GO POWER WHEELS

[Phil Riley]

Hi all. I need some information on GO POWER wheels. I am restoring a early 60`s KAVALLA kart and this kart came with these wheels. They are magnesium. I have seen these wheels with a gold or bronze look to them as well as just a plain dull mag. finish. Were some of these anodized or is that just the mag finish? Also Michael Burk ask about a Giant steering wheel, this kart came with a blue metalflake wheel with chrome sloted spokes. Could this have been the proper wheel for this kart? As always any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks and have a safe holliday weekend, Phil Riley.

[Rob Voska]

Mine has a blue metalflake wheel and CT alloy wheels.

[Michael Burke]

All of the ads that I've seen for Kavalla's show CT Alloy wheels as being standard. Apparently the steering wheels changed depending on the model year. I have kart test articles for three different years. One shows the Giant steering wheel and the other two tests show the currently produced Azusa wheel. I was recently told that the CT Alloy wheels are being reproduced. I haven't been given the contact info for them yet. I was told they are $350 per set and that they look pretty good. The current ones are cast in aluminum.

Michael

[ted johnson]

Hey, Phil. I, too have seen earlier Kavallas with CT Alloys, as well as later ones with Go Powers. Go Powers were all the not-too-shiny metallic sort of bronzy gold (real technical description ), whether mag or aluminum.
Michael!! If you hear more about the repop CT Alloys, please post to REAR! Thanks. Ted

[Dean Seavers]

I believe Will Rogers from the central valley here in CA is the guy that has repopped the CT alloys- I should be seeing him next weekend, and I'll be sure to ask about price and availability and post the info. If you want to see what they look like, I know he runs them on his repopped Disston-powered Hovey Hawks. There are some photos of those karts floating around the interweb if you check out the various kart sites that post photos of kart meets in California.

[ted johnson]

Thanks, Dean! I hope and expect that they'll be in aluminum instead of magnesium. The old mag units were the lightest I ever used, but the tiny cross-section broke easily. I broke a brand new set with dual open Mc30's on a 1200. Aluminum should help that problem a lot. Ted

[Dean Seavers]

Yeah, I saw the pre-production test shots at the Turkey Trot play day and they were aluminum- I can't imagine the price of having any small run stuff done in magnesium.

Here's a pretty good picture of them on Will's kart from Roger Mulkey's photo gallery:
http://gallery.mac.com/mulk3d#100030/IM ... olor=black

Dean

[Dan Flanders]

Hi Phil-
The closest color match for Go-Power gold is Dupli-Color Universal Gold DE1604 should you want to eventually paint your rims.
Dean turned me on to it and I've been looking for a spare can for awhile. On the way to Barnesville, I stopped off at a tiny little Napa parts store in Moticello, GA and lo' and behold they had three cans on the shelf. Also, don't forget Scott Wiggitons has reproduction Go-Powers for about the same price and they are really nice rims as many out there can testify.

Dan

[ted johnson]

Wow, Dan, you're right about Scott's repro wheels. I just got my third set back from powdercoat. I'm not sure of the name of the color, but it's a bit yellower and has less metallic than original. Not bad, though. I put the bearings in the freezer this morning, and will push them in this afternoon.
Dean! Thanks for the link! Will's Disston/Hovey is amazing. I will be right in line for a set of CT's.
Phil, if you use paint, be sure to use a good self-etching primer. Paint doesn't stick well to unprimed mag, but I painted Charlie's mag Go Powers in the early '70's with a good primer, and it was still sticking well until he blasted them within the last week or two. Ted

[Phil Riley]

Hi everyone. Thanks for the info on the Go Power wheels. I dont know what year this KAVALLA kart is but I was told it is a 1963. It has dual swing mounts and came with mac 8`s. Anyway the wheels are painted and will be just fine until I can find the original type wheel. Thanks again, Phil.