Dune Power Wheels Project

[marvins_dad]

Well, I'm surprised no one else has done this yet.



Aiden is 2 now and time for him to have his own car or "bye-bye" as he refers to it. I searched and found a few Power Wheels new beetles on Ebay, but the price they were wanting for a modded-out-old-single-seater-beetle-painted-like-Herbie was cool, but way too much.

So the quest began - turns out the Dune Beetle was a Barbie edition...and it was a 12volt system - it goes faster than a standard PW Beetle, meaning very girly...WTF - we all know the Dune Concept was a very masculine vehicle, so why would they make it girlie? I guess because they are pushing the stereo type that only little girls would by a Beetle and little boys only want a Hummer or Jeep Power Wheels.

I have to hand it to the people that did the design, they got alot of the details spot on...the dash, instrument cluster, body and even the floor mats.

My challenge is to turn this girly looking car into what it should have been all along! A yellow testosterone filled bad ass!

Here is the beetle I just purchased and will be picking up just north of Houston tomorrow...



And here is what it yearns to become...





I figure Jacob will appreciate this restyling, know he has always wanted to own a Dune!

This poor little girly car doesn't have a clue that it is about to go through quite an extensive transformation! I think every piece of plastic will have to be repainted! Thank goodness I was able to find replacement decals, parts list and Owner Manuals online.

[jdesigns]

What a killer idea!

You need to shoot lots of pics of the transformation, as I want to live vicariously through you! Then someday when I do have kid/kids, I can do the same!

[raemhild]

LOL, this is going to be a blast. I cant wait to see Aiden rollin up in this beast.

[scarabY2k]

I looking forward to see the end result. I agree with JDesigns- take plenty of pics.

[marvins_dad]

Just got back from a marathon run starting at 8:30 drive to Houston...12:30 pick up car...eat on way out of town and back to Dallas at 5:00...pick up food for dinner party with TJ at 7:30...

All the while with a 2 year old in tow...he was pretty cool on the trip without throwing any tantrums, he still didn't know exactly what mommy and daddy were getting despite the fact that it ended up taken up an entire side of the Honda Element. We had to put it on it's side to get it to fit. This thing is a MONSTER!

Hopefully I will find time to clean the garage out so I have some surfaces to start the tear down.

I have to take pictures to make sure I get it all back together properly.

[b-double-e]

once styling cues are finished, you need to wire it to fit 4 x 18 volt cordless drill batteries in series and make that baby scream.

do a youtube search for powerwheels .
some of my favorites
http://driftin 4x4
wheelies

pinks

i hotwired my boys 6 volt one wheel drive bug with 18 volts and now even i can ride it.
he loves doing roll-backs and hard left turns!!
i had to replace the front wheels with push mower rubber tires. it had temendous understeer but does three wheel turns now.
i also need to modify the steering, it originally had a 14" turning radius, but now turns within 9' radius.

pik before battery mods. steering radius mod was in tact here, notice front wheels.

[FineExampl]

This project, thought it certainly doesn't need it, gets the FineExampl seal of approval.

Have you thought about what you are going to do wheelswise? Maybe swap on power wheel hummer stubbies?? Painting purple wheels to run on pavement will of course scratch up mighty quick.

Also, there's a family that comes to all the shows out here with an old school manx style buggy with a Bratz theme (it wasnt Bratz last year) that they let their kid show as "special interest". If you trick it out as good as you did Marvin, you could have another show winner.

[Beetlemania]

This sounds freaking sweet, 'toine! Aiden is going to be the luckiest kid in town. Well, I mean more so. Good thing Jason is selling his Beetle, because you're soon to have the fastest one in Texas!

When I made my little Barbie Beetle Dune I used Reflex Yellow paint. I figured it was the closest I'd ever find to the Sunrise Yellow the Dune was painted in. Unless, of course, a stealership could actually find the code for Sunrise.

If you do perform the motor upgrade I might want to take it for a spin!

[marvins_dad]

Probably won't make the show circuit...barely fit in the Element sideways. I would need a chase vehicle or trailer to make that happen.

Wheels, well for now painting is the plan. I know that they will rub off so I will deal with that for the moment. I plan on posing the question to ModifiedPowerWheels.com to see if anyone knows of a black wheel with the same center indention. There is a hub cap that mimics the original Dune's wheels and I want to be able to reuse that.

I'll be using paint from the Krylon Fusion line since they are built to bond to plastic. They have a bright yellow called Sunbeam that should work fine. Probably won't be able to pull off the chrome bumpers - they will probably end up being Satin Pewter Gray.

Modifying the drive train will have to come in a year or two after Aiden has mastered the 12v beast. I believe the original owners didn't know that there was a second gear so I think it has only been run in first gear - he said that it was pretty fast in that setting so it might take a while for us to want to beef it up.

[scarabY2k]

WOW!! there's a web site called ModifiedPowerWheels.com? That is awesome. I'll have to check that out.

[Beetlemania]

I think it's Krylon that has a chrome spray paint. Or you could go to a hobby shop and find a product called Bare Metal. It's a self-adhesive metal leaf. You won't quite get it smooth enough for a chrome-like reflection, but it'll be metallic!

[marvins_dad]

I had to go to a silver metallic finish for all the grey/chrome parts...decided if I go chrome I would have to do some serious sanding to get a good finish, and it would kill me the first time he backed it into something and I had to do some touch ups. I have to step back and remember that a little boy is going to be rough with this even if he doesn't realize he is being that way.

First weekend's work...

Complete tear down...



Aiden finally came out to see what Daddy was doing...I think he knows it's a car for him...just a thought.



We let him play with the steering wheel and put the windshield back on for effect...



Here are the rest of the paint photos. Still have a couple more coats of yellow to go to get better coverage, also need to see if others did a clear coat or not.











I still have some other creative deviations that I am thinking about. Instead of having a yellow seat with black inserts I am going to invert it because there is so much yellow on the car already. Also, the roll bar might turn metallic or black because it is turning out a different color of yellow because of the pink base instead of blue. Think that metallic would look cool, but need to find a source since I bought the last two cans from my local Ace.

[Beetlemania]

Beautiful!

You ever thought about doing leather seats, so the paint won't rub off on his clothing?

[marvins_dad]

Someone on ModifiedPowerwheels.com mentioned that as a joke and I thought...man that would be cool! But I'm gonna go cheap. The paint shouldn't rub off.

[scarabY2k]

I'm absolutely loving this project. It would be so cool if you could take it to a show or two.

[Ghia_Roadster]

you should put a system in it so um yeah

[Billsbug]

Originally Posted by marvins_dad

A yellow testosterone filled bad ass!

[marvins_dad]

Thanksgiving rained the entire weekend so I got a little held up, but did find use for my indoor time painting some detailed parts and got to mask off the seats...



And this weekend was really productive. I did get the wheels completed with a few coats of black and a couple coats of clear. Not sure how well they will hold up yet though.
The body - I went back and painted the undercarriage black then put about 5 coats of yellow on and painted the floor mats.
By the end of the day today I have a few items cleared and started putting the first of the stickers on the car.

Aiden loves his new black steering wheel, wouldn't let go of it all night!

[FineExampl]

awesome!!

[Beetlemania]

This is amazing!

I thought of an idea for the wheels... what about undercoating? Probably be really resilient!