Painting it Up

So as you can see, the frame I have is pretty corroded and just plain not nice looking. So I figured I could change that, and I did, with a few cans of spay paint and a bit of time!

STEPS I USED:

STEP 1- Wire Brush the Entire Frame

To remove the loose rust and paint, I got a wire brush attachment for my angle grinder and roughed up all the surfaces on the frame. Then I wiped the entire thing down in TSP (paint prepping cleaner) to remove any grease and other unwanted substances.

STEP 2- Prime it

Since I knew I was going to be using tremclad spray paint, I just bought the rust sealing primer and applied one coat to the whole frame.

STEP 3- Paint

I sprayed on two coats of rust paint and the final result looks awesome! Its so much better than before. Now I am ready to get to the fun part.

First Things First- The Frame

The first thing that you need when building any sort of go kart, is a solid frame. You have a few options…

OPTION 1- Building a Frame from Scratch

If you have access to a welder, metal cutting saw, and various other tools, and some metalworking experience, then this option is probably best. Since I have never constructed my own frame, I cant offer specific plans at the moment, but most frames are pretty simple and can be built from plans around the web. This plan seen in Popular Mechanics is free and seems easy enough to build. Just remember; for an electric kart you wont need  the motor or the clutch, and wait on the chain for now…

 

OPTION 2- Buying a New or Used Frame

This is the option that I used when building my cart, and I would suggest it to the beginner. First off, search craigslist and other classified sites for go karts. I was lucky enough to find a used, rusty go kart (that surprisingly already had an electric motor!) for $50. Now I might consider that lucky, but you never know what you’ll find on craigslist!

Your donor go kart may have a gas motor on it, which if you’ve come to this site, you probably just want to rip it off, but hold up on that because there are a few things you need to figure out first. Another option- if you have a bit of money set aside for your kart, then you can purchase a frame complete with wheels like the one shown below at http://gokartsusa.com/azusa3557gokart.aspx

If you don’t mind spending a bit of cash, this is an excellent start for a go kart!

This is the go kart I scored on craigslist. It definitely needs some work and the batteries and motor are dead.

Here is the cart I bought. Ill be posting info as I work on it and restore it.