Thread: Grandkids Coaster Car build.

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Wait til she see's it motorized and with a flame paint job!

I see by the ride height you have decided to motorize it eventually.

I don't think I could have passed up the chance to make it a suicide perched belly dragger, even it it would mean re working the suspension for the motor later.

Its the mothers job to worry its the grandparents job to see that the parent dose there job. I always love doing things with the grandkids that the parents disaprove of.

Originally Posted by Whiplash23T

My wife and I didn't have children and although it was a joint decision before we had even got engaged but now that I'm old (57) , I realize that I'm in for a very lonely life and how much other stuff I am missing out on, so I will milk this thread for all I can and enjoy every second as if it is me out in the workshop with those two beautiful kids.

I gotta say,that I'm in the same boat as Whip..My first wife decided that she didnt want kids,,(didnt mind too much at first)and I thought that maybe she would change her mind..Nah,,not so long as her rear faced south..When Lynda and I married near 13 years back,,it was too late,,so I too,feel a little cheated..But life goes on,and,yes,other folks kids can be handed back...

I'm resolved. Soon as I get back to GA, I'm gonna borrow my nephew and find out if he remembers pressure settings for acetylene.

First, going to have his grandpa start scrounging material, so we can get a running start.

Feel the same too, no kids by choice when we married, but over the years wanted kids, but my wife didn't. Hard decissions but I have several nieces and a nephew to spoil if given the chance. Makes stories like these all the precious.

Originally Posted by stovens

Feel the same too, no kids by choice when we married, but over the years wanted kids, but my wife didn't. Hard decissions but I have several nieces and a nephew to spoil if given the chance. Makes stories like these all the precious.

Mate....i never even had a chance to get to know my nieces too well,as they were raised in Australia,and now have their own lives..Lynda's nieces and nephew,likewise..Yup..Keep these stories comin..Love to see them.

Originally Posted by stovens

Feel the same too, no kids by choice when we married, but over the years wanted kids, but my wife didn't. Hard decissions but I have several nieces and a nephew to spoil if given the chance. Makes stories like these all the precious.

Wow,same story here.. I guess there are a bunch of us that made these choices. And yes, sharing the story with Mike and his grandson makes it so much more special...

Wow my first marriage yieled 3, 2 boys one girl. Both boys worked in the garage as soon as they could walk. Both built and repaired there own cars. I remember one time I put a hasp on a tool cabinet and they both came unglued It was OK after I told them there weren't any tools in that cabinet. The second marriage my wife (Chris) had 2 boys again works on repaired there own cars and did good work too. Even Chris worked out in the shop she wanted to lear to weld and use plasma cutter and tourches.. Shes darn good at it along with all her other crafts she welds up sheperd hooks to hang her plants

Now there you go Mike, and you wanted to know if we would be interested, I would say that when you and Cade go back out into the workshop,not only will you have your Father and Grandfather looking down on you with huge smiles, we all here will be watching over your shoulder too and just think of the positives, you only have to have a drink of pop for the young fella and one cold adult beverage for yourself.

This is a pretty cool thread and enjoyed reading it tonight. I have pics of my daughter handing me wrenches when she was around 4 and then she turned into a girl and would not touch anything with grease or oil. That is until I rebuilt a Ranger for her a couple of years ago. She helped replace the shocks and change the oil, plugs and wires. I even have pics of a newly manicured hand with oil all over it. I think that is one of my favorite pics. I cannot wait to do something like this with my grand-kids, well yes I can wait, but you know what I mean.

“......Now there you go Mike, and you wanted to know if we would be interested,....”


I am really kind of surprised at all the positive response this thread has received and I want to thank everyone for the great comments.

I’m actually even a little more surprised that I have found myself in this situation of even having Grandkids. I married my wife Donna when the grandkids mom Missy was 16 years old. Missy and I had a pretty rocky start (that we laugh about now) but over the years we bonded and for all intents and purposes I feel she is my daughter.....and her kids are without question my grandkids. I can’t say I love one grandkid any more than I love the other, but I love them all for different reasons and each is special in their own way. In Cade’s case he was my first Grandchild and a boy to boot. He was born 4 months pre-mature and for a while there was a question as to whether he would make it. He’s been following me out to the garage since he was 3 years old and that time is always the high point of my week.


“....I don't think I could have passed up the chance to make it a suicide perched belly dragger, even it it would mean re working the suspension for the motor later......”


“........I'm resolved. Soon as I get back to GA, I'm gonna borrow my nephew and find out if he remembers pressure settings for acetylene.

First, going to have his grandpa start scrounging material, so we can get a running start........”

I hate to say it, but in the back of my mind I’m already planning another one of these builds for when Austin (my youngest grandson) gets older.....provided he shows any interest in it like his brother. While I’m not actively looking at this point, I am keeping an eye open for something we can make a belly tank lakes car out of.

Cool!

Motorizing the car is a down the road project but I wanted to make sure we wouldn’t have to completely rebuild the car to do it.

Cade had asked why we couldn’t we just run a pulley on the axle and belt it to the motor instead of using the transaxle (smart kid). I explained that the little motor we have probably wouldn’t have the power to pull the car without it being geared down quite a bit more than we would be able to do with just pulleys.

The transaxle has a few things going for it (besides being on hand ). It’s single speed, with a forward, neutral and reverse, which makes the direction the motor rotates a non-issue. As far as I can tell it’s geared at about 20:1 not counting whatever the ratio we use on the engine/transaxle pulleys. Hopefully that will allow the little motor we have to be able to push the car around. It also has a built in brake.

The down side is I have to rotate it 90 degrees so the driven pulley is vertical instead of horizontal. It will eat up a lot of ground clearance that way but as smooth as the yard is that really shouldn’t be a problem. I will also have to extend the axels a couple of inches on each side, but that shouldn’t be a big deal either.

We made the rear section of the floor removable in anticipation of adding the engine. Earlier in the week I went ahead and cut a second floor panel to use as a template for the steel floor that will go in when we motorize it. I did an initial test fit of the transaxle and marked where I’ll need to make the mounting brackets and then marked where the axel center line would be. I then bolted the original floor panel back in and set transaxle and template aside till we get to that point.









The axles on the transaxles are 3/4" and have 2 flats milled into them with a bolt and washer to retain the wheel. I duplicated that on a piece of 3/4" round stock I had lying around.




We bolted the axle to the frame with a pair of pillow blocks and put the back tires on.






I wanted to show him that on turn one wheel turns faster than the other and why real cars have differentials in them. So we set the frame down on the ground and I had Cade try to turn the car. He was kind of surprised when one tire tried to turn backwards (LOL).

So back up on the saw horses where we pulled the axle back out, cut a section out then supported the inner ends on another set of pillow blocks (with reinforcement plates under them). Grandpa even got a bit of a break on a couple of bolts as Elise worked the ratchet from the top and Cade held the bolt from the bottom (all I had to do was watch). It turns a whole lot easier now and Cade was able to actually see that the outside wheel has to turn faster on a turn than the inside one to prevent the tires from skidding around corners.

It’s kind of a balancing act when I’m trying to explain how things work to Cade. I want him to understand, but at the same time it’s easy to overwhelm with too much information. Actually showing him what is happening makes it a lot easier.







With the rear axles done we moved on to the front end. The front axle and steering we got off the old mower was a little tall to use like it was and really set the nose up in the air. During the week I cut a section out of it and re-boxed it back in. I really wanted to put more rake into the car, but didn’t want to cut any more out of the front crossmember so I ended up settling on it sitting level. I did add gussets where I removed the center but that was mostly to show Cade how to strengthen something after you remove a section like we did on this.







With both the front and rear end and tires on it was off the saw horses and back on the ground and the body was set back on with a couple of bolts on each side to hold it. Austin got into helping on that part, removing the bolts we had left in the frame. When the body was back on that was about it for working on the car for today. The rest of the morning was spend with the kids getting in and out of it and in general just having a ball.










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I know the kids are having a ball...But I bet grandpa is too.