project ATC(all terrain chair)

[69.5CUDA]

side panels....yeah i didnt like the stock OE panels, down right silly in size, the decals on them so glued in i couldnt even try to get them off...so....i made larger new ones...in hopes of getting a lil "number plate" feel to them, after cutting to fit, i polished them up ro neer mirror..you can see yourself in them pretty good considering i didnt sand em smooth first

second decal down

 

[69.5CUDA]

TONS of little things going on, wireing, routed, new battery hookups made, terminal ends delt with, motors all re-tested, bracket for the power seat motor made and installed, tail lights...yup....installed on another piece of ABS plastic, lots and lots of hardware tightened and re-checked, base adjustments made

 

[69.5CUDA]

tommaro ill see if i have any switches to even bother with wiring the lights....i dont think i do

some things still are not cranked down as they will need to be adjusted to fit her when i strap her in....seatbelt is drying and will go on tommaro

all said tho its basicly finished, and i will get some daylight shots off the rack either tommaro or xmas day...my wife walked in a few times prior to painting and was suprised at it...but she walked in again earlier today with mots of the assy finished and her jaw dropped..its a beast

the remaining list as of right now is

toggle switch panel
headlights and mounts
wiring of all said lights
ground fx lighting(mom has pc case lights on a chair once and LOVED IT when she was going back n forth to bingo late nights)
over the shoulder belts
rear batterys
switchable battery select
possible additional side panels and over the battery cover
additional decal work
headrest ....tho shes always hated them, this time i think it might be needed
re-skin all armrests, seat and back in honda blue

 

[69.5CUDA]

a week of beautifull weather, like nice and almost warm..no raind..and...it starts raining late lastnight and its cold and rainy..shrug..ohh well, so some shots outside in the weather....

the shots with the explorer sport...i put about 4-5 inches of lift into it as well as the biggest tires i could fit and "just" rub the frame at full lock for a total of about 7inches over stock....chairs dwarfing it

i dug thru my decal stash, pulled the only matching ones for the name id made for myself.(and failed but kept)..as well as some old fox decals,

the stp's are kinda special, as back in the early 90s we would hit up woodburn drag strip, and ya know where the wheelchair seating was?...under the tower between the lanes behind the staging lights, john force jokingly walked up to her and challenged her to a race, in the early 2000's when i was running 1/8th mile for fun she would roam the staging lines jumpstarting cars..hell shes roaming around with a pair of car batterys so why not?

but when i was probably 3 or 4 my parrents had a roll of stp stickers and i got plastered in em...so....the stp is a nod at multiple good times

 

[69.5CUDA]

a few reaction shots...i had drafted everything up on paper and gave that to her in an envelope, she couldnt make heads or taild of it and was totaly distracted by it trying to guess what it was.....had her turn round and come outside....these were the best of the reaction shots i could get before she started crying and lost her mind over it......if it wasnt sooooo cold she would be out wheeling it right now

 

[69.5CUDA]

had a brief break in the weather, and after a scan at the dr i tossed her in it direct from the truck, it works pretty good, tho the casters will need some tuning finding the balance between loose enough to shimmy vs being able to turn smooth, however shes going to have to re-learn to drive a bit as it wont just "spin" on a dime but i expected that, ive got a 2ft drop edge that i ad her side hill, then i hung off the other side in an attempt to pull the otherside off the ground..yeah NOPE the CG is so low it just wont

its pretty cool to watch it move tho every start of movement and the whole thing haunches up a few inches like an angry drag car

 

[69.5CUDA]

waiting on some fresher batteries and nicer-ish weather to get her more used to it as she basicly has to start over learning how to drive it as it doesnt "spin on a dime" like a typical chair

i currently have 1 fear tho and that is that the caster angle needs to be more severe as im trying to balance out rotation smoothness vs wobble

 

[71dusterman]

You should get a patent on it and make others in the future.

 

[dodgechargerfan]

That’s amazing!

 

[69.5CUDA]

ive had her in it a few times, ran into misc issues like trash motor connections, missing power recline controls, and such , but overall it performed well but is a STEEP learning curve as it doesnt just spin circles like a traditional chair so you have to think before you do

the BIG issue tho was the casters...i CLEARLY F-ed up the angle, and for reference of anyone working with casters..a 2inch rake on a 22inch wheel is NOT enough..it had BAD caster wobble at even a shufflingly slow walk, i spent a good bit of time pissed about screwing this up, tryed to correct it with tire pressures, weight, stiffness of bearings, eventually i spotted a marble counter top mover and the caster angle on it was what i considered stupid..caster centerline was on the other side of the tire?!?!?!, then started digging, theres no math about casters out on the net i could find aside from "if you have x problem change the angle in x direction....no actual numbers...noticed some commercial mowers with similarly angled front casters but were more tame..with the centerline being outside the wheel but not deep into the rubber

so i had to make some new ones and toss her in it for more testing, i went extreme and went 7 inch which ment i had to make an entirely new front end as a 7 inch rake would put the wheels into the frame...no good..i needed to make a front end i could "bolt on and space out", after testing with the 7's a few times and her now having logged probably 4 hours in the chair, shes driving it well and even took it down the street, all of the initial build teething is out of the way and we have tracked down a shop that can re-calibrate the old electronics..which was no easy task..should be getting it re-tuned next week

with the initial test of the 7's done and proven i could have left well enough alone and ran em..but i knew one of em had an "off" angle i wasnt pleased with..but they were "test mules" and ment to be scrapped , the 1 issue i did note was with the 7s it had considerably more resistance steering...so i knew id need to dial it back..but how do you figure out how far to dial it back...and at what speed, what about surface changes..sand, dirt gravel..AHHHHHhhhhhh....just make 1inch incremental adjustables for now tho im not sure how temporary they will be as i like the way they turned out and the adjustability may prove usefull, but more importantly untill its been on all surfaces i wont know whats best, and from a steering aspect i want the least angle possible, but from a speed aspect i need the most angle possible

once calibrated ill keep shortening the rake settings till the casters wobble then go back out 1 hole and then try all surfaces at max speed..at that point ill probably cut the excess off and re-do the front end to be something more perminant

 

[69.5CUDA]

the other todo on my list for some time has been the lights...as noted in previous post i found some of my OLD fog lights, i need to paint the bodys red so they look more part of the rig than something slapped on..i KNEW i had them, but didnt know where...scale wise they are perfect, and could easily have been swaped for an actual ATC headlight...i checked my 200sx to which i replaced with a round but if id had a second 200sx headlight unit id have used em
these fogs have a low and high with one side being yellow, which is kinda cool but they draw serious juice so relays were a must, also wired in the tail lights, all to termination blocks and relays..still need to add a swithc plate but i have the switches

the "screwdriver" on the left side is a very old..lets say vintage fix from her very first chair...it used to blow out the recline switches like candy eventualy i put in a toggle from napa for a big rig...it lived....but the old handle extensions didnt fit so i took a old screw driver and heated it up pulled the driver out and stuffed it onto the switch..this would have been some time in the early 90s....felt it fitting to re-use it as she was most confident in that old chair and the ability to recline on the fly, the lighting switch gear will be mounted off of it...its been thru hell and back and still works..so why not

youll note 4 relays...head high, head low, tail, and a 4th for under lighting, im thinking it best tho to also add a horn and a flasher relay so that the flasher can hit the low head n tail as an "oh shit"..same with the horn...to which ive already found an old honda unit in my stash from an xl125s

should have the wiring finished in the next couple days....and yes...the front lights are run off extension cord...dont laugh but that stuff is plentiful and holds up VERY well, ive gone so far as wiring trailers with it due to its resiliance as well as being simple white/green/black giving you 2 powers 1 ground perfect for ANY light, it wont chafe its immune to most chemicals and water and sun light.....im not happy with the routing right now but when i make the new front end perminant ill run the wires inside the frame


the plan right now is to get her out once the weather turns down... i want a day where we can hit the beach and find next to no one there..id plan it for her b-day but im sure the place will be crowded as all hell, with that said im working on a 1980 z50(not my actual first bike but a clone of it) to take out with her for old memorys sake