First Gaucho Grande Resto-Mod

[nepbug]

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Mod List (already done):
Blood Red Vinyl Wrap
White Wheels and Grill
Toyota Emblem
Diamond plate rear corners and door sills

Mod Wish List (to be done):
Rubber Tires/Traction Bands
Rear Mounted Spare Tire
Winch and Brush Guard
18V, then...
24V ESC conversion
Working headlights, tail lights, turn signals and under glow.
Some sort of trailer to be towed.
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My son needs an upgrade from his little 6 Volt Lightning McQueen quad bike. In steps the Peg Perego Gaucho Grande!

I scored this one, needing a bit of work, for only $40. This is my first Peg Perego, though I know eventually I would like to get a Magica as well.

Here's the well used condition I received it in:









Here's the current list of things I know I need to fix/acquire:
Battery
Hood Hinges
Passenger exhaust cover
Roll bar light
Headlight lens(es)
Pinion Gear (I think, need a diagram to confirm, the steering shaft is not connected to the pinion)
Front Bumper w/fog lights
Front fender flares
Driver rear fender flare
Ignition key
Tool box
Tools
Tail Lights
Red Center hub caps
Driver side mirror
Battery with wires (on the fake motor)
Caps, spark plugs and the spark plug wires on the fake motor.
Bottom side wire cover
Ashtray
Microphone
Gaucho Side Emblems

[nepbug]

Mods (anything above and beyond the way it was sold)

Mods Completed:

Mod Wish List:
18V Nitrous Button
18V Running with 24V Nitrous Button
Upgraded Wiring
Functional Head Lights
Functional Fog Lights
Functional Tail Lights
Functional Roll Bar Lights
Rubber traction for the wheels
Snorkel
Toyota Land Cruiser (FJ40) front badge

[nepbug]

Found a wiring diagram and parts diagram, that should help.

[nepbug]

I will be making it 12V with an 18V "nitrous" button for now. I will look at the wiring and see if I need to upgrade it to handle this, if I do, I will keep the future in mind, as I will eventually go 18V with a 24V nitrous button as the kids get older.

[nepbug]

Ok, got some work done on it. I'm storing it at my in-laws to keep it a secret from my kids so working on it is not as easy as I would like.

I brought the heat gun over to do some de-stickering and sun-fade remediation.

My one headlight was pretty bad. Decided to try some Deep Wood Off! on it, the Deet helps get rid of yellowing in car headlights, so why not here?

It helped, but still not good enough.


Hood has lots of stickers:


De-stickered, wow this has been in the sun for a while.


Now it was time to tacke the pink ("red") seats. The sun fade was bad. I scrubbed them good to remove the sap/dirt and then went to town with the heat gun. Slow even heating just until you see the plastic gloss over. It works well for some plastics, the black worked great, the red ok, the yellow didn't improve at all.

Seat on the left has been hit with the heat gun, the driver seat is still waiting, good comparison.


Here's how I left it today, a little closer to kid-ready.

[hkayssi]

Nice work so far.
I have the missing hood hinge cover and probably have the hinges that go with it as well.

I had one that was as bad as yours but, after painting it, It looks the best of our Gaucho fleet now :D.

You need to paint the yellow parts but after you heat gun it and wipe it down several times with alcohol.
You'll need to paint the grey hub caps in the back anyway, right?

You'll need chrome paint for the grille but paint the grille flat black first and don't over do the chrome paint just mist it on.

I have a brand new set of yellow lenses that fit. They're exactly the same size but are for the Gaucho A250 or the Gaucho 4.0 and it's sisters the Adventura, the Rodeo and the Fire Ranger.

For the tool box you can just remove the trey in the back if you don't want to buy it. :)

[nepbug]

Well the wife and I decided this would be a birthday present so I technically have until August to finish it. It also means I can get the light mods and anything else done. so that will be fun.

hkaysi, thanks for the paint tips, I'm still slightly leaning that way, but also thinking about doing a vinyl wrap instead.

[hkayssi]

Well the wife and I decided this would be a birthday present so I technically have until August to finish it. It also means I can get the light mods and anything else done. so that will be fun.

hkaysi, thanks for the paint tips, I'm still slightly leaning that way, but also thinking about doing a vinyl wrap instead.

Trust me it would look great painted with the right prepping. Ours looked faded and now it looks like it just came out of the factory at a really good price. We had mint Gauchos but the painted one actually looks the best of the fleet. A wrap might or might not work depending on the wrap quality but the good thing is that it's removable. It seems our kids are born the same month :lol:

If you want the factory lights you can add those> I'm going to reuse the old Gaucho A151 factory harness next summer.

The more modern Gaucho Rock'n also has the factory lights so it would probably easier to source the newer version with much less fuss.

If you decide you want to go with your own custom work look at Sall's project in the project section for inspiration. I'm not that good with wiring that stuff so... :oops:

I never got a response from landon yet by the way.

[nepbug]

Yeah, I haven't heard from Landon yet either, but not being in a rush it's not a big deal yet.

I did talk to a few vinyl guys and they have said that the vinyl will work, but putting it on that type of plastic can be risky. They say that if a corner lifts it can easily then pull the whole sheet of vinyl off.

With my son's desire to remove stickers from everything I think the smartest thing to do will be paint. Gloss Sun Beam (yellow) looks like the color I will go with to try to minimize the appearance of scratches when they happen.

Though I would really like to go with the "Gloss Ivy Leaf" color to get closer to the FJ40 Mustard Yellow color, but we'll see what I decide come paint time.



I know Fusion says it doesn't need sanding or priming, but I figure I will sand it and use the adhesion promoter to give me some good adhesion. Still not sure exactly which clear I will use on it though.

[hkayssi]

I like to stay with the original color as much as possible. Kids tend to bump into things with their rides and paint will chip. If the paint is still close to the paint color you chose, the chips won't show too much.

You can clean the tub properly and use a heat gun and then wipe down the surface with alcohol. if you don't use the heat gun on the hood in that bad of shape you'll have problems. if you don't wipe the hood with alcohol immediately after the heat gun, the plastic keeps the film of mold release in it and the paint won't stick. Always use the same brand across the board. Use Fusion for plastics paint as your primer and stick with a lighter color to minimize the number of coats needed. I believe Krylon Fusion for plastics still has the yellow. Use the paint from the same brand and then the clear coat. use 3-4 coats of paint and the same for the clear coat. The clear coat make a very bid difference but makes touch ups almost impossible if needed due to wrinkling. In the project section and the paint sections there are many threads about painting that you could use.

Interesting that you used that picture. When I started my project I used that FJ40 for inspiration too :D

[nepbug]

I like to stay with the original color as much as possible. Kids tend to bump into things with their rides and paint will chip. If the paint is still close to the paint color you chose, the chips won't show too much.

You can clean the tub properly and use a heat gun and then wipe down the surface with alcohol. if you don't use the heat gun on the hood in that bad of shape you'll have problems. if you don't wipe the hood with alcohol immediately after the heat gun, the plastic keeps the film of mold release in it and the paint won't stick. Always use the same brand across the board. Use Fusion for plastics paint as your primer and stick with a lighter color to minimize the number of coats needed. I believe Krylon Fusion for plastics still has the yellow. Use the paint from the same brand and then the clear coat. use 3-4 coats of paint and the same for the clear coat. The clear coat make a very bid difference but makes touch ups almost impossible if needed due to wrinkling. In the project section and the paint sections there are many threads about painting that you could use.

Interesting that you used that picture. When I started my project I used that FJ40 for inspiration too :D

Thanks for the tip on wiping away the mold release, I would've overlooked that.

[hkayssi]

No problem and repeat that procedure to remove the most you can of that mold release :)

[nepbug]

Okay, my son's birthday is coming up so I've ordered some parts. Some aren't available, but I got what I could, I'll have to keep an eye out for the missing parts on eBay and MPW.

Peg Perego - Headlight Lens (SPST0132) 2

Peg Perego - Sq. Fog Light Assembly (ASGI0053A) 2

Peg Perego - Hood Latch (Set of 2) (ASGI0024R) 1

Peg Perego - Key (SAGI0162N) 1

Peg Perego - Tail Light Lens (ASGI5009ARF) 2

Peg Perego - Switch Protector (SPST3546N) 1

Peg Perego - Front Fender - Right (SPST3823DN) 1

Peg Perego - Front Fender (left) (SPST3823SN) 1

Peg Perego - Small Hubcap (SPST3185R) 4

Peg Perego - Pinion Gear (SPST0283) 2

Peg Perego - Exhaust Pipe - Right (SPST3827DM) 1

Peg Perego - Exhaust Pipe - Left (SPST3827SM) 1

Peg Perego - Gaucho Headlight Reflector Decal (MMEV7482) 2


So, more progress coming soon.

[nepbug]

Alright, I've been getting a little work done on this, but it's all at night after the kids are asleep so no pictures yet. Previous parts are all installed, yay for working steering.

I've now ordered another wave of parts, this time from Kidswheels.com. So coming to me are some rear fender flares, the brush guard with lights and hood hinges.

I also think I've come to the conclusion that I will do some vinyl wrap on the body instead of the Krylon Fusion paint, it just seems like it will hold up better. So, I'll start looking into that, it will likely be something done after I give it to my son though, don't think there will be enough time before the birthday party.

I also ordered a Toyota badge for the front, to make it a little more FJ40-like (not period correct, but those are easily $70+ for a bagde!)

[nepbug]

Vinyl ordered for the build. I went with a blood red color (http://www.ebay.com/itm/301705514466), now I need to get some white Krylon Fusion paint to paint the grill and wheels.

Should end up more like this:

[toycrusher]

Have you looked here for some of those parts? http://tigerimports.net/parts.php?ride=gaucho-rock

[nepbug]

Have you looked here for some of those parts? http://tigerimports.net/parts.php?ride=gaucho-rock

The first wave of parts was ordered through Tiger, though I ordered them from this Gaucho's page (http://tigerimports.net/parts.php?ride= ... ande-hp252). Looking at the other Gaucho's is a good idea, though the one you linked seems to still not have available the parts I need, though it does have tools listed.

[hkayssi]

Great work. I<d recommend you use a winch and bumper from an older Gaucho
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=18230" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I bought one to use it with the Grande but the oldest outgrew the ride now. Keep that in mind when shelling a lot of money on a ride; they outgrow it fast :(

Great work though ; you would have saved a lot if you just got the Gaucho Hi Torque :D

[nepbug]

Great work. I<d recommend you use a winch and bumper from an older Gaucho
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=18230

I bought one to use it with the Grande but the oldest outgrew the ride now. Keep that in mind when shelling a lot of money on a ride; they outgrow it fast :(

Great work though ; you would have saved a lot if you just got the Gaucho Hi Torque :D

I would love to get a winch bumper from an A151 Gaucho, but they are no longer available anywhere. I'll keep an eye out for a used one though, that would be slick.

And the Hi Torque, if I had the opportunity I would grab one for sure, finding any Gaucho around here is tough. I have a younger daughter as well, so if I stumble across one, i can always justify it by buying it for her.

I probably have about $150 into this right now, but it's been kinda fun and I'm excited to see him play with it. He will get it this weekend and it will be incomplete (will it ever be "done", really?), but then he can help out finishing it up. He likes to watch me working on my cars, so now he'll have his own car that he can be a little more involved with modifying. I could see maybe another $50-$100 going into it over the next 2 years if we decide to do working lights, radio, etc.

In other news, kidswheels was holding my order I placed last week because the bumper.brush guard was backordered. So I called them today to get the story and now that I know what the hold up is, it's too late to have them ship the rest of the stuff and make it in time for the weekend, bummer.

[nepbug]

My vinyl order tracking finally updated, it should arrive tomorrow. I might actually get the wrap on before the birthday party on Sunday, that looked like an impossibility just yesterday.

I'll probably be able to finally work on it in the daylight come Saturday, so progress pics to come.

[nepbug]

Alright, my son's birthday party is officially done. It was a mad scramble to get the Gaucho to a state where it could be presented, but it got done, barely.

The vinyl came in Friday night, that meant Saturday was wrapping day. Being a vinyl novice I had no clue as to how long it would take, I figured 4 hours tops to get it all done and ready for the party, oh how I was wrong.

Disassembly:



Cleaning:



Wrapping:



Getting close, the diamond plate corners were easier than I thought they would be. (Notice it's dark outside now.)



It took me until 2 am to get most of the way done. I started at 2:30 pm and also had help from my brother for 7 hours of that, lots of cleaning, painting, wrapping, electrical troubleshooting (a previous owner reversed the polarity on the motors).

The next morning I came back early and finished up the last few things and it was ready for presentation, though still missing parts that are in transit.



It was a hit of a birthday present, he loved it and after a shaky first ride around the block he got the hang of it and was zipping right along. It's still just running 12V for now, I think a jump to 18V will be in the near future and start planning a 24V ESC (electronic speed control) build for it down the road.



One of the nice things I discovered about the Gauchos is that they have adjustable seats. I have them set all the way back right now, but after seeing him in there I will move them to almost all the way forward.

It was my first vinyl wrapping job and oh what a pain. I don't think I would wrap a ride-on toy again, paint next time. the vinyl is far from perfect, it's a 20-footer job.

My favorite parts of the FJ are the white wheels and diamond plate, they both look cool.

[nepbug]

I just want to post this here, so I can reference it the next time I open up the Gaucho.

"it may have the RS-775SF motors in it, which will handle 18V great, and be pretty fast (maybe even faster than a PW motor on 24V).
But if they did the complete overhaul, they may have replaced them with the newer RS-755VC which are slower motors, and not as powerful.

I'd say the first step is to identify which motors you have.
Left: RS-775SF & Right: RS-755VC"

[nepbug]

A quick video of the FJ in action going around the block tonight.

https://instagram.com/p/6loiP2zfto/

It's the hit of the neighborhood right now, kids will go absolutely bonkers once it gets working lights.

[nepbug]

Well, kidswheels has cancelled my order for a second time because parts are unavailable; so I'm done ordering there. Now trying mypegperegoparts.com to see if they have some of the parts tigerimports didn't have. Parts are pretty tough to get right now.

[Coopz]

it does look like a fj45... great job mate

[nepbug]

it does look like a fj45... great job mate

Thanks, I was going to try to remove the center part of the grill to make it a little more like it still, but didn't have the time.

[Roadmonkeytj]

Yours looks to have started in the condition mine is now lol .... Good to know it can improve drastically. I was wondering if you ordered a new mirror set or if you just left it off ... It just so happens that mine is missing the passenger mirror if you still had it perhaps I could get it from you?