Columbia Par Car/Harley aka MishMashMobile

[GC newbie]

If you don't like threads with lots of pictures you might want to leave now! :)

So I may as well begin my Build thread with the where, when and why:
My Daughter underwent treatment for leukemia 7 years ago at age 10. Because of the long uphill battle with the side effects of treatment she missed out on a lot of stuff other kids got to do. Learning to ride a bike, gokarts etc all leading up to driving a car. She's now 17 and although healthy and an "A" student is having great difficulty learning to drive a car. Even with an instructor vehicle she's ended up on a couple front lawns and had a minor meet-n-greet with a post or two. Chemotherapy does strange and horrible things to a brain and we think maybe caused her to have slower "processing speed" and difficulty in multi-tasking. So our "new" golf car is a half step backwards and hopefully will work her confidence up to get into the driver's seat in a car again. To this end I'm working to make our MishMashMobile as safe and easy to drive as possible. Maybe after she's done with it I'll worry about making it go faster, lift kit and a stereo system, etc. But for now the focus is on her learning.

As we are entering Fall it's getting dark early so today's task was to make it easy for motorists in our neighborhood to see. Hopefully I can get her out for a cruise after work everyday. But I still have a couple safety concerns I think maybe need addressed. Maybe lap belts or half doors? Two reasons for this is for her to feel safe in this car and for my 5 year old son who LOVES this car already but sometimes has a hard time following directions like "We're turning around, hold on!"
It already has headlights the PO installed but nothing in the back, he just used it for delivering hay to his many horses so no traffic to contend with on his farm. I picked up a set of LED trailer lights I thought would look good and can be wired for brake/turn lights later on if I choose to and some reflective tape I have yet to apply. $16 each at the local hardware store:





We had a rare day with no wind so I decided to check the exhaust and do the "Muffler BBQ" if needed while I worked on the tail lights. Sounded like it had a big chunk of something rattling around in there and could possibly block the outlet if left alone. Just for reference I weighed it before hand to see if there is any change after:


More soon....

Ernie

[Lochlin]

Yeah, I have lost a couple of close family members to cancer to include my mom a couple of years ago. A lot of people don't realize that chemo really takes a toll on things other than the intended target.

God bless your daughter and your family. Although she got a raw deal with her diagnosis at least she is fortunate to have a caring adult in her life.

The cart is a great way to go with her continued recovery. Years ago my dad had a pretty debilitating stoke and a 1991 Par Car was his favorite form of rehab!

Let her run the crap out of that thing. Anything that breaks down can be fixed.

[PaConstable]

You're a good dad. Keep up the supportive ways.

Suggestion: If you're going to continue to run wiring through metal or fiberglass, make sure to grommet where the wiring passes through or some other method of protecting the wiring from chafing. If I read the photo correctly and you used some sealant from a tube, that may not be enough over the long term to stop the wires from chafing due to vibration. I'd hate to see all that good work and effort be trashed by short circuits down the road. Even fiberglass can chafe wiring given enough time. It might not create the same short condition that you would have with metal contact, but it can damage the wire.

[GC newbie]

Originally Posted by PaConstable

You're a good dad. Keep up the supportive ways.

Suggestion: If you're going to continue to run wiring through metal or fiberglass, make sure to grommet where the wiring passes through or some other method of protecting the wiring from chafing. If I read the photo correctly and you used some sealant from a tube, that may not be enough over the long term to stop the wires from chafing due to vibration. I'd hate to see all that good work and effort be trashed by short circuits down the road. Even fiberglass can chafe wiring given enough time. It might not create the same short condition that you would have with metal contact, but it can damage the wire.

Thanks. Good suggestion but I'm not too worried about the wires where they come through the fiberglass as they each have their own hole and a rubber boot that extends into the hole from the light. I do have to clean up and secure the wiring though as it's just temp wired. Have to be careful temp wiring doesn't become permanently not finished. Lol! I just wanted to show that these don't need a ginormous hole cut in the body to install.

Ernie S.

[GC newbie]

Now I'm on the hunt for a exhaust gasket as I buggered the old one up when I took it off the engine. I figured it wouldn't be hard to match something up at the car parts store. I couldn't have been more wrong. $20 for a 10x10 piece of MrGasket high temp stock but thought I'd look around a bit first. I do have some regular rubberized fiber gasket I've been tempted to try. It's a 2-stroke, it smokes anyway right?

[Kplhdryder]

Lots of guys manufacture their on gaskets with much success, not sure I would make an exhaust gasket out of rubberized fiber though, but to each is own. The cart shouldn't smoke that much if any, if your cart is smoking its most likely your fuel to oil ratio, or your rings could be shot. If your look the proper exhaust gasket they are all over flebay, only $7.75 and that includes shipping. and most all cart part suppliers have them as well.

Good Luck

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Columbia-Par...77b17e&vxp=mtr

[PaConstable]

They make what looks like a thick hard cardboard like gasket material that I've used to make exhaust gaskets for a large generator I have. It seemed to work well and didn't burn at all. That might be a good alternative to use. I agree that that the rubberized stuff may not work too well for this type of gasket.

I do know that on my '94, there is an adjustment that you can make to vary the amount of oil being injected. When I got mine running for the first time, it did smoke badly. When I adjusted it down (it was turned way up), the smoking stopped. Hopefully, this is the issue with yours.

[GC newbie]

Mine has no oil injector and is still running off the fuel in the tank from the PO. He said he always mixed to 85:1. I really didn't NEED to burn out the exhaust but for some reason decided it was a good day to do it as preventative maintenance (and try to fix things that were not broken). It smokes some but I need to remove and clean the carb, check compression and all the other things one should do with an old machine like this. Hoping this weekend I'll have time to check into it a little further. Maybe the motorcycle shop will have some more suitable gasket material. I don't mind making my own but I'm not spending $20 to make my own. I know, I'm a cheapskate. :)

[GC newbie]

This morning I made a new gasket from the stock I have. We'll see how it works, it's more hardboard than rubberized so it may be ok. I checked the compression, with the air filter off, engine cold, engine dry and the battery mostly dead it cranked over a few times and gave me a reading of 100 psi. Good enough for me. I fished the pickup strainer out of the bottom of the gas tank and trimmed the tube to sit in a dip in the middle of the bottom so it doesn't curl up and suck air towards the end of a tankfull. Put the rear bumper back on. It's definitely not stock but I didn't get a good look at it until now as the PO removed it when helping me fit the Cart into my semi-enclosed trailer. "Installed" the reflective tape on the sides front and back. Off to the hardware store to get some rivets to replace the missing ones in the poles for the top.

Ernie

[Lochlin]

100 psi is great. Your cart probably had a rebuild in the not so distant past.

85 to 1 is what you want. 1.5 oz per gallon.