So I decided that my first line of business would be to add in the brake pedal, and fit the Hall effect pedal. I knew going into this that this would really be the only "cut and modify" part of the project. It was also the part I was dreading, since I was having a hard time finding a good way to do it, or an example of someone who had.
I searched and searched around the forum for examples, but everyone was either using a different pedal, or they had a different BPRO so that it didn't fit a Gaucho application, or they really just breezed over it :lol:.
I had three options available to me. I have a PW pedal/switch off of a Silverado, a Gator pedal/switch (which the pedal assembly fits in the Gaucho tub BTW), and the gas pedal that came with my Grande. None of them were a "great" fit.
I found this post on the old forums by cfanto (thanks BTW if you're still here)
http://modifiedpowerwheels.com/forum/to ... IC_ID=8014 I liked his idea, and I decided to go with that idea of cutting into the floor for the brake pedal to the left of the recess for the existing pedal.
New issue: is that on the left of that recess that the gas pedal goes in, there were holes cut out. I'm assuming it was for a brake pedal in the earlier versions of the Grande, since mine is one of the earlier ones. This hindered the ability for me to just transfer over to the floor like cfante did. Also, my yellow pedal plate extended into the area that he was installing his, so I had further adjustments to make to accomodate for that too...
Here's what I ended up doing:
First, I copied over the outline of the cutout from the Silverado assembly to the edge of the Gaucho plate. I had to make sure that the cutout would be outside of the square formed by the recession.
I cut little by little until the switch fit snug, and the screw had freedom to move when the pedal was pressed.
Then, I transferred that cutout to the floor pan. I had to cut the hole for the pedal a little bigger, so the tab under the yellow plate didn't catch on the floor. (You can see that I was cutting into an existing hole for it. I couldn't line the holes up though or it wouldn't have fit right. It would have been too easy anyway though :roll: )
Next, I had to fit the Hall pedal. This pedal is way too stiff for a 2 or 3 year old, so I had to figure out a way to soften it. I was reading old forum posts, and some suggested getting a "lighter" spring for it. I decided to use the idea from another user who bent the pedal itself, then the new angle provides better leverage for little feet. To do this, I just stuck it to the workbench with a couple c clamps, then bent it by hand to the point where full depression was just slightly off the floor.
To fit the Pedal into the assembly, first I sanded down the pedal plate to remove the molding for the original pedal that you can see above. Then on the floor pan (shown below), I had to cut a slot on the front of the recession for the pedal's plate to slide into, and then a recession on the back side to fit the bottom of it, as well as slide the other edge of the plate into the floor. This fits really snugly without screws, but I'm going to throw on in to hold it still.
Last thing I had to do was to cut the hole in the pedal plate a little bigger so that the gas pedal slipped through, and wouldn't bind on the plate.
All done 8-) If you are trying to do this yourself, my advice is cut the holes too small the first time, then take a little off at a time until it really fits. The last thing I wanted to do with this was to cut too much and have to add brackets/etc to support everything.
Tonight, if I have time, I'll probably start removing decals from the yellow body, so that I can start mocking up the controller elements in the hood area to get that all sorted out before I start wiring.
