Ultimate Go-Kart
The reasons that the inner fender tore itself asunder were concluded to be twofold: First, the RATS had removed the outer fender, which was designed to take part of the load placed on that section of the automobile (dirty Uni-body construction). Secondly, the shock tower braces were missing. We had noticed the second one earlier, but thought that with a mere straight six displacing a meager 200 ci (3.3 L, talk about shitty!) wouldn't need any bracing. Well, my dad just happened to know that there was a six cylinder 74 Maverick four door at our local "U-pull-it" junk yard. Since we needed motor mounts (mine were bent beyond recognition) and shock tower braces, John and I headed over to "Pipes." Getting the shock towers off the old Maverick in the junkyard was a straightforward matter of unbolting them. The motor mounts were a different story completely. The old 6 cylinder (minus a head) was still sitting in place, and was way too heavy for John and me to move manually (we hadn't given this any prior thought, or else we would have brought Thomas.). Finally, I came up with a McGuyver-like plan. I crawled around in about every hatchback they had until I found one that still had the old spare-tire mechanical jack in it. Propping the jack up on 2 car rims stacked on each other, I proceeded to hoist up the 6 cylinder, using the oil pan as my jacking point. That oil pan caved in good... but it managed to get the motor up enough for us to steal the motor mounts. We just left the motor sitting on the jack and ran off with our goodies.
After Ultimate Go-Kart's maiden voyage, another mishap was discovered. One of the rims used, while it had the correct bolt pattern, did not have a large enough center hole. This meant that the rim was always free to wobble slightly (the lug nuts could never be tightened down enough), which allowed the lug shafts to wear away the holes in the rim, completely ruining it. Luckily, a free spare was acquired.
Since the engine torquing over broke the bolt that held on the air cleaner, we had to rig a new setup. Soon, a wonderful plan emerged. We found a 20-oz Colt 45 beer can, punched holes all around the perimeter, and fastened it onto the carburetor with a hose clamp. Talk about purty! It fit very well with the whole spirit of Ultimate Go-Kart.
Part 5: The Beginning of the End