Well my nephew had such a blast on the Lil Jeep, I decided to make him one of his own for Christmas. He's all about Monster Trucks, and when I saw the Blue Thunder stickers at Hobbymasters, I knew it was a perfect match. I then was able to find a Super 6 F150 Off Road from Craigslist that was the perfect candidate for the mod. This will be another simple 12v upgrade, and with the Super 6 Motors, it should really move. I'm going to keep the stock wheels for now, but since my nephew lives in an area with a lot of pavement, I may have to find a set of more pavement friendly wheels if they get too bumpy for him. Right now they have the right look for the Monster Truck though.
The truck looked pretty decent when I picked it up, much better than my Lil Jeep did anyway, but I heard a lot of rattling around in it, and when I opened it up, I found a few years worth of leaves, and some rusted sockets, along with the usual spiders. I gave it a complete tear down, and thorough washing to get it ready for paint. I used bondo to fill in the holes left by the power wheels plates, since they won't be going back on, and also to smooth out a bunch of deep scratches. The previous driver may have been short, but he was plenty rough with the truck.
I don't think those wheels will be too rough on the pavement with the solid rib down the center. But they are also VERY impressive off-road, in mud, snow, etc.
It's too bad they went with the plastic steering blocks at the spindles for the newer trucks like that. The old metal ones were much beefier, and made it quite easy to add gearboxes up front for 4wd.
They make a little noise but I agree with swhenrik, they are fine on the road. I've got six of them on my argo and its capability off road so far has been impressive... don't know what I'll do when they are worn out :(
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metal frame sahara @ 18V metal frame safari @ 18V maroon firebird metal frame wrangler @ 12V (2 pedal) Baby Baja beetle @12V Peg Perego Quad w/Gaucho motors and tires @12V Custom 6WD ARGO/ROVER/TANK Pink Harley Black Harley Drag Trike Extreme Machine - 21Ts 12V
Good to know about the wheels. Since this will primarily be a pavement driver, I'm not too worried about the off road capabilities right now. Maybe sometime down the line I might look into beefing up the steering and making it 4wd.
The 11 1/2 tires from the suzuki quad worked really well on the back of the f-150 but the draw back came trying to fit them on the front.I haven't given up and still may make them work there but i am thinking of trying to find some 12 1/2 tall to try first.bug doesn't care that the tires don't match on it now .lol he just likes it going faster. thanks for the post back.
14" tires would be a lot for #3 gearboxes to turn.
Yea, I'm starting to rethink that too. I think I'll just stick with the stock tires on this one. They look good, and are a decent size.
I'm hoping the weather warms up some this weekend so I can get it painted. My stickers arrived yesterday, and I'm itching to get this one built to see how it turns out.
I've made some progress on the truck. Most of the components are painted now, as well as the underside. I think I may go all out and paint the shock towers yellow, since they don't make stickers for them any more. I think it'll look better like that anyway. I picked up the Monster Sounds Big Foot sound box from Colinsmom, and it fits perfectly under the left side of the dash panel. I think it'll really add to the theme of the truck when it's done.
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I patched up the holes in the body, and have rough sanded them down. Still have to do the fine sanding to get it ready for paint.
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I also finished up the 6V batteres by soldering on the A type connectors to make it easy on my sister and nephew to connect and disconnect the batteries.
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I'm hoping to get the body ready for paint this weekend, but we'll see how that goes.
I got a little more done over the weekend. Finished painting the underside, it turned out pretty nice if I do say so myself. Also painted the main body too. I was having trouble getting the blue paint to go on smoothly, so I may do some wet sanding and see how that turns out. There is a lot of orange peel on it, although it doesn't look it in these pictures. Once that is done, it's time to start work on the wiring.
I got the bottom half assembled today, so it's now a rolling chassis. I also finished wet sanding the body, and gave it another coat of blue. I did a test fit with the wiring, and everything worked great, and I must say this thing is really fast on 12V. I just need to cut the wires to fit better and install them. I plan to finish up the wiring harness tonight, and possibly assemble the rest of it tomorrow.
Got the wiring finished on the truck. Was restesting it, and wouldn't you know it, I broke one of the solders on my battery connector...ARGGH! I guess that's what I get for using ancient solder. I bought new solder tonight, but I think I'm going to buy some bare crimps to use with it to make sure the connection won't be coming off. Hopefully that fix doesn't take too long, and I should still be on track for final assembly tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to seeing this one done.
It's done! I recrimped and soldered all my connections so they are nice and strong now, and got everthing assembled tonight. I did scuff the front bumper a little putting the grille on, so I'm going to try to touch that up tomorrow. I'm real excited for Christmas to come now!
Yes, but I don't think my wife is . That white Sun Jammer in pieces behind the truck is next in line. It's getting a lift kit, 14" wheels, yellow paint job, headlights, and possibly tail lights if I can find some I like. That one will probably be a slower build, or I may find myself sleeping on the couch before too long
Thanks for all the compliments everyone! Much appreciated. I found this Ford sticker at the auto parts store the other day, and thought it would look really good on the truck, since those Blue Thunder Stickers don't have any Ford emblems on them. It actually came as a set of 2, but I messed one up trying to peel off the backing . Oh well, It's a little oversized for the grille, but it looks pretty sharp in person, highly reflective with a chrome look, just like a real one.
My sister brought Connor's truck up to visit today. We still had a little bit of snow on the ground, enough to make the Lil' Jeep slip, but not enough for the truck. Here's a quick video I shot from the window since I'm fighting a bad chest cold and couldn't go outside.
This is the first video I shot on my new digital video camera, and as you can tell it's so much better than the other videos I shot.
Awesome build! Whered you get all the new decals and motors from?
PW Dodge Ram Truck ------------------------ "Were just a bunch of kids who never grew up, now we have some money to buy the toys WE wanted as kids" thx Dylan13
Awesome build! Whered you get all the new decals and motors from?
Thanks! The decals I got from Hobbymasters. They have a pretty good selection on their website here http://www.hobbymasters.com/powerwheelsstickers.aspx Don't forget to use the 'modifiedpowerwheels' discount code if you buy from them at checkout.
The F150 came as a Super 6, so I kept the Super 6 motors and the 3B gearboxes it came with, and added a 12V wiring harness from a 12V (dual 6V) Bigfoot so I could just plug and play 12V into it without any major wiring mods.
Blue Thunder
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Posted - 10/28/2008 : 19:43:07
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. Oh well, It's a little oversized for the grille, but it looks pretty sharp in person, highly reflective with a chrome look, just like a real one.
