So, I was just surfing the web, minding my own business, bouncing around on Ebay and then....

[tpj71mach]

I bought this! I had been kicking the idea around of finding an old pedal car and restoring it for my grandson's first birthday in July. I thought it would be cool for him to have something his crazy Grandpa built for him. Anyways, I didn't think I would find one of these Mustang pedal cars affordable enough to throw a full restoration on top of, but this one looks pretty restorable, and the price was right, so I pulled the trigger on it.

If nothing else, I will have something to keep myself busy this winter until SMS finally gets around to shipping my comfort weave to TMI so they can build my seat covers and I can reupholster the seats for my Mach 1.

It doesn't look like much right now, but it is pretty much all there. They make a ton of reproduction parts for these, and I do so love a project, the more of a basket case, the bigger the challenge, the more I like it, haha.

The seller stated they will ship it out on Monday, and it should arrive late next week or early the week after. I can't wait to tear this bad boy down and start to work it! It looks like it will need to start out on the ole frame aligner and get all the bent stuff back into shape and go from there.



After all the supports are straightened back into their original shape and all four wheels are pointing in the same direction again, it shouldn't take too much to strip down and refinish the body and running gear and reassemble.

At first, I thought it would be cool to paint it Wimbledon White with black stripes to somewhat match my Mach 1.

When I googled to see if there were any images of one of these cars painted white to get an idea of what it would look like, I found these pictures. This color combo is waaaaayyy cooler than matching my Mach's white with black stripes paint scheme! I do believe that the Shelby GT350 paint scheme is definitely the way to go on this project!

I definitely want to paint that baby up like this!



I even saw pics of one car where someone added Shelby style hood and side scoops, definitely need to figure out where I can get my hands on some of those! I probably will have to fabricate my own, but hopefully someone makes some scoops for something that I can repurpose for this.




This project should keep me off the streets and out of trouble for a few months anyways.

 

[Stanglover]

Nice find.

 

[Tnfastbk]

I still like the idea of matching yours.



https://www.jrcentral.com/conval.html

 

[tpj71mach]

I still like the idea of matching yours.

View attachment 97492

https://www.jrcentral.com/conval.html

I definitely would if I had a 71-73 looking body like in your pic. Is that a pedal car or go cart? That is sweet.

 

[Tnfastbk]

I definitely would if I had a 71-73 looking body like in your pic. Is that a pedal car or go cart? That is sweet.

Looks like from the link the came in both gas and electric. So more of a go cart and/or powerwheels.

 

[tpj71mach]

View attachment 97521View attachment 97522

Looks like from the link the came in both gas and electric. So more of a go cart and/or powerwheels.

Too bad they don't still make them, I would buy one and I bet that I am not the only guy on the Forum that feels that way, haha.

 

[tpj71mach]

I had a Rupp Gremlin bodied go kart when I was 9. My dad "won" it in a raffle held at his friend's AMC dealership. It was only 3 hp and had the pad brakes that applied to the tire tread to stop but it was a lot of fun at that age.
Of course it was an "entry level drug", by the time I was 14 I bought a used late 60s early 70s twin engine race kart. It was bad ass, it had four-wheel hydraulic disc brakes with two fuel tanks down each side, and you laid down almost in the seat. I bought it with no engines and needing a lot of other work. The PO said he had built up 60CC engines in it and it topped out at 110 MPH. 110 MPH in about 40 pounds of steel with no steel above or around me sounded like a great idea to 14-year-old me for some reason. I did a lot of repairs but couldn't find anyone with used 60 CC engines. I did find two used Kawasaki 80cc engines from two different people from two different types of mini-bikes. It was pretty unstable over 65 MPH, looking back I am sure because of the mismatched engines pulling differently. I never got the kart to 110MPH, but I can tell you that the kart was just dangerously fast.

I found a couple pics of a Gremlin go-kart like mine, sadly I don't have any pics of my actual karts from back in the day.



I also found a pic of a racing kart that looks like the one I built, same design but this one is waaaayyy nicer than the Frankenstein I raced around in.

 

[rtspotts]

Nice find on the pedal car. Good choice on the resto, I've always loved the look of the original Shelby Mustang.

 

[Tnfastbk]

Too bad they don't still make them, I would buy one and I bet that I am not the only guy on the Forum that feels that way, haha.

Someone was making a 71/73 fiberglass body at one tine. Let me do some looking around and see if I can find something that jogs my memory.

Here was the thread. As you can see its old but...................

https://7173mustangs.com/threads/71-3-mustang-go-cart-bodies.2621/

and here may be a good source

https://www.jrcentral.com/resources.html

 

[basstrix]

For a second there, I thought @midlife had been car-jacked!

 

[tpj71mach]

Someone was making a 71/73 fiberglass body at one tine. Let me do some looking around and see if I can find something that jogs my memory.

Here was the thread. As you can see its old but...................

https://7173mustangs.com/threads/71-3-mustang-go-cart-bodies.2621/

and here may be a good source

https://www.jrcentral.com/resources.html

Thanks, I noticed that the website has not been updated since 2017 but there is an email link on the website for jrcentral.com, so I emailed and asked if they are still producing the fiberglass bodies. I am hoping to receive a positive response that they are still doing it.
Right now, I need to focus on the pedal car to be able to complete the restoration for my grandson's first birthday party in July. After I am done with that, I would love to buy a 71 Mustang body from them and work on painting that to match my Mach and then I could build a go-kart underneath it. I would have plenty of time for that, TBH, he won't even be ready for the pedal car until he is 2 or 3 at least, so I will have plenty of time to build a go-kart. I probably would set it up as electric, so I could put a smaller slower engine in at first and then upgrade him with some speed once he is older. It would sure beat the pants one of those battery powered cars you get from Power Wheels, ha-ha.