Hard hit last race

Well, after the contact on the track last race, I found significant damage to the nose bodywork on the kart.  I knew this needed my attention before next race but I kind of put off repairing the cracks.  I finally got the nose off the kart to fix it on August 7th and made an important discovery.  There was some significant structural damage to the left front spindle and mount.  Here is a picture of the right front.  This is the way it is supposed to look:

Notice that the mating surfaces are flat and there is a bolt in the middle of the spindle carrier that goes into the frame in the center.  That acts as a pivot point when adjusting the caster.

Here are some pictures of the damaged left side:

Notice the separation between the parts.  The second photo shows the bottom bolt with the damaged washer, and the last photo shows where the middle bolt should have been.  In addition, I rotated the king pin (the large vertical bolt the black spindle pivots around) by hand and could see that it has a slight bend in it.

Well, fixing this consisted of disassembling, hammering the frame mount flat, and replacing the washer and the center bolt (after using an extractor on the remains).  I should eventually replace the spindle bracket and king pin but it will work for the next few races.

After working on this, I had little time to do the body repairs I planned.  As a result, my fiberglass work was a little hasty but there are no longer any open cracks apparent.  I'm declaring victory and re-assembling everything.  Next post will be after the last night race on Saturday, August 11.