The Mr. Beaumont (My 1986 Club Car DS Build)

cb0w

All right folks, it's time for this lurker to come out of the shadows and bask in glory that is BGW. I've spent a good deal of time here and reading build threads like Hotcat's and Offtwice's has inspired me to "give back" and start one of my own.

Here's the story. A couple years ago the Mother-in-law decided to move into the neighborhood to be closer to my wife and our newly-hatched offspring. Not being one to let an opportunity pass me by, I used this fact as leverage to convince the wife that a golf cart would be a useful addition to our garage. She reluctantly agreed, a bargain was struck, a budget assigned and so the search began. I did have to give up naming rights to the vehicle (more on that later), but I managed to squeeze a few extra bucks into the budget as a result, so not a bad trade.

After some diligent research and combing through the classifieds, I opted for an 86 Club Car DS that was being "flipped" after the original owner had passed away at 96. It had been well maintained, featured a medley of accessories already installed (radio, lights, fans, rain cover, etc), and the batteries had just been replaced. The cart was ready to go and the gentlemen was selling it for a fair price, so I pulled the trigger and brought home "The Mr. Beaumont" on my birthday.

For the last 14 months we have been using Mr. B to scoot back and forth go grandma's, run to the grocery, go to the park, and even took it on vacation to use in the Keys this year. My 3 year old loves it and wants to take it EVERYWHERE and the wife LOVES the convenience of just hopping in the cart and going. (I've tried to keep the "I told you so's" to a minimum)

About a month ago, while taking a ride around the neighborhood to look at Halloween decorations, my wife looked at me and asked, "Is there any way you can make Mr. Beaumont faster?". That sentence was music to my ears and the next day I contacted Scottyb to see what his recommendations were and the rest, as they say, is history.

This thread will chronicle my journey to "wild". I will try to post as many pics as possible as I go along as I have learned that pics are basically currency around here. Feel free to chime in and tell me everything I'm doing wrong. I've been modding cars for years, so I'm not new to turning a wrench, but my experience with carts is definitely lacking! I welcome all comments with an open-mind and hope to learn as much as I can along the way.

Now that I've rambled on forever, let the show begin! I suppose I should start with the obligatory "Before" picture, so here he is, the day that I brought Mr. Beaumont home.

More to come....stay tuned!

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cb0w

First Step in the build was to shed all "unwanted" accessories. When I got the cart, I thought having the rain cover and fans would be nice to have. As it turns out, the rain guard is a PITA to use and takes forever to dry, plus it blocks 1/2 of my view in the mirror, so it had to go.

The fans were nice, but really just took up room on the cart. And...it was just one more accessory that was pulling directly off of the battery pack (previous owner didn't have an aux batt or voltage reducer). So, they had to go.

Radio was a piece of junk that only had an analog FM tuner and Cassette deck and the reception sucked, so it had to go as well.

A few more pics from before the tear-down. As you can see in the pics, fans and Rain cover were seriously eye sores. I forgot to take "after" pics with them gone, but you can use your imagination.

Next up was to tear it down to the frame and check out the battery trays.

More to come...

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cb0w

After removing the body, batteries, and toaster oven parts, I was glad to find only a minimal amount of corrosion. I hit it with the baking soda, water, and wire brush regimen that has been suggested so many times here by the BGW veterans.

Then I picked up a bottle of the Eagle One Etching mag wheel cleaner and hit the whole tray and frame with that a couple times, along with some good ol' elbow grease. The frame shined up nicely and looks pretty good. Next time I have the batteries out, I will probably spray some bedliner or something on there to protect it further.

I also cleaned the batteries with baking soda and water since I had them out and now they are looking tip-top!

Here are some before and after pics of the trays. I probably could have gotten a little more shine if I had used the rest of the bottle of eagle one, but I was losing the light and was reasonably satisfied with the result.

Next up is the solid state conversion! Stay tuned!

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cb0w

Christmas came early this year . I must have been a good boy!

Thanks to Scottyb for extremely fast processing and shipping!

Let the fun begin!

On the list to be installed:

-Cartsunlimited solid state conversion kit (700AMP controller, New HD Solenoid, 2 gauge battery cables)
-SW202 Reversing Contactor
-Voltage Reducer
-Fuse box & Bus bar

More pics of the components and actual install to come.

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jakesnake27

A great build in the works, excellent work so far!

gornoman

cb0w, Welcome to BGW!

Your project looks great so far. You're in the right place and dealing with the right guys, including Scottyb. Your attention to detail will pay off at the end for that 30 year old cart. It's a long process, but it's so rewarding. And it keeps me/us out of bars. A little. Sometimes.

Good luck with your build. I did an '85 last year. came out OK.

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gornoman

Finished. Almost. Maybe....

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cb0w

Thanks for the positive feedback guys! I just finished the conversion last night so I have some pics on the way. I also ordered some goodies yesterday from one of our site sponsor's Cyber Monday sale, so I see more time in the garage in my future!

Gornoman, it was some of your "passionate" posts about battery maintenance that inspired me to go the extra mile, so thanks for that! Nice looking cart, too! Did your 85 have an access panel in the body? I'm beginning to think mine has an aftermarket replacement body, because there is definitely no access panel.

More to come...stay tuned!

cb0w

The Mr. Beaumont Rides Again!!

I had a couple days off of work for the Thanksgiving holiday so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get the solid state conversion finished. It took longer than I thought, not because it was difficult, but because life always seems to get in the way. Not to mention, I sheared off the head of one of the gas pedal ball studs while I was adjusting the throttle linkage. I got really lucky though and was able to find a local cart shop that had a single remaining ball stud AND was open on Thanksgiving weekend. $5.00 later I was back in business!

I would just like to reiterate, as so many have, Scottyb's conversion kit was awesome! The directions were very straight forward and dare I say, "idiotproof". Anyone comfortable using basic tools, who wants to take their time and READ the directions shouldn't have a problem executing this upgrade. Everything I needed to know was right there in the directions that came with the kit.

Anyway, late last night after triple checking all of the instructions and wiring diagrams, I connected the last negative to see if I could bring Frankenstein's monster back to life. I about $hit my pants when I pressed the gas pedal and only one wheel spun ......but a quick search here led me to that question being answered about 100 times.

Excitedly, I threw the body back on and the seat on top (didn't even bolt them in) and took it for a late night cruise through the neighborhood. I haven't wired the voltage reducer yet, so I had no working lights on the cart, but being intrepidaitious I threw on my headlamp in the spirit of "safety first". It was a real Rudolph moment!

During my 10 minutes of cruising, everything seemed to be working and clicking as expected. I was very surprised at how much less "jerky" the take-offs are now, despite the obvious torque gain that the conversion netted me. I assume that's the reversing contactor doing it's job. Back at the batcave, I felt all the main components and cables and didn't find anything to be warm to the touch. Seems like the conversion was a success by all things that I can think to measure. Anything else I should be looking at?

I'll post a few pics here of the nearly finished product. When I took these, I hadn't wired the F&R toggle switch yet or the main negative to the reversing contactor. Also, the main negative on the pack is obviously not connected.

Wish I would have taken some pics with the batteries out, but I can always do that later if anyone wants some close ups. Also, I've got some general tidying up to do once the voltage reducer and 12 volt accessories get wired, so ignore the messy zipties and what not.

I've got some questions on cable clearance on the body where the controller is mounted, but I'll put those in a different post to keep things from getting even more long winded.

More to come! Thanks for reading!

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cb0w

Ok, so I think I'll be fine, but I want to get some opinions about the amount of clearance between the body and the controller/cables that are mounted upside down above the rear wheels/motor. I'll post the pictures below and you can kind of get an idea.

I'm hoping I didn't mount the controller too far forward. None of the cables are rubbing or touching the body, but it's pretty close. I adjusted the angle that the cable are mounted on the lugs of the controller so that they are "down" instead of "out" so that the lip of the body is cleared.

Curious to see what the experts think. Do I need to remount this further back?

Note: Pics are taken from underneath looking up.

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