Restomod Golf Cart

This one wasn't found, it was handed down. My stepfather gave it to me for free; it had been his father's before that, the cart he drove around their land. It arrived in 2020, which made it one of several projects that year that existed mainly because nobody was going anywhere.

Underneath the history it was a 1989 Club Car DS: 36 volts, resistor speed control, the original V-Glide. It had also spent a long time sitting. Parts were missing, the body was damaged, and nothing about it suggested it would be driving again soon. The one thing working in my favor is the thing that makes any old Club Car worth saving — the frame is aluminum. A steel frame would have rotted out years ago and taken the project with it.

Everything came off. I wanted a full inventory of what was still usable, and the frame bare enough to inspect properly. Every part got pulled and sorted into keep or replace. The keep pile came out short. What was left was a clean frame, ready to assess and paint.

The frame got sandblasted first, partly to get it clean enough to paint, partly to actually see what I was working with. The sandblasting revealed two small cracks, so I had a local muffler shop weld them up. After that it was primer and paint.

The rear end came out as a unit — drums cleaned up, a few worn components replaced, then back together.

The motor came apart as well. It's the only thing on the cart I kept, so it got a clean-up and a light resurface on the commutator rather than a replacement. Then primer and paint on everything.

Following a long delay, I installed a Steeleng 6-inch lift and added a bit of insurance with Speedway retainers and chromoly heim joints. The front wheel bearings got cleaned up and regreased while the front end was apart too.

The 36-volt resistor setup came out and a 48-volt solid-state one went in: an Alltrax SR48500, 500 amps, with a Club Car MCOR4 kit replacing the V-Glide so the controller could read the pedal. New heavy-duty solenoid, new heavy-duty reversing contactor, new batteries.

Made all the cabling from 2/0 welding lead, Flexaprene and Excelene, terminated with tinned copper seamless marine lugs and sealed with Ancor marine heatshrink.

The body panels had cracks in them. Those got repaired with fiberglass, sanded smooth, and primed.

Then everything went black with Raptor Liner. It's been holding up great against scratches and UV.

The original roof stayed — top sprayed in Raptor Liner, underside in flat black. What went away was the structure holding it up, which I rebuilt in 1-inch square steel tubing and tied into the rear supports.

The half roof over the rear seat is all custom: grab bars bent from 1-inch round tube, and a welded steel frame that bolts to the rear roof uprights. The top panel is a dog kennel liner from Atwoods.

The head unit is a BOSS marine deck, mounted overhead in a pod meant for a side-by-side. Speakers are 6.5-inch Polk marine coaxials.

The sub is a 10-inch Polk marine in a fiberglass box I built into the rear well, run off a 600-watt Kenwood mini amp. Its been handling the water so far!

The rear seat is a SteelEng kit I found new in the box on eBay for ~$100. It came white, so the cushions got recolored with SEM vinyl coat, which came out better than I expected and has been very durable even with the kids on and off of them and being out in the weather.

The safety additions are mine: a seatbelt bar fabricated and mounted between the seats, and a fire extinguisher on a quick-release mount.

Everything is LED — headlights, cab lights, and a set underneath the cart. The underbody lights the ground for working on it, and for stepping off in the dark.

Turn signals are built into a pair of side-by-side mirrors, with two Morimoto brake lights at the back.

The front bumper started as a piece of exercise equipment I bought at auction for a dollar. The winch is a Harbor Freight unit I already had lying around.

It runs through a 12-volt 250-amp solenoid relay mounted under the seat, switched from the dash rather than wired permanently live, so it only draws power when I want it to. There's also a hitch receiver built into the bumper assembly for a cooler carrier I haven't built yet.

The hitch is an 18-inch, 2-inch receiver from Harbor Freight, built into a frame I made from round tube, flat stock and angle.

It ties into both the rear seat structure and the golf cart frame.

The lead-acid pack came out for a single 100Ah 48-volt lithium battery, with an onboard charger and a battery monitor.

The new battery takes up far less room than the bank it replaced, and of course far lighter, which left space on the driver's side for a cooler and a separate 12-volt AGM to run the winch on the passenger side.

Pics to come