Bare Bones!

frame detail

headrest mount collar... CRACKS!!!

just waiting to be put back together again!

frame on wall. The floor panels are off. Sandblasting will be next week.

Chassis Tear Down

In the background are the extra tires and other parts. PRICELESS!

Engine mount and axle... OUR nemesis!

No engine mount, but there is the one of the Airheart brakes

collar

dad

margay spindles

accelorator cable

frame

special tool.

Axle

Hammer and chisel used to pop-off some rivets holding seat box.

The 'hanger'... frame is upside-down.

Drilling out a few rivets.

The Start of the Restoration

These show the start of the restoration.

Up on the horses and ready for stripping. No fancy $200 kart stands here. :-)

Engine off! and notice the 40 year old Goodyear Blue Streak slicks.

Engine tear down. Dad still has all the kart "dedicated" tools. The Fly Wheel wrench was a lifesaver! (I had several photos of the complete engine tear down but they were accidentally deleted... :-( )

It takes tools, big and small, and some 'Blaster'

Clutch, without the front plate. Dad remembered at the end of the last race (1975) the final couple laps had "rough/clangy" sounds coming from the engine. Actually, the front plate had broken or slipped off... Amazing it did not burn up.

My memories of these parts were formed before I was 8years old. Amazing how SMALL the actually are.

Some Early Images

Here are some images of the Red Devil kart.

The kart sat like this in Dad's pole barn for, oh, probably 20 years.

It was stacked with another kart, more on that one later.

I love this! The kart was originally owned by Pete Evans, who farmed. Love the John Deere sticker!

Here is the bottom. Lots of scrapes and dents from racing 1 inch above the pavement.

Yep, that's a McCulloch MC-91B1

The starter, without battery or belt.

Introduction

This is the first posting concerning the restoration of my Dad's Red Devil kart.

Why am I doing this? An important part of my early life was going to kart races to watch my dad race and work with Indianapolis Kart Club. The first race I attended was in mid-1966; I was born in November! To my young mind the two or three races a year were huge events. The smells, sounds, and rituals were burned into my mind and heart.

I yearned to race, but things got in the way: Dad's advise was that he would help out in any way, except I had to pay for it. His last race was in this kart in 1975. I kept working the races until the mid-1980s, karting stayed in my blood for decades.

One of my hobbies has been computer racing games, mostly based on the Indy 500. Then about 2007 I discovered the racing simulation called rFactor. It's the most realistic racing experience I have seen. rFactor allows users to create their own modifications or "mods" and there are thousands of user created cars and tracks. For about a year I worked on recreating Indianapolis Raceway Park as it was in the mid-1970s and modeling my Dad's Red Devil kart, leathers and helmet. To do that I had to pull the kart out of where it had been stored for nearly 40 years, take pictures and get to know it.

The restoration started small. Dad and I decided to work on a project together... to rebuild the McCulloch engine. Well, you just can't stop there. I decided to go for the whole ball of wax.... restoration and (hopefully) racing it.

I hope to post the major highlights. Hope you enjoy it!