I've just gotten back into karting thanks to you guys. I stumbled across your site about a year and a half ago. I had no idea this vintage thing even existed. Well it
didn't take to long to get hooked again, (bout 10 minutes). I raced in south Florida from 59 through 65 and it was probably the best time I ever had in my life, and I'm sure that's why we are all involved in
vintage karts anyway.
I bought this Moss kart off of Ebay a little over a year ago. It was in rough shape but very restorable. It had a huge rollbar about 4 ft. tall welded on it and an
old aviation type seat belt. A previous owner had moved the seat back about six inches, but the upholstery was original and in very good shape.
The main problem that I had with the
restoration was I really knew nothing about Moss karts. I saw pictures of them in the kart mags back in the 60's but never actually saw one. Michael Burke came to my rescue when he told me he had a brochure
on Moss karts that he would fax to me, (thanks Michael). once I got the brochure I realized my kart had some major differences from the one in the brochure. I still have not been able to nail down the exact
year of the kart, I think it is either a 59 or 60 model. I always heard Moss karts had rack and pinion steering, the brochure said so too, not mine, it has ackerman. In the brouchure they show motor mounts
welded between the frame rails that you mounted the motor crankcase to, pto side, so the motor or motors would set down in the frame ahead of the axel. Not mine, it came with a swing mount that I don't
know if it is original or not. What I do know is that when the frame was stripped of paint down to bare metal, there was no evidence that anything was ever welded in the area of the mounts, so I assume that
might be something that was on the first production. The brochure also mentioned an adjustible seat back, not mine.
The brakes dual disk, one on each side, and I haven't seen them
anywhere before. Maybe someone will recognize them in the pictures. I modified the mounting of the brakes as they seemed to be an after thought the way they were mounted. I did away with one disk and
fabricated a mount for dual calipers on one disk. They are a mechanical caliper but very effective.
As I mentioned the seat had been moved back six inches, for longer legs
I'm sure, so I cut it out and welded it back in its original position. The kart also has a Nassau panel that was custom fit to the steering hoop. When painting was completed I added a number to the panel and
also copied the Moss logo from their brochure. Notice the logo says "Moss Cart", Moss always used Cart instead of kart. The wheels are CT Alloy, here again I don't know if they are original or not,
but the spinners are there and I know Moss always used spinners on their wheels both karts and midgets. Power is a lightly modified Mac 6 with a VanTech manifold. The Azusa gas tank also came with the kart
and is in surprisingly great shape.
The only thing I'm disappointed about is that it's complete but I had a ball restoring it. There is no choice now but start looking for another
kart to restore. Thanks again, C.B. Smithey |
