Colt concoction begins

[amphibious drew]

Thnks to a few great people on this site. I have decided to attempt and build a racer for this year at ashtabula. I am using my colt body that i picked up in a package deal with an old st for $250. My frame was rot, so Don is hooking me up with a frame from another model attex. Jpswift is awsome and basically let me steal a 48hp kawi cdi from him (i think he may be the devil and i sold him my sole...i'm just saying). I am using those $10.60 rims someone posted about a while ago...$86 bucks for all 6 shipped to my door. I also ran across a deal on some tires for $35 each. Race is selling me a follcage, but i still need to figure a cheap way to get it from north carolina to pensylvania. New bearings are on order, and i'm working on getting some 4140 round and some chain lined up.

So far i have ripped out the transmission, all the tires, pulled the frame, hosed her off and began playing with cleaning up the body and transmission. I found that my rear spockets are shot and one of the middle ones looks pretty bad too. I will need to locate some replacements. The lower tub has massive holes just below the front sprockets. I'm making goo now, its green goo because thats the only abs i had so i may paint the lower tub.

Pictures will be up as soon as posible. My wife thought it was a good idea to put a 20oz in the laptop bag, so until best buy fixes it or scraps it under warrenty, i am limited to posting on mobile devices.

[LarryW]

Cool!!! Sounds like this will be a fun one to watch get built!

[George]

6x6 (John) on this site is/was doing the same thing....building a racer from a Colt.

[hydromike]

Joe H. built a racer back in 2007 (or so) running the TC440 Kawasaki engine. They're pretty lethal for an axial fan engine. Ashtabula isn't far away at all, so give it your best shot at getting it done! If you're having trouble posting pics, I can PM you my cell number, and I can post them to the site for you.... Lemme know.

[jpswift1]

Low buck builds are so much fun and I can promise you that you won't want to stop at one! And like Hydromike said, those 440 CDI Kawasakis are really potent motors! Even the points ignition, A-series 440s in the Maxes made them really, really fast machines.

[Dan67]

Looking forward to seeing pics of the work in progress.

[amphibious drew]

So i'm still working on the body. I've been using acetone to clean it up and she's really getting her beauty back. H-mike, thanks for the offer on the pics, still no word on the wifes mac so i may take you up on it. I'll give it the weekend and see what happens. I'll be just picking up parts all weekend anyway.

I do have a couple of questions. First, what thep easiest way of splitting the frame. I was going to use a sawzaw to cut the staples, but then thought a little jig saw may be better. I was wondering if there was some trick to getting all them staples out easier.

Second, i have to large holes in the front of the lower tub. I was going to patch it with goo, but i was consitdering making a zig zag pattern on the edges to increase surface area the goo will be conecting with. I could cut it square and attempt to weld in a couple of patches as well, but thought goo would be easier. Any thoughts as to which method would be better is appreciated.

[LarryW]

I always just bend the staple tabs straight and whack them with a hammer so I could get some metal on the top to yank with pliers. I just used whack and yank in the same sentence. Also once the staples are straighted you can wedge something skinny, strong and flat between the body section and pry them apart. A big flat head screw driver would work but it can dent the plastic too so be careful. It actually probably wont matter in the long run because you probably will have rubber or angle iron hiding any damage but......

If you used a saw you will risk damaging the body.

[hydromike]

If you used a saw you will risk damaging the body.

And if you use Larry's whack and yank method (), you risk going ABSOLUTELY INSANE! Honestly though, his is probably a better method, but it's a bit teadious. I've only cut apart two or three bodies, but most of my staples were in pretty rough shape that i couldn't grab them well enough to whack OR yank. I split the body with whack-yank method in a few places, and then just pried the bodies apart a little bit (up to the next staple) and just held them apart and zipped them with a sawzall. Big 5 was actually goo'd AND stapled together along the perimeter. Rivets and goo on the inside.

Stapled and goo'd, I say.....Stapled and goo'd. That beats whacked and yanked any day.....

[Don]

You can do it the easy way: a wide putty knife wedged between the top & bottom half, tap with a hammer all the way around the body. The proverbial piece o' cake! (you end up with some sharpe edges, so be careful).