A "Rattlesnake

[BC DAVE]

It's not like I have way more then enough irons in the fire.....

I'm adding another one :doah: ....

The restoraition of a 1963 Bonanza RS2000 Go-Kart, when done :shrug: it will be period correct. For power.... I'll be running two vintage Westbend 820's with dual carbs on each engine running on alky. These beasts (about 24 H.P. per engine) will be built by "Banzai" Dave.... AKA. Dave Bonright. The much needed missing parts of the puzzle and guidence will come from "Skinner Back Jac"....AKA. Jack Murray and of course, also from "Banzai" Dave.

The Kart came to my door step today.....

.... All the way from New Jersey for $225.00 smackers.... Check out that packing there "Skinner Back".....

The front end....

The frame it's self....

Wheels.... The key ways in the rears are in mint condition....

The one gear hub that I have is in mint condition, and is stamped "Dyna-Hub"....

Check out them front spindles "Skinner Back"....

Ya gotta love them welds, original spacers and Bonanza nuts.


BC1500 DAVE :thumbsup:

 

[minibikin']

Wow. Can't wait to see more of this!

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

 

[bigrob]

Looks like it is going to be a sweet ride .

 

[rustymotors]

Ooo Bonanza! Now that is on my want want want list!

 

[Harleys Papa]

Nice Dave :thumbsup: You are gettin all the good stuff from the east coast :doah:

 

[bpryor]

The restoraition of a 1963 Bonanza RS2000 Go-Kart, when done :shrug: it will be period correct.

Congratulations. So at least I know who beat me out on it. I had a RS2000 as a kid and really wanted that, but I guess not as badly as you did. I almost didn't bid on it because it is not really an RS-2000. It started life as a 1961 dual rail Bonanza and was converted to an RS-2000, but they did a very nice job on it.

Below is a picture of how it started life.

Hopefully since you're on the West Coast I'll be able to see it some day. Have fun.

Extremely envious,

Bill

 

[BC DAVE]

Thanks Bill for the history :thumbsup:


I feel bad that you wanted it, But..... I'm over it now. It's too bad there isn't another one around for you to get your hands on. I've been told that the Bonanza kart is very hard to find. I'm sure you saw that repop kit on E-PAY made by R&M that looks similar to the RS but from what I've been told it's got some issues with the front end not even being close to the original one. I have lots of friends Bill, and if I find one you will be the first to own it :thumbsup:I picked up some 820's the other day rebuilt by "Banzai" Dave...

.... and I'm working on the wheels right now....

I joined the VKA Bill and once I get this kart done, I'll be going up to Oregan to the track up there.I hear it's very cool and you can check it out. You can also check in here from time to time as I'll be putting it together here.



BC1500 DAVE :thumbsup:

 

[bpryor]

>>I feel bad that you wanted it, But..... I'm over it now.



>>I've been told that the Bonanza kart is very hard to find.

I've been looking for 6 years, and the only one I've every seen Tom Smith has, and it is(was) perfectly restored. He let me drive it at Bakersfield a couple of years ago and it handled as well as I remembered. These are truly remarkable karts. Unfortunately on that day he let someone else drive it and they flipped it and bent the front axle. Tom has not gotten around to fixing it, but I'm sure he will some day.

>>I'm sure you saw that repop kit on E-PAY made by R&M that looks similar to the RS but from what I've been told it's got some issues with the front end not even being close to the original one.

Yes, they did makes some adjustments with them as they went along, but I saw the first one and told them the front end was wrong. I'm not sure how it happened as they were very careful gathering data before starting the project, but something went wrong. The repop on eBay also had a very poorly done reproduction seat(you have a nice one), was a stretched version(I have no interest in that), plus of course the obvious stuff, with the modern brake and wheels(yuck). FYI, you do not have to worry about the front end on yours as I'm pretty sure it's original.

>>I have lots of friends Bill, and if I find one you will be the first to own it

Thanks.

>>I picked up some 820's the other day rebuilt by "Banzai" Dave...

Great. Those will be a lot of fun on there, and Dave will definitely give you some good ones. I ran foreign engines on mine back in the day(single and dual Saettas - pictures enclosed)

>>I joined the VKA Bill and once I get this kart done,

You know the VKCA(vkcoa.com) is the most active club on the West Coast. The two clubs have different definitions of "vintage".

>> I'll be going up to Oregan to the track up there.I hear it's very cool and you can check it out.

Great. I'll definitely be at Medford this year(one of the best vintage events), and Tacoma for at least one day.


Bill

 

[BC DAVE]

GREAT INFO BILL & THANK YOU FOR THE PICTURES! :thumbsup:

I never knew :shrug: .... I'll join up! Shoot Bill .... You can take some laps in my Kart also :thumbsup: I'm hoping to see Mr. Smith's Kart in person soon thru "Banazai" Dave! I need to see what his (Tom's) Kart looks like :thumbsup: so I can build mine correctly. I was told the story about Mr. Smiths Kart and it's mishap.:mad2:

I got these RARE VINTAGE G.E.M. 1" wheel spacers today from "Skinner Back Jac" :thumbsup: for 5" GO POWER wheels.....

Now Bill..... I can put the wide vintage tires made by "GUS" on my kart.... That will be period correct by "Skinner Back Jac" eyes and help to handle the power of the dual 820's engines? Built by "BANZAI" Dave :thumbsup:



BC1500 DAVE :thumbsup:

 

[BC DAVE]

I hope you don't mind "Wild Bill":thumbsup:

As you are refered to me by "BANZAI" Dave himself.... I down loaded your pictures of the "RS" so they can be seen anytime.... There's just not enough pictures/history/info on THIS kart :doah: "BANZAI" Dave likes'um too ... and as he remembers them..... They were FAST!

I finished one wheel today(front) and the worst out of the four....

I just couldn't help it Bill :doah: I had to stick a wheel inside them 11X4.50X5 rear slicks made by "GUS" :bowdown::bowdown::bowdown: One inch worth more of rubber at the rears :thumbsup:

BC1500 DAVE :thumbsup:

 

[BC DAVE]

Another one known to this day to still be alive

A Bonanza RS2000....That is alive in the Eastbay of Northern Ca.....

BC1500 DAVE :thumbsup:

 

[BC DAVE]

I've been very busy of late :doah:

Been working on getting parts for this kart..... And getting that FLEX-O squared away with new parts being built for it.... by Dependable Machine out of Lodi,Ca. :thumbsup: The one thing that I've found out about the Bonanza Kart is this..... The bearing flange on the frame/chassis mounting location is about 7/8" lower from the frame then other karts....

Hence the floating engine mount Bonanza made .... Was made by them and for their Kart.....

All of the mounts out there that are REPOPPED, that we all see on the internet, will not work on the Bonanza frame.

With the running of dual 820's I needed another floating engine mount made.... Enter Dependable Machine..... They copied the original Bonanza floating engine mount to the "T".....

Once plated.... You will be hard pressed to tell them apart.....

I had the rear brake mount for a single caliper.... I will be using TWO calipers do the use of dual 820's.... Cliff, the owner of Dependable Machine made one up for me of the origianl Hurst Airheart dual caliper mount.....

Cliff's work is second to none in these parts.... He's rebuilding my worn out rear sprocket/brake drum for the FLEX-O.... The one thing that I ahve also found out that I have to buy two of everything for the engines :doah: too be period correct.... "Skinner Back Jack" taking my hard earned $$$ as fast as I can send it to him.

Some NOS G.E.M parts for the dual 820's.....

While I was sending him $$$ I asked him if he had some more of the same parts for my FLEX-O.... He said ...."Sure, I do"..... A NOS clutch guard and header to match the "Mail Box" air scoop that I already got from him.....

I've got alot going on, I just get bored and I bounced over to the Kart for awhile ..... I'll get back to the "BOGUS BC" here in a while. I'm liking the Kart right now and getting parts for that FLEX-O.


BC1500 DAVE :thumbsup:

 

[Jhl1963]

Great project BC, looking beautiful! I have an RM Bonanza, and despite some of the comments here (lol) I love it! I'm 6'5+ so a stock version was not in the cards. Bud was great to work with (as was Larry Lindquist, one of the key people involved with the project) and his workmanship is first rate - hope to have it on the track this spring. Great to see so much Bonanza discussion.

 

[manchester1]

Those carts are cool looking:thumbsup: and the gold wheels are killer:drool:

 

[Clayon]

Nice find there Dave, I can't wait to see this one come alive. :thumbsup:

 

[YOOP]

very cool dave.i dig the old karts.when i was 15 i bought a rupp laydown enduro kart with a mac 10..like any other dumdass kid cut it up wanting to put a honda 350 in it.scraped the kart (another dumdass move)but kept the two aluminium side tanks.
and some parts.sold the tanks and a duel carb setup on e-bay a few years ago for over 8 times what i paid for the whole kart.wish i still had it:doah:

 

[jmbmini]

Yooper you talking about one of these?

 

[YOOP]

not a model j.the tanks filled the whole area between the front and rear wheels.had turbines on it.was setup for duel engines airhart brakes and a butterfly wheel.i know i have an old pic of it somewhere(not very good)i'll try and find it.

 

[kbs8ball]

Sweet kart BC DAVE !!!!!!!

 

[BC DAVE]

Thanks for the kind words everyone :thumbsup:



I've been working on this thing from the first day it entered my garage :doah: It seems of late.....That I always gotta a lot going on with this Kart..... I'm putting the engines together finally (polishing) I got some Max-Torque "now-a-days" ceramic clutches, with the vintage looking clutch bell from back in the day (no vent holes) I got stuff being plated.... I got stuff being powder coated and the list goes on..... On that list is the throttle linkage to the two sets of carbs. Enter Scott Wigginton of ASW Machining :thumbsup: yep the very same ASW Machining that makes "Go-Power" wheels


Scott is making a modern style bell crank throttle linkage out of aluminum that is hard anodized and tucked inside the frame rail.....

When done though, and viewed from the outside.... It will look vintage :thumbsup: Scott is that good and strives for perfection and gets it.... Just the guy :bowdown::bowdown::bowdown: for the job.

I'm not dish'n the RM repop Bonanza kart there jhl1963 like you think, and I'm sorry if you took it that way :shrug: the kart is beautiful.... It just has a different looking front end than the original and is 4" longer. I can see this being a good thing for you as it would be difficult for you to get in a original one.... Heck.... It's hard for me and I'm 6" shorter then you! :doah:



BC DAVE :thumbsup: