Cal Club Autocross Forums

The second issue I need to deal with is a seat. I have one that fits Maddie well, but it's got significant wear in the rear end and holes from previous mounting. In addition, the mounting holes in it don't line up with the mounting points on the kart, so I'd be drilling more holes. Does structural rigidity become a concern at some point with all those holes? Also, is there an easy way to patch the seat a bit? It's made of fiberglass. Should I just move on and get a new seat?

Kurt, it is very easy to patch f-glass, get a bondo kit from Pep Boys or the like. I may also have the brackets that are needed to support that seat, I'll look.

Give me a call.

Don

Don Salyers wrote:Kurt, it is very easy to patch f-glass, get a bondo kit from Pep Boys or the like. I may also have the brackets that are needed to support that seat, I'll look.

Give me a call.

Don

Cool. I've got to make a trip to HF and Pep Boys in the next day or so anyway. The brackets are all there, they just don't all line up. Not a problem to drill out, I just want to make sure I'm not doing something bad to the seat structurally. If I patch it, though, I guess it's all good.I had a blast working on it this weekend! Thanks, Don!

Kurt Ra wrote:

Don Salyers wrote:Kurt, it is very easy to patch f-glass, get a bondo kit from Pep Boys or the like. I may also have the brackets that are needed to support that seat, I'll look.

Give me a call.

Don

Cool. I've got to make a trip to HF and Pep Boys in the next day or so anyway. The brackets are all there, they just don't all line up. Not a problem to drill out, I just want to make sure I'm not doing something bad to the seat structurally. If I patch it, though, I guess it's all good.I had a blast working on it this weekend! Thanks, Don!

Don't worry about the holes. Many people have a lot of extra holes from moving the seat and for extra weights. Just run some seat struts if you're worried about the structure. This may be the first of many, many weekends working on a KT100 FJB kart!

Richard Jung wrote:

Kurt Ra wrote:Cool. I've got to make a trip to HF and Pep Boys in the next day or so anyway. The brackets are all there, they just don't all line up. Not a problem to drill out, I just want to make sure I'm not doing something bad to the seat structurally. If I patch it, though, I guess it's all good.I had a blast working on it this weekend! Thanks, Don!

Don't worry about the holes. Many people have a lot of extra holes from moving the seat and for extra weights. Just run some seat struts if you're worried about the structure. This may be the first of many, many weekends working on a KT100 FJB kart!

And use the largest washers you can on both sides of the seat in order to distribute the load on the fiberglass seat structure.

Richard Jung wrote:

Kurt Ra wrote:

Don Salyers wrote:Kurt, it is very easy to patch f-glass, get a bondo kit from Pep Boys or the like. I may also have the brackets that are needed to support that seat, I'll look.

Give me a call.

Don

Cool. I've got to make a trip to HF and Pep Boys in the next day or so anyway. The brackets are all there, they just don't all line up. Not a problem to drill out, I just want to make sure I'm not doing something bad to the seat structurally. If I patch it, though, I guess it's all good.I had a blast working on it this weekend! Thanks, Don!

Don't worry about the holes. Many people have a lot of extra holes from moving the seat and for extra weights. Just run some seat struts if you're worried about the structure. This may be the first of many, many weekends working on a KT100 FJB kart!

Seat struts are a key part of chassis tuning, at least on a shifter. How many and where they are placed effects chassis stiffness. Maybe not as important, but I'd guess has some effect on a kids kart, too.

Rick Brown wrote:Seat struts are a key part of chassis tuning, at least on a shifter. How many and where they are placed effects chassis stiffness. Maybe not as important, but I'd guess has some effect on a kids kart, too.

Good to know. There are six attachment points, and before I took the seat out, I could almost pick the kart up by the seat it was so well reinforced. That's why I wondered if a seat weakened by multiple holes would weaken the overall structure or risk breaking the seat. I'm just going to patch it and drill new holes where they're needed. Thanks for all the input, everyone!