a nice pop-up camper and a good Jeep to tow with. But we quickly decided that setting up and taking down a pop up would not be a fun way to spend our vacation. Plus cooping up 3 kids in a car for 3 days did not sound like a great time.

Being the people we are we decided to buy a motorhome. I mean really, what's not to love right. Big space, easy setup and break down plus the kids can have space to play. It would be perfect. Now our budget meant we could go with a 90's Class A or something more vintage. My parents had owned a 71 Travco as a kid so that is what we went with when we saw a 1967 Dodge Travco come up for sale.

Fast forward a few months and the Travco is well on its way through a renovation. Interior parts are flying out the side, paint is coming off the body, all in all life with the ol girl is good. As our trip to FLA from WI gets closer it dawned on us that we needed to reserve our cart. We would need the cart for 7 days and we figured it would be just a hundred or so....boy were we wrong!

The rental was to be close to $500. For that price it was determined that a vintage cart was, of course, the way to go. With our own cart we could enjoy it for years to come, plus we can paint it to match our camper. During the search there were of course some hits and misses ($50 for a cart is not always a good deal). But we finally landed on an 1971 Electric Harley Davidson for $125. It was a bit of a risk as there were no batteries and no key. But it looked to be all there, rolled nicely and the brake worked so it had that going for it.

Here's a pick of us towing the old girl home



She sat on the trailer until last weekend when we went out and dropped a lot of money on batteries. Before we did this I had done some testing with a 12volt source and the solenoids clicked over and the motor turned, so I was fairly confident this was all that was needed. Boy was I wrong...

Here is a couple of pictures of the batteries in on a temporary wood bucks and wired up.




As I said, there were high hopes when the batteries were connected. So imagine my disappointment when there was nary a click from the solenoids. I spent days chasing around the service manual and pouring over diagrams.



Until I finally realized that I was as looking at the whole wiring backwards. In the end what I found was that the circuit breaker is toast. I bypassed it using an extra battery cable for testing and for the first time in who knows how long, the motor operated under its own power!

I have some more wiring to do (Protip: do not accidentally touch the solenoid coil ground to the main positive cable or you're gonna have a bad time). In the upcoming weeks I will post progress here as I begin the process of welding in new battery trays, bodywork and upholstery. Here's to progress and the hopes that I've already let all the smoke out of the wires.
Travcojosh is offline   Reply With Quote
Alt Today
BGW

Golf car forum Sponsored Links

__________________
This advertising will not be shown in this way to registered members.
Register your free account today and become a member on Buggies Gone Wild Golf Cart Forum
   
Old 07-25-2014, 07:52 PM   #2
kiotiken
Not Yet Wild
Club Car
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Chesaning Mi.
Posts: 19
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Travcojosh View Post
Hello everybody. This is going to take a bit so sit back and grab your favorite cold beverage and enjoy the start to this journey.

Well the wife and I have been firmly bitten by the Cart bug....well, first we were bitten by the motorhome bug (bought a 1967 Dodge Travco)....well, actually first we were bitten by the Disney's Fort Wilderness bug. Trust me this will all make sense in a minute.

In 2013 my family rented a 5th wheel at the Fort that came with a golf cart. We all had a blast bombing around the nearly 3 mile loop in the electric little cart. For vacation this year it was decided that we should go again, but now we have a 5 month old little boy to go along with our 6 and 5 year old daughters.

Not wanting to fly with a 1 year old we decided to drive down. We have a nice pop-up camper and a good Jeep to tow with. But we quickly decided that setting up and taking down a pop up would not be a fun way to spend our vacation. Plus cooping up 3 kids in a car for 3 days did not sound like a great time.

Being the people we are we decided to buy a motorhome. I mean really, what's not to love right. Big space, easy setup and break down plus the kids can have space to play. It would be perfect. Now our budget meant we could go with a 90's Class A or something more vintage. My parents had owned a 71 Travco as a kid so that is what we went with when we saw a 1967 Dodge Travco come up for sale.

Fast forward a few months and the Travco is well on its way through a renovation. Interior parts are flying out the side, paint is coming off the body, all in all life with the ol girl is good. As our trip to FLA from WI gets closer it dawned on us that we needed to reserve our cart. We would need the cart for 7 days and we figured it would be just a hundred or so....boy were we wrong!

The rental was to be close to $500. For that price it was determined that a vintage cart was, of course, the way to go. With our own cart we could enjoy it for years to come, plus we can paint it to match our camper. During the search there were of course some hits and misses ($50 for a cart is not always a good deal). But we finally landed on an 1971 Electric Harley Davidson for $125. It was a bit of a risk as there were no batteries and no key. But it looked to be all there, rolled nicely and the brake worked so it had that going for it.

Here's a pick of us towing the old girl home



She sat on the trailer until last weekend when we went out and dropped a lot of money on batteries. Before we did this I had done some testing with a 12volt source and the solenoids clicked over and the motor turned, so I was fairly confident this was all that was needed. Boy was I wrong...

Here is a couple of pictures of the batteries in on a temporary wood bucks and wired up.




As I said, there were high hopes when the batteries were connected. So imagine my disappointment when there was nary a click from the solenoids. I spent days chasing around the service manual and pouring over diagrams.



Until I finally realized that I was as looking at the whole wiring backwards. In the end what I found was that the circuit breaker is toast. I bypassed it using an extra battery cable for testing and for the first time in who knows how long, the motor operated under its own power!

I have some more wiring to do (Protip: do not accidentally touch the solenoid coil ground to the main positive cable or you're gonna have a bad time). In the upcoming weeks I will post progress here as I begin the process of welding in new battery trays, bodywork and upholstery. Here's to progress and the hopes that I've already let all the smoke out of the wires.
Great story going on there. I'll be following.


Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2
kiotiken is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-25-2014, 10:11 PM   #3
meangreenmachine72
Gone Wild
Mixed Breed
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 999
Default Re: 1971 Harley Davidson Electric Cart Build

Best of luck, I am messing with 3 G1's a 1972 cushman and a 2002 cc Ds. Fun fun fin
meangreenmachine72 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-27-2014, 10:05 PM   #4
Travcojosh
Not Yet Wild
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 16
Default Re: 1971 Harley Davidson Electric Cart Build

Had a very good weekend on the old girl. I replaced the main positive cable on the old girl and did a more permanent wiring of the new 6volt Ford 9n solenoid.



I also replaced the Forward/Reverse switch, let me tell you that would only be a fun job if you were an NBA starting center. As it was I was barely able to reach. I still need to go back and straighten the label. I also installed the time delay relay, but I was feeling lazy at this point and did not replace the base (he it works right).

Saturday and Sunday were about body work. Here we see what it looked like at the start of pressure washing.



Then it was all about the body work. I have only had some limited exposure to bondo in the past so fiberglass repair is fairly new to me. All of the cracks seen below were reinforced with matte and resin from the back side, then opened up if needed and skim coated with a fiberglass infused bondo. Neither are hard to work with but both are messy. By the time I had finished, my hands could have been mistaken for Sasquatch's (They were that hairy.)

Before





After










I still have a lot more left to do, but I am very happy with the start. During the week I will attempt to get the seat apart for blasting and upholstery and the bumpers off for sanding next weekend. I'll leave you with a video.

Travcojosh is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-04-2014, 10:42 AM   #5
Travcojosh
Not Yet Wild
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 16
Default Re: 1971 Harley Davidson Electric Cart Build

The discerning eye will notice the 1x6's in previous pictures I have been using as battery trays. The weekends work centered around eliminating those. Unfortunately, I did not get a good shot of the front rack after the weld in or the rear rack before the old metal was removed.

Before Front




After Front




After Rear


I started smoothing out the fiberglass work with some body filler and general 120 sanding as prep for paint.





Travcojosh is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-06-2014, 05:12 PM   #6
sopicki
Not Yet Wild
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 20
Default Re: 1971 Harley Davidson Electric Cart Build

What a HOOT!

My wife and I LOVE Travco's! We looked for years for a Travco that wasn't a complete wreck but just couldn't find one. We eventually found a 1972 Newell (I had never even heard of Newell before) and nursed it from California to Ohio.

We too wanted a classic cart to go with our bus so we found the Cushman and drove it around the yard thinking, what's the worse that could happen! Same story....boy was I wrong.

I should get the cart back from the paint shop on Saturday (only $300 to paint).

Looks like you're coming along nicely.

Can't wait to see it finished.

Bob
Massillon OH
sopicki is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-07-2014, 11:22 AM   #7
Travcojosh
Not Yet Wild
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 16
Default Re: 1971 Harley Davidson Electric Cart Build

Very cool Bob.

If you want to follow the Travco build, you can go here (the wife is writing it)
http://www.fortfiends.net/forum/topi...v-build-story/
Travcojosh is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-07-2014, 03:18 PM   #8
sopicki
Not Yet Wild
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 20
Default Re: 1971 Harley Davidson Electric Cart Build

I look forward to seeing how your cart comes out. I looked at many Harley's prior to purchasing the Cushman (I really wanted to say I owned a Harley!).....but since I'm not very good at repairing fiberglass I've avoided Harleys.....and Travco's.

You're Travco is wonderful! I love the interior paint scheme too.

Our pictures are at:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bobandpeni/sets/

We look forward to hearing your experience.

Bob
sopicki is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-17-2014, 08:47 AM   #9
sopicki
Not Yet Wild
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 20
Default Re: 1971 Harley Davidson Electric Cart Build

Josh,

Seems all I ever do is work on the cart or the bus. I've got a deadline too....county fair where our daughter shows a horse followed the next week by a 4H field trip in our bus to Kentucky. We purchased the cart to drive from the fair campground to the horse stables which are about a mile away. We walked the last 2 years and the wife said, "enough is enough." I will be SOOOOO happy when this is all done.

I can sympathize with your deadline too.....nothing like a deadline to help us get things done......and take years off our lives......put stress on our family.....

However when it's all done your Travco and cart will be beautiful and your family will LOVE them!

Keep up the great work.

Bob
sopicki is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-02-2014, 02:56 PM   #10
smkummer
Gone Wild
 
smkummer's Avatar
Harley Davidson
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: So. Indiana
Posts: 187
Default Re: 1971 Harley Davidson Electric Cart Build

I use portable stadium seats with backs on them for the passengers in the back. Your girls would be a perfect fit for those.
smkummer is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply
Go Back   Buggies Gone Wild Golf Cart Forum > Modified Golf Carts > Restoration


Thread Tools
Display Modes


Similar Threads
Thread Forum
1971 Harley Davidson Operation System of Events Harley Davidson
Convert Harley Davidson cart from electric to gas? Lifted Golf Carts
1971 Harley Davidson Starter/Generator Belt replacement Gas Harley Davidson
Indenifying an electric Harley Davidson Golf Cart Harley Davidson
Harley Davidson Electric Golf Cart $500 Golf Carts and Parts


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 08:35 AM.


Club Car Electric | EZGO Electric | Lifted Golf Carts | Gas EZGO | Used Golf Carts and Parts

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
This Website and forum is the property of Buggiesgonewild.com. No material may be taken or duplicated in part or full without prior written consent of the owners of buggiesgonewild.com. © 2006-2017 Buggiesgonewild.com. All rights reserved.