VGs Little Willy (gets BJ'ed?) / FJ40 Off Brand Power Wheels

[governorsam]

3d print one of these to scale

https://www.printables.com/model/117208-toyota-land-cruiser-emblem

[Vintage Grumble]

1 hour ago, governorsam said:

3d print one of these to scale

https://www.printables.com/model/117208-toyota-land-cruiser-emblem

Thats most excellent! Worth a shot to see how they come out.

Someone's even done the whole grill too (not that I could use it)

https://www.printables.com/model/117207-toyota-land-cruiser-grill

[felixx]

this is soo awesome

How many hours?

[Vintage Grumble]

On 20/08/2024 at 10:52, felixx said:

this is soo awesome

How many hours?

Way too many, its amazing how much time it can take to do fairly simple things in a half assed way. Dunno how skilled patient people get anything done.

So got a bit more done, cut out and installed the last bit of floor, and the seat base. Got the boy onto sealing/priming them,

Then I made up the tow bar and bumper support doofer. Made another bumper the same as the front, not how the real ones have it, but needed something to try protect the lights & body,

Then I welded a bit of pipe down the length of the shassis, to protect the wiring,

Then I thought I better make the throttle pedal fit. The old one is basically a full scale thing, and it takes up a lot of real estate. I thought about modifying it, but ended up just buying a much smaller one off Ali,

Then I dismantled the shassis for paint prep, and discovered the motor is going moldy from all the fruit the kids have run over in the back yard, ewww. Also, one of the brush holders is coming out, so i'll have to fix that. I'ma pull the axle to bits and grease it all up real good too.

Then I made up a little dash panel, which I didn't like, because the charge port looks ewwey there, and the switches are ugly and very wonky. The body of the switches are on a huge gangster lean to try make them look straight in the front.

So I found a new home for the charge port (hidden up behind the dash) and got some new, much less wonky switches. This panel will get painted white,

Charge port and charge diddle,

Got some threaded wood insert things and slapped the dash thing in,

Then prepped and started painting all the bits and bobs,

Then today we finally got some sun so starting slapping colour on the body (this is just the first coat),

And then primed the shassis,

The CRC cans I'm using for the body have been complete cunts. I'm shaking the piss out of them for ages, and heating them up in hot water, but some cans constantly clog nozzles, others have shitty nozzles that put out fuck all paint, and others chuck out too much, spitting out big droplets, so its been a bit of a cunt. I'm keeping the good nozzles and reusing them, but damn, sort your shit out CRC.

The fucking thing might be finished in the next update. Maybe. 

Regards, VG.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Probably not though.

[Vintage Grumble]

Haven't put much time into this for a few weeks, but made a bit of progress before the progress stopped, and a bit of regress happened too unfortunately. 

Finished painting the shassis,

 

Then I opened the diff up to check it was all OK. The grease was dryer than air fried bacon, so cleaned all that out and slapped some new stuff in. I was quite impressed to see it was full of actual bearings and seals. Even made a custom gasket to keep all the spacing/preloads correct. 

 

With the diff back together, I reassembled the shassis and fitted the floor and firewall boards,

And all back together ready for the body and some wiring,

  

I then got some fancy pants fine bog to fill in a few little imperfections, and the bastard stuff had a weird reaction with something (I think it was the pigmented sealer?) and fucked up quite a few areas of paint. So I had to scrape those areas right back and start again, which has caused a lot of issues as the top coat is so damn thin. At this point I should have just painted the whole thing white to cover all the patches, and then did the orange over top, but I didn't, and its then taken many many coats of the watery orange paint to cover the patches. I am also having huge problems with the shitty CRC cans, as some cans have shit nozzles, some cans are just weak, some seam to be spitting out tiny little chunks of shit, and I even had one that seemed to have way to much pressure in it. I was also battling shit blowing into the paint even though I'm in a shed with the door shut. SOOOO I got the shits and hosed down the whole inside of my shed to try stop shit falling out of the roof. I now just need to get a few good cans of paint, that have a good nozzle, no chunks of shit in the paint, and a warm day with no wind so nothing falls out of the roof of the shed. I got this perfect set up on the weekend, but then put on too much paint on and got a pile of runs on one side. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU. Oh, and also bugs seem to absolutely love bright orange, so show up from all over the country to dive into the wet paint. So yeh, painting the body is not going well, lololols.

 

 

And what I hoped was its last visit to the booth, but alas, it was not to be. (this was a pre-paint pic, the paint actually comes out really nice when the planets align)

So once I give up on the orange, I just have to paint the light surround white, and black out the air vents and the painting is done. I then just have to fit the lights and sort out the wiring and its good to go.

Regards, VG.

[DB8-TypeR]

Ive had a good run out of Rust-oleum paint, nozzles seem good and paint covers well (in saying that the Matty b CRC can I was using today was fine too)

[igor]

I also have had good results with Rustoleum spray cans. 

[Nominal]

How good does the paint need to be on something that will get crashed into the nearest tree/fence/hedge in the first 47 minutes of use?

[Vintage Grumble]

11 hours ago, DB8-TypeR said:

Ive had a good run out of Rust-oleum paint, nozzles seem good and paint covers well (in saying that the Matty b CRC can I was using today was fine too)

Yeh rust-oleum seems to be a bit more up market, TBH the ONLY reason I've used CRC is I get it at cost, and I've had a pretty good run with CRC in the past, its just this time everything's gone to cactus. Its been a bit of a learning curb, as I've never built anything like this before, I'd do nearly everything differently if I was to do it again. 

10 hours ago, Nominal said:

How good does the paint need to be on something that will get crashed into the nearest tree/fence/hedge in the first 47 minutes of use?

Yup I know, I just want it to be nice for those 47 minutes so it looks like I tried, puhuhuhuh. I have a horrible condition where I'm quite OCD, but have no skills or patience, lololols.

But the main reason is my BIL had his kids one brush painted, and it came out pretty good, but I know its possible to get a better finish with cans (and I suck at brush painting) so I have to have it come out good to prove myself right 

[cletus]

Cheap spray gun and enamel paint from bunnings has gotten me better results than spray cans, and it's probably cheaper too

I've had issues with crc spray cans too, the nozzles are always clogging 

[440bbm]

used to find when it was cold ish CRC cans were terrible. slightly warming them netted much better results with less spitty spits. havent done it now since leaving taupo winter

[Vintage Grumble]

28 minutes ago, cletus said:

Cheap spray gun and enamel paint from bunnings has gotten me better results than spray cans, and it's probably cheaper too

I've had issues with crc spray cans too, the nozzles are always clogging 

I really should just learn how to paint with a gun, with the amount of stupid shit I build, it would really make sense. And like you say, probably end up cheaper too.

10 minutes ago, 440bbm said:

used to find when it was cold ish CRC cans were terrible. slightly warming them netted much better results with less spitty spits. havent done it now since leaving taupo winter

Yeh even in the sunny BOP I always pre-warm the cans in a bucket of hot water, defiantly helps with nozzle blocking issues. CRC seem to have a quality control problem, they occasionally have a batch of dodgy cans. We actually had a period of time where the 1L pots of zinc it were explosively blowing the lids off randomly. I have PTSD from having to take the cans off the shelf and chuck them in the bin, not knowing if they were going to pop. They put little clips on the lid/edge of the cans now to keep them on.   

[Vintage Grumble]

Yeh nah so I've done some more on this unit. Got the orange looking pretty good after a bit more fucking around, then started on the grill. Bit of a bastard to mask off but got the white on OK.

Then decided to brush paint the black bits, as I was getting over spray cans, but the brush paint didn't stick and half came off with the masking tape 😭 so then spent ages scraping that paint off, repairing all the surfaces and spray painted it anyways.

I then made little brackets to hold the lights in.

Then I did my first ever upholstery, and covered a few layers of foam with black vinyl over a wooden base, which has anti slip knobs underneath so it cant move. I also got some vinyl tread plate mat from bunnings for the floor.

Then I did a shit load of wiring (including a 24v to 12v magic box for the back lights, and wiring the 6v front lights in series so they dont explode) and put the little dash in. There's lots of plugs so the body can be taken off easily also.

Annnnnnd that means its FUCKING FINISHED!!!! (apart from "toyota" letters in grill)

We then unveiled the finished product to the kids, they fucking love it. We went for a cruise all around town, collecting their cousin and his Willy's Jeep on the way.

Super stoked to actually finish something for a change, lols. The only thing that could be better is the tow hitch hangs a little low, but it's not a major problem. Speaking of the hitch, now to start on the trailer, yay!

Regards, VG.

[cletus]

That's flipping sweet, gud jerb

wish you were my dad tbh   

[rusty360]

Fark that is epic! I will not show my kids!

[Vintage Grumble]

On 04/11/2024 at 21:15, Nominal said:

How good does the paint need to be on something that will get crashed into the nearest tree/fence/hedge in the first 47 minutes of use?

Well, it made it nearly exactly 1km before the first damage. The kids drove it to my BIL's place, and due to the driveway being blocked, my daughter had to drive it through some very tight garden paths, and hit a low brick wall with the running boards, lols. Its also been backed into my shed, backed into a retaining wall, and had a light bumper scuff along a concrete wall. I might have also driven it into a door frame, ha. My daughter wants me to install a reversing camera, kids these days eh. The body and bumpers have made it quite a bit longer than it was, and it is a bit hard to tell where the front bumper is, but the kids have got used to its new dimensions now. 

Its done a lot of k's in the last week or so, and the only issue so far is the brush holders on the motor coming out again, so a big cable tie is going to go around those.

And to make this post a bit more interesting, a very short video of the boy testing out its off road capabilities in the back yard:

All the rattling noises are coming from the front shocks, when my lathe is going I will make new bushes to tighten all that up a bit. 

Regards, VG.

P.S. Proud dad moment, I witnessed my son chucking it into a corner covered in wood chips so hard he got it to hang out. J5's son was on it at the time too, but he'll be well used to such danger.

P.P.S Yes my fences are turbo fucked, and yes that is a ratchet strap holding the fence up.

[anglia4]

Jeez it really boogies along doesn't it!

[Vintage Grumble]

28 minutes ago, anglia4 said:

Jeez it really boogies along doesn't it!

Its faster than a power walk, but probably not as fast as a run. I'd rate it at "jogging speed"

[anglia4]

[johnnyfive]

It's sick.

Can I assume you've looked into knobbly options in that tyre size? 

Got me looking at mobility scooters again.