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MJL
Apprentice Modder
North Florida
USA
90 Posts |
 Posted - 04/21/2009 : 09:00:51
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I mentioned in a few threads I would post a project summary on the Blue Thunder my Brother and I redid for my son, so here it is :)
For my son's 2nd Birthday I bought him a Blue Thunder PW. It turned out that I was a little ambitious with that one, so the truck say for a while not getting used. Eventually he grew into it (he's now 4 and 1/2), but we still lacked the back yard for him to really enjoy the truck. The truck ended up spending most of it's time sitting outside, getting beat up by the elements (Yeah, I now know the error of my ways ;) ).
We moved in December, and our new house has a yard big enough for him to have a little fun with the truck, including a nice hill between our house and the neighbors. He started driving it every day, so I figured I would fix it up and make it nice for him.
Here are a few pics of how it looked pre-project (most pics are from my i-phone, please excuse the quality):
We took the truck apart. The body was pretty rough:
The chassis was in decent shape, however:
My brother and I looked at the gear boxes/motors, and kept thinking that it would be *so* easy to change out the stock Super 6v motors while we had everything apart. I did a bit of looking around, and ended up ordering a pair of Titan 21T 12v E-Maxx motors. I decided to bump the voltage to 18v at the same time. We also wanted to give ourselves the option of mounting the batteries at either the front or rear of the vehicle, depending on if we wanted it to pull off some wheelstands or not. BTW, my son thinks it's the greatest thing ever when the front wheels come up. Guess taking him to all those drag races as a baby paid off. Hehehe
Here are the gearboxes with the Titan motors mounted:
We did some measuring, and clearanced the front and rear to accomodate 3 6v batteries in either location. Here is the front opened up:
and here is a shot of the back where we clipped the seat mounting tabs:
We also T'd the wiring underneath, so we had the option of connecting the batteries to either the front or rear.
All surfaces got sanded down in prep for paint. Some of the parts were very rough/chalky, so we started with anywhere from a 200-400 grit, and finished with an 800 grit. We built a small paint booth in the garage out of plastic sheeting, and went to work, wiping everything down with alcohol prior to getting 3 coats of paint. The main truck body and all other blue pieces went to black, while almost everything else that was previously black or grey went "black chrome".
Here is a shot of the body, hood, and tailgate after painting:
After painting, we applied the stickers. We used a combination of a few stock stickers purchased from HobbyMasters, and some custom ones we bought. We decided on a red-metallic skull theme, to match the black / black chrome truck:
Thus, "Skull Crusher" was born!
In this picture, you can see both the rear tailgate and steering wheel graphic, and the way we mounted the batteries in the rear:
The batteries will shortly be receiving a custom battery-hold down setup.
Once the stickers had been applied, we laid down a layer of clear coat on top, to prevent any peeling or fading issues.
After everything dried, it was time for a test run :D
Here are the pics from the trial, as well as a little bit of video. As you can see, the truck pulls the wheels easily, and how far forward/backward he leans in the seat determines if the truck is going to hook and go, or plant the rear bumper :D
Here's a quick video clip of the truck in action. Pardon the quality and file format, as it came off a cell phone:
http://www.luggery.com/~~Pictures/Brayden_Truck/Brayden_Truck_TestRun.3gp
No children were hurt in the making of this video ;)
The truck ran for about 30 minutes before it trashed the passenger side gearbox.
Some investigation revealed that the new steering wheel did not have the same steering stop as the old one, and the wheels were locking against the inner wheelwells when he turned. This in turn caused additional load on the gearboxes, and with the power of the upgraded motors, something had to give.
I should mention that this truck MUCH faster / quicker than stock now. I am greatly impressed by the output of the Titan motors!
I need to add in a MAJOR thank you to my Brother Scott. I could have never pulled off this project without him, and he worked tirelessly out of love for his nephew. His finger is *still* numb from all the spray painting ;) Also, lots of thanks to the members of this forum, for help, parts, and inspiration.
Future plans for the truck include:
- Replacing the trashed gearbox
- Building battery hold downs
- Custom side emblems
- Installing the LED headlights my brother built
- Converting to 4WD (Some parts already on the way)
- ???
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*** LOOKING TO BUY HIGH TORQUE GAUCHO GEARBOXES / SHIFTER SETUPS. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE ANY FOR SALE!! :) ***
Our former Blue Thunder truck "Skull Crusher" |
Edited by - MJL on 04/21/2009 09:09:46 |
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MJL
Apprentice Modder
North Florida
USA
90 Posts |
Posted - 04/21/2009 : 09:01:51
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| This space reserved for future updates |
*** LOOKING TO BUY HIGH TORQUE GAUCHO GEARBOXES / SHIFTER SETUPS. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE ANY FOR SALE!! :) ***
Our former Blue Thunder truck "Skull Crusher" |
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MJL
Apprentice Modder
North Florida
USA
90 Posts |
Posted - 04/21/2009 : 09:02:52
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| This space reserved for future updates |
*** LOOKING TO BUY HIGH TORQUE GAUCHO GEARBOXES / SHIFTER SETUPS. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE ANY FOR SALE!! :) ***
Our former Blue Thunder truck "Skull Crusher" |
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floridasteel
Journeyman Modder
Ft Myers
Fl
USA
146 Posts |
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melonman
Journeyman Modder
Deetroit
MI
USA
274 Posts |
Posted - 04/21/2009 : 15:01:50
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Very cool paint and decal scheme. I luv the wheelstanding feature on this. I think the Monster K-mart Racing truck is going under the knife soon! I can't imagine how cool my son would enjoy the wheelie feature on his Monster truck. IMO Keep it 2wd; simpler and just keep the extra gearboxes as spares for those TITAN motors...just my .02
Great job wow ....3 coats eh? that is a cramped finger-gotta buy one of those spray bomb snap-on can triggers for those kind of jobs! |
PORSCHE 18V stock
Old Gray Gaucho
Bigfoot project
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MJL
Apprentice Modder
North Florida
USA
90 Posts |
Posted - 04/24/2009 : 05:45:42
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quote:
Originally posted by melonman
Very cool paint and decal scheme. I luv the wheelstanding feature on this. I think the Monster K-mart Racing truck is going under the knife soon! I can't imagine how cool my son would enjoy the wheelie feature on his Monster truck. IMO Keep it 2wd; simpler and just keep the extra gearboxes as spares for those TITAN motors...just my .02
Great job wow ....3 coats eh? that is a cramped finger-gotta buy one of those spray bomb snap-on can triggers for those kind of jobs!
Heh, I had one of those things for him to use, but my brother is an artist, and he was complaining about "lack of control". Guess he wishes he could go back and change his mind now ;)
I think I'm going to press ahead with the 4wd conversion, for two reasons
1) We have some decent terrain around here, and my son would enjoy the truck a lot more
2) I think it would lessen the load on the gearboxes (same load split amongst 4 gearboxes instead of two)
3) I just think it would be a fun little project to tackle :) |
*** LOOKING TO BUY HIGH TORQUE GAUCHO GEARBOXES / SHIFTER SETUPS. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE ANY FOR SALE!! :) ***
Our former Blue Thunder truck "Skull Crusher" |
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Modmom32
Expert Modder
Cookeville
Tennessee
USA
830 Posts |
Posted - 07/20/2010 : 21:51:14
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| THAT is the best pics you kid Rocks. GReat character and nice truck |
*arctic Shark snowmobile (beng modified again, scooter) but works!
*indianaJones Harley *desert bike *desert Challenger street bike *saftey 1st Chopper *SF viper*Herbie fully loaded via remote 12v....18v if lucky *gravedigger *mx350 *john deer tractor( still his favorite) *blue flame bigfoot *A151 * qty 2 twin 700* mx3 trike n 2 powerrider nascars (DALE SR n used to be #24 now General Lee) SOLD> 12v herbie
AMY |
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Blue Thunder makeover, aka "Skull Crusher"!
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