Cover Story: The Cart Rod

The cart has been dubbed "Cart Rod" or some know him as "Sully the Cart Rod" (in reference to the larger than life character on Monster's, Inc. whose color is similar to the pale blue patina paint and monster hand shifter knob). It started out life as a 2004 ACG California Roadster in factory Rosso Red with light camel interior but led a rough life with its original owner. It spent most of its time outdoors in the salt air in a coastal community of North Carolina.

The origins of the California Roadster came from a partnership agreement with Ray Hoogenraad of ACG (American Custom Golf Cars) and legendary hot rod designer Boyd Coddington. They aligned to produce a hot rod themed golf cart, which ultimately led to the design of the California Roadster. The company still exists today on the West Coast and

produces a variety of high-end custom carts.

Growing up the son of a hot rod restorer and builder, I decided 15 years ago that I wanted a California Roadster. The '32 Ford has always been one of my favorite cars, and I believe the California Roadster closely emulates the styling of the prewar Fords. They are wildly popular, and many celebrities have chosen the California Roadster as their golf cart. A few of these notable celebrities include NASCAR legend Richard Petty, actor George Lopez, and actor Joe Pesci.

I was actually looking at another cart that was for sale on Facebook Marketplace when another Facebook user turned me on to this cart. It was in ROUGH shape when I picked it up. I began by stripping it down to the bare chassis with plans to clean it up and build a neighborhood cruiser. As I dug deeper into the build, my priorities continually shifted. What began as a refresh turned into a complete nut-and-bolt, frame-off restoration. I don't believe there is a single bolt that I haven't touched.

One of my biggest dislikes about the factory California Roadsters is the placement of the headlights. In my opinion, it looks like a British touring car had a love child with a bulldozer. The lights just sit too high on the factory version. I wanted the headlights tucked in below the fender line to more closely match the style of an early to mid-‘30s Ford. Once I unbolted the headlights from their original location, I spent quite a bit of time moving them up and down the grille trying to decide where they would fit without getting tire rub when the steering was at full lock. After multiple requests from my girlfriend and a dozen or so pictures to reference, the decision was made to move the headlights down 6 inches. In my opinion, moving down the headlights completely changed the look of the cart.

The body was restored, and I shaved about every existing hole in the body. Since the cart was going to see a lot of road time, I elected to go with a "faux" patina paint job rather than perfect show condition paint. A lot of people don't get the fake patina, and I often get asked "What color are you going to paint it?" After rebuilding and repairing the body, I laid down a coat of red oxide primer to appear as the rust base. I then added coats of Gloss Pumpkin Orange, Ultra Matte Nantucket

Blue, Satin Aqua (light blue), and finally a coat of Satin Island Splash (a lighter blue). Between each coat, I sanded with 400 grit sandpaper. After I got all coats on, I wet sanded with 800 grit. I finished it all off with a semi-gloss clear coat. Body repairs and paint took around 60 hours total.

For wheels and tires, I decided to go as old school as possible. Coker had a wide variety of rims and tires, but since I was limited on space and existing data from ACG or other ACG owners, choosing the right size was a stressful task. I don’t believe the 15” rim was offered in a 4x100 pattern, so I elected to use a 5x4.5” Ford pattern and I purchased adapters to convert from the 4x100 to 5x4.5". I went with a 15” Smoothie steel wheel from Coker Tire with a Ford center cap and thin trim ring. I also found a low-profile Coker wide whitewall that matched the previous 13" tire specs. The factory car had 165/70R13's, which made them around 6.5" wide and 4.55" tall. Fortunately, the internet is quite forgiving for us folks who still count on our fingers, so I found an online calculator that would allow the new 15" tires to fit in the space left by the old 13" tires. This gave me a popular and desirable rim for rat rodders if I decided I didn’t like them and wanted to sell. The 4x100 rims would have been boat anchors on marketplace.

For taillights, I chose to replace the rectangle factory taillights with old school LED teardrops. ACG offered an LED headlight replacement but it was quite expensive. So, I did some research and found that a backup light for an 18-wheeler was nearly the same size and with some moderate trimming of the weather-stripping could fit in the existing headlight buckets and still look stock. The best part, they were around $20 for both!

For seats, I was referred to Rick’s Upholstery in Mooresville, NC (http://www.rodsbyrick.com). Rick does awesome work and has a very strong portfolio of high-end custom builds. I chose a two-tone Ginseng Brown and Light Copper marine grade PermaGuard vinyl for the seats.

Some of the other additions include "faux" teak brown and white front and rear EVA floormats by N/C and a complete Kicker Audio stereo system. The audio system includes a Kicker KMC2 marine head unit with 200-watt Kicker 6.5” LED marine grade speakers and finished off with a Kicker HS8 Hideaway

powered subwoofer with amplifier.

The next task proved to be a huge challenge, as the electrical system was shot and the wiring harness was junk. An old friend of mine -- Andy Fisher from Fisher Carts in South Carolina -- took the cart for a few weeks to completely rewire it. He rebuilt a new harness and installed an Alltrax Controller and HD solenoid. He also rewired the headlights and 12-volt converter and installed a floor shifter to complete the classic car look. Perhaps one of his best additions was replacing the keyed ignition system with a secure keyless ignition that runs off of a key fob - like a car. A thief will spend quite a while trying to find where to insert a key.

The body had a lot of damage and there were a lot of things that I wanted to remove, so I had to learn how to work fiberglass. Aside from rebuilding the nose on my surfboard in my younger days, I have never done fiberglass work. So, I had to spend some time on YouTube learning how to build up, shape and rebuild fiberglass.

Once the chassis was back to a roller, I began the process of rebuilding the body. I started with the heavily damaged front fender. After watching YouTube videos to learn fiberglass work, I purchased materials and began work. As I gained experience, I decided to get more in depth with the repairs. I ended up shaving the park lights, taillights, roof brackets, original headlight holes, and all of the dash holes (speedometer, cigarette lighter, headlight holes). I also filled a half dozen holes and several damage cracks. All in all, the fiberglass repairs took around 40 hours.

The drivetrain stayed mostly stock, utilizing mostly Club Car replacement parts to make it easy to replace later.

The windshield was custom cut, because after repeated requests ACG was unable to provide a proper fitting windshield.

Tell about some background about you and how long you have been building carts; how did you into the business? I’ve been a cart owner since 2013; building carts since 2015

What are your future plans for you or your company? Twisted Treads will continue to build exclusively high-end carts. Our current business model is focused on only building about 10 carts per year. My current contracted build is for an active NFL player.

Is there anything else you'd like to add? Likely a Navitas swap to begin with. I also plan on building a passenger trailer that resembles an old teardrop camping trailer.

• Coker 15" Smoothie Rims • Coker 15" Low Profile Wide Whitewalls • Coker Ford Baby Moons • Coker Narrow Trim Rings • CNT Universal Speaker Pods • N/C FXIXI Faux Teak EVA Foam Floor Mats • Manifish LED Stainless LED Cup Holders • PartsAM 4" LED Headlights • Supernight LED Frame Rail Lights • PartsAM LED Teardrop Taillights • Arenbel 8 Ball Shifter Knob

• Kicker KMC2 Marine Grade Gauge Mount Media Center • Kicker 11HS8 Hideaway Powered Subwoofer • Kicker 6.5" LED Marine Grade Speakers

• Alltrax SR-48400 Controller • 200 AMP HD Solenoid • CURTIS 15945107 Module FP-6D Electric Vehicle Foot Pedal Accelerator • Club Car DS Floor Shifter • Yetor Heavy Remote-Control Switch Keyless Ignition with Key Fob