Power Wheels Corvette Reconditioning project

[pRoFiT]

Hello everyone. It's been years since I posted in here. Thought i would share a small project. This is phase 1. thinking in a couple years i will gather parts to modify with more power. make it more electric go-kart less power wheels.

I've been looking 3 years for this and saw it at a garage sale down the street from me. $10!!! could not pass it up.


Started testing out clean up. With a heat gun.

came out okay. But then i decided to just paint the whole thing

Photo looks orange but comes out RED in the sun.

Scanned in the original decals. So i can remake and print to vinyl stickers

 

[pRoFiT]

Redid the corvette logo and it took a couple try's but came out good

 

[pRoFiT]

Cleaned and painted the hub caps. and cleaned and sanded the front headlights.

 

[pRoFiT]

And i've painted most of the parts. Windshield was a little rough so i wet sanded down to 1200 grit. Need to go buy some more black paint and hope for a warmer day. too cold right now

This is what a partially assembled repaint looks like.

 

[pRoFiT]

Also purchased some high power 12vdc LED's to install. had to modify lights a little but i made them fit. Just need to wire up to a switch and the battery.
Another thing that might take time is my idea to 3D print the taillights. instead of decals....we shall see how this goes.
Took a couple attempts to make it fit. but i think i have basic shape figure out.

 

[pRoFiT]

okay dont close the thread be back in 3 years

 

[Denny]

No! Come back sooner! I would be thinking 300 hp 327 and Muncie m21 or m22. Skip the electricity. Go all vintage vette on it. Weren’t you building some kind of Krazy Kart some time back. Did you finish it? How did it work out? Welcome back dude!

 

[Denny]

You can get colored plexiglass to make the tail lights from.

 

[pRoFiT]

Yah i purchased some translucent red 3d spool. So i was thinking i will print it.

Just need to take a couple hours to layout the design in CAD so i can print it. going to take hours to print all of it though.

made a CAD (cardboard aided design) of the curve. then scanned into pc and used for lower curve of part. so im close.

oh man crazy kart....its in all sorts of pieces. i've been jumping from project to project since. that thing had so many moving parts. really need a metal lathe to make some custom parts for it. but i kind of gave up on getting lathe, maybe i need to start looking again. It was already getting super heavy. but i did loose 70lbs this year. so maybe it's time to finish it now that total weight will be down

 

[pRoFiT]

finally finish brake light designs. printing some samples and the final translucent part today. should be done soon.

Brake housing in cad

test print. failed grill backing

brake translucent part in cad

new print for brake light housing. with mock up painted red part for fit before i print on my nice translucent red material

1st Translucent brake light almost completed.... 2 1/2 print. one more to go

 

[pRoFiT]

Well it's transparent enough. Super bright LED may be too focused. Ordered some flat LED panels that should fit better behind this.


Quick video of it.

 

[Denny]

Go Cat! Go!

 

[pRoFiT]

okay brake lights in



they fire up with the front light switch



And they look pretty good with the 3D printed brakes



I think im done with this build. Need to get it out and do some test drives.

 

[pRoFiT]

And they light up really good at night.

 

[pRoFiT]

And a little first paint try and a resand and paint smooth windshield. Still didn't get that small patch out of the plastic. Good enough though.

 

[Denny]

You should start a Power Wheels Corvette restoration business. The Corvette guys would eat that up.

 

[pRoFiT]

They are hard to find though. Took me years to find that one and i was looking.

 

[pRoFiT]

Maybe i can just restore power wheels and resell them sometimes people just through them out

 

[pRoFiT]

Got to drive the inspiration today! So nice.

 

[pRoFiT]

rear view