Custom carts

Mike Rhoads and Mike Meinerding have been friends for almost 50 years.



Besides attending buy and sell shows like the Tri-State Gas Engine and Tractor Association’s Swap and Sell Meet that concludes today and visiting auto races at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee, they also have worked on countless engine projects together. 



“If I can’t fix it, he can, and vice versa,” Rhoads said, looking at Meinerding.



Meinerding added, “If both of us can’t fix it, it can’t be fixed.”



Rhoads, of Maria Stein, Ohio, has been taking mechanical works apart and putting them back together since he was about 7 years old. His father would come home every week with something different for him to disassemble and reassemble. He recalled one week when his father brought home a cigarette machine that didn’t work, but he got it running again.



Meinerding, of Mendon, Ohio, was 11 years old when he bought a 1953 Studebaker.



“Dad had a farm out there, I took my sisters up and down there,” he recalled as he laughed. “Hell, I’d get up to 80 miles an hour down that field with it. We were crazy then.”



As an adult, he worked for a nearby Huffy bicycle factory for 21 years before he started doing jobs for Myron Schwartz Construction out of Celina, Ohio. 



Starting in 1972, Rhoads apprenticed for Goodyear Tire. He worked at a body shop and owned one for a while. He also did maintenance work at Lima Army Tank Plant from 1980 to 1998, after when he retired to focus on his golf cart design and repair business. 



To this day, Rhoads is fascinated with learning about most mechanical items in his possession.



“It’s a plague; I gotta know what makes it work,” Rhoads said.



At any given time, Rhoads has 10 to 15 golf carts that need work. Meinerding likes to pop over and help whenever he gets the chance.



Some of Rhoads’ latest reconstruction work includes a 1997 E-Z-GO TXT model in green two-tone colors, which are reminiscent of “mean green” muscle cars from the late 1960s. He drove the vehicle around the swap and sell meet at the Tri-State grounds on Morton Street across from Jay County Fairgrounds on Thursday, but he decided to switch it out for a basic white 2001 E-Z-GO on Friday. He said the green model attracts too much attention and he can’t get much shopping done.



Rhoads and Meinerding like to reconstruct mechanisms with quality parts that will last. Rhoads used his 2001 E-Z-GO as an example. He explained that the motor in his custom build is a twin-cylinder Robin engine. Robin engines have been around since 1923 when they were used in Japanese vehicles during World War II, he said. 



“Robin is one of the better engines there are in the world, and now they don’t even exist as Robin engines anymore,” he noted, alluding to their usage in Fuji and Subaru models now.



Rhoads, who will be 70 in December, said he’ll never fully retire from work. He’ll keep doing it until he’s no longer able, he said. And Meinerding plans to continue with him. The friends have seen several in their group pass away through the years, but they’re still having fun together.



Usually they like to set up a space at the Tri-State grounds to sell their wares, but they decided not to set up anything during this year’s swap meet after having three shows in a row. 



Rhoads sold lawn mowers at the Tri-State Antique Engine and Tractor Show in August, and he said he sold nearly everything he brought, including a Simplicity tractor and an Allis Chalmer tractor.



“(They) didn’t even want to quibble about the price,” he said. “Must’ve been too cheap.”



Both men enjoy their hobby and visiting places together to buy and sell old parts. If they can get a good deal, or give someone else a good deal, they’re all for it.



“We ain’t out there to make a killing or nothing,” Meinerding said. “We enjoy being a part of each other and being a part of peoples’ lives.”