Power Wheels

RClippa · May 5, 2020

I am not sure. I am confident that my fat butt would split a power wheel in half. It just wasn't monster truck enough for me. I wanted it to plow over everything in front of it.

An incredible night for any project. Tore it down for final weld amd body work! Dash is in and ready to be finished. A couple long nights of tack tack tack grind are in my future.

RClippa · May 12, 2020

Another night of tack tack tack. They sure make it look much faster on TV. A few more nights of this and it will be fully welded and metal preped. I took the time to DA the whole thing with 60 grit and found a few places on the main body that I need to reweld. All the main fab left is on the bed.

RClippa · May 20, 2020

A busy return to the shop. I feel like I got a bunch done tonight. Over the weekend some new tires arrived. The old ones leaked and I think the rears were a little too big. I found a front set and a slightly narrower rear set online. I took 3" out of the width of the rear tires!

Tonight I narrowed the rims to fit the new tires. It went really smooth and I learned that tire slime encourages rust and mold ri grow in your tire.

I capped a bunch of open square tube and started the body work. The main body will need another feather coat but it looks really good. I am not going to win an award, but I am learning.

I also bonded a frame to the hood. I didn't want to weld it and deal with warping and body work.

I also had a baby excavator this weekend and let the kids play. My son picked it up crazy fast. I put him on a hill and let him go. I will never forget it.

Nigon · May 20, 2020

This looks awesome! I would love to build something like this for my kids one day.

Maybe I missed it but how did you attach the ram to the dump bed? If a hand gets between the bed and the frame will the force from the actuator pinch the hand or just the weight of the bed?

RClippa · May 21, 2020

Nigon said:

There is actually a pretty good gap between the bed and everything else except the bump stops for the bed. I plan on locking the bed out for unsupervised play and then unlocking it when i am around. I can put my fingers in there without much of a pinch.

Tonight SUCKED. Flash flooding put 4" off water, trash, mud, and who knows what else in the shop. It had drained by the time i got there but the damage was done.

97TJGUZZY · May 21, 2020

RClippa said:

There is actually a pretty good gap between the bed and everything else except the bump stops for the bed. I plan on locking the bed out for unsupervised play and then unlocking it when i am around. I can put my fingers in there without much of a pinch.

Tonight SUCKED. Flash flooding put 4" off water, trash, mud, and who knows what else in the shop. It had drained by the time i got there but the damage was done.

View attachment 20087

crap!

matth_85 · May 21, 2020

That sucks. My shop used to flood when we first built it because the grade allowed a heavy downpour to seep in. What a pain. Finally got it pretty well fixed after lots of shovel time.

RClippa · May 21, 2020

This shop is pretty much screwed. It is the bottom of the hill and a private driveway goes around it that is a couple feet higher making a great dyke. There is a drain culvert but it remains so overgrown that is we dont maintain it this happens. If we do this still happens but not as often. Heading to meet a realtor in a couple hours! Time to buy and build.

RClippa · May 26, 2020

It has been a slow couple of days. The holiday weekend usually means I get a shop day, but we were in the middle of building a new front yard so I spent a lot of time out there. Then I spent a lot of time trying to keep it from washing away as we saw the worst rain we have ever seen Sunday at this house. So yesterday I spent my time shoring up drainage and trying to get my crawl space setup to dry out during this rain filled week.

I did get a couple hours at the shop last night. Luckily it hasn't flooded again, but it is still wet from last week. The body is final welded, ground, and just waiting on one last pass with sandpaper before I coat it with paint. I am hopeful to get a coat or two of primer on it tonight. Maybe even the color. We are off to the beach this weekend so I want it in color with time to cure before we leave. This will give it a super long weekend to cure and get ready for final assembly.

97TJGUZZY · May 26, 2020

RClippa said:

It has been a slow couple of days. The holiday weekend usually means I get a shop day, but we were in the middle of building a new front yard so I spent a lot of time out there. Then I spent a lot of time trying to keep it from washing away as we saw the worst rain we have ever seen Sunday at this house. So yesterday I spent my time shoring up drainage and trying to get my crawl space setup to dry out during this rain filled week.

I did get a couple hours at the shop last night. Luckily it hasn't flooded again, but it is still wet from last week. The body is final welded, ground, and just waiting on one last pass with sandpaper before I coat it with paint. I am hopeful to get a coat or two of primer on it tonight. Maybe even the color. We are off to the beach this weekend so I want it in color with time to cure before we leave. This will give it a super long weekend to cure and get ready for final assembly.

tonka yellow? what color are you planning?

RClippa · May 26, 2020

97TJGUZZY said:

I don't know. I am really struggling. CAT yellow, Kubota Orange, Custom single stage? I just can't figure it out. My son's favorite color is red, but I don't think that will look right. He is a massive tiger fan, but Clemson orange might be to much. CAT yellow seems to make sense to me, but my wife doesn't think it is right. Color is typically the hardest part of a project for me.

LBarr2002 · May 26, 2020

John Deere Green. Look like a gator.

Twilliamson · May 26, 2020

Kubota Orange with white accents

International Red isn't a bad color either...

RClippa · May 27, 2020

Well tonight was a battle. Me against two gravity feed HVLP spray guns. They won. I just couldn't get the primer to come out of them. No matter what I cleaned, adjusted, or thinned, just droplets. I couldn't get a good flow going. Even when I dropped down to just cleaner they didn't pull.

97TJGUZZY · May 27, 2020

RClippa said:

well it looks like something worked! Looks great in primer.

RClippa · May 27, 2020

97TJGUZZY said:

Thanks. Most of it will be sanded off later.

The gun just didn't provide enough flow for the paint so it over vaporized the paint and didn't let it flow out like it should. I am worried that it won't stick. I shouldn't have fought with it. Every time I do, I make more work for myself.

RClippa · May 27, 2020

The boy weighed in and chose the final color. He knows I want to build him a dump truck. He just doesn't know I am working on it. His favorite color is red. So red it is. Once the black parts are installed and the graphics done it should look killer.

Bought another gun today and spayed the first coat after a good scotch bright of the primer. This is a pretty light coat but it still ran. The new gun flows some paint and after last night I over thinned. Nothing a quick pass with fine paper can't address.

97TJGUZZY · May 28, 2020

what kind of paint are you using?

RClippa · May 28, 2020

97TJGUZZY said:

Just using rustoleum farm and implement paint. He is going to trash it so I couldn't justify the cash on a decent single stage. I will regret it later but for now I am happy.

97TJGUZZY · May 28, 2020

RClippa said:

is the farm and implement 2 part?