Snook Brothers Cart Project

Even on the Island, most of the time we travel out to our fishing holes in a vehicle. The transportation of choice has been the golf cart formerly known as “Number 2”. Now before your childish potty humor brain area kicks in and you giggle, the reason it was known this way was due to the fact we had three golf carts and we had to keep them straight. This ingenious naming convention was developed to avoid confusion when I would say something like “Hey Teresa, there is a flat tire on the lifted beige cart, and I am taking the low riding beige cart to get the tire repaired”, it would be simpler just to say, “Hey Teresa, there is a flat tire on Number 2 and I am taking Number 3 to get the tire repaired”. See what I mean? Number 2 is a work cart, and has had a rough life being used by rental customers at this house before we became the owners. Trailer hitch and everything. Kind of like an old beat up pickup truck. It doesn’t look the greatest, but it just keeps clicking along.

Well Number 3 was removed from operation after an even rougher life of renters some time back, leaving just Number 1 and Number 2 in operation, and when company comes, there is really a need for a third cart. One can never tell when one needs to go fishing and visitors walking around the island while you head out to find some snook is not very hospitable. Understandable and justifiable, but just not very hospitable. So Teresa had been on the lookout for a new cart for a while until one day when an islander posted a cart for sale on the buy-sell-trade page. The price was right and the cart was in fairly good shape, so we made the purchase. Of course as we all know (well those of us who buy used vehicles) we expect to invest a certain amount of money in these kinds of purchases because there is almost always some reason the person is selling the vehicle. This one was no exception, so some TLC was in order (not to mention some elbow grease and some dead presidents).

This new cart, which now has presented a further complication in the naming/numbering convention (what would it be called, Number 4, the new Number 3, etc.), was in need of a paint job as the current red spray paint job was not matching the color theme of Number 1 and peeling in various places. So the decision to repaint the new cart (now starting to be called “fireball” for simplicity sake while we figured out the new numbering system) was made. It is a simple process repaint a golf cart, right? A little sanding, a little primer, a little marine paint, and then we are good to go. Well, then what would become of the beige Number 2 – it would be the only non-white cart. Heavens to Betsy Ross!  We can’t let that happen can we?  So what is more fun than repainting one golf cart, let’s go for repainting two golf carts.

Since this was to be my first vehicle repainting project since I did a full car hand sanding/bondo body work of my ’69 Cutlass in preparation for an Earl Scheib $99 special paint job back in the day, I figured I needed a test subject anyway to perfect my technique before we got to the real star of the show, Fireball, I mean Number 2, ahh whatever. Fortunately for me, and unfortunately for him, my Dad was coming to visit. He seemed to always be a great painter, even from the really old days when he custom painted a racing stripe and his name on one of the slot cars we used to race in the basement when I was a really little kid. His model painting skills seemed to be top notch, at least from what I could recall. I am not a good painter, however, and those really tight edging jobs drive me crazy. I hoped to outsource the hard stuff to the expert and just kind of spectate for the most part.

After the requisite discussion of the plan of attack, it was determined that the rotary sander was the tool to use to get the painting surface ready for primer. Fortunately, I had recent extensive experience with this tool in removing the paint and glue from the interior staircase in our new house. That was a very lengthy and difficult project, which honed my sanding skills and gave me every confidence this cart would be a breeze. And it was (unlike Fireball which had the red spray paint, over yellow paint, over a white primer, over the original green baked on paint – but that is another story all together). We buzzed off the shiny top coat like nobody’s business.  Then came the painters tape, another one of the things I really despise about painting. On the commercials on TV, the painters tape comes right off leaving a perfectly straight line, no bleeding, to fuss, no muss. Well, in reality, I think paint always bleeds under the edge in places. Of course not everything you see on TV works like they show it. Get ready to scrape paint from the black plastic molding I thought.

Now comes the primer – the oil based enamel primer. Oil based means removal with toxic chemicals which quickly give a person a migraine if you are not careful. Off we go, Dad with the small brush so he can do his detail thing, small roller for me to do the wide open spaces. Progress was being made until we reached the need for the lower parts of the cart. Unfortunately, my Dad is not the young whipper-snapper he once was, and so the parts of a golf cart along the sides, front, and back were unreachable. I was really looking forward to missing that part, but no luck. Down on the ground I went, getting up close and personal with those edges. Come on painters tape, I am counting on you! We finished the first coat after quite a while, but done none the less. Oil based paint takes a long time to dry, so we moved on to other projects and readied ourselves for the next coat on another day. Deck board replacement and painting was our side-project while we were not cart refurbishing. Yes I took advantage of my Dad and worked him like a rented mule. What would you do, let him kick back and relax in the hammock all day?

Since this was just the work cart, no second coat of primer, just move right on to the main course. Same routine with the painting, giving me the opportunity to do more detail painting like I really like to do. After we finished the top coat, we seemed satisfied with the result, except the surface was not perfectly smooth. It is a work cart, ok? Being a perfectionist has its limits, so no further sanding or coats were going to be added to this cart. While we were at it, we decided to replace some rusted bolts and other hardware, redo the back seat foot rest, and punch the floorboard up a bit with a sledge hammer. The squeaky old box of rust and bolts was getting a real makeover. I suspect the snook would not have even recognized us rolling up on them, that is if they could see the cart on the road from the ocean, which they can not.

While Dad and I worked on the cart repainting, Teresa had created and ordered one-of-a-kind “Snook Brothers Unite” decals to be applied to the side of the new Snook-mobile. Teresa and I carefully placed the new decals on the sides of the cart, and there it was, a finished work. Number 2 had become “Snookie”.  Now the Snook Brothers are rolling around in the coolest ride going. Still goes slow, but can work all day. I hope the same can still be said of me. There is still another cart to finish painting.

David