Pumpkin Project.

[Static Age]

Having owned a Lunchbox since the 80's and having had a few Hornets I have always fancied the old Pajero.

Rather than go to the expense of buying a good one or restoring one & having the fear of running it I thought I would build something similar.

I have a stack of Lunchbox spares so I bought a tatty looking Midnight Pumpkin on ebay very cheaply. Turned out to be a bit of a bargain as it only looked tatty but had no broken parts what so ever & came with a set of Futaba radio gear.

I pulled all of the parts off of the pumpkin that give it the monster truck lift, fitted some short oil dampers & spare set of brat wheels & tyres.

I offered up the body & it looked good. I then put it away in the cupboard to work on another day.

over a year later I drag it out to have a go at finishing it.

The body looks bad but its just dirt & remains of sticker glue. The fact that It has been brush painted doesn't help.

I had to lengthen the wheel base slightly. Pulled the gearbox pivot mount out of the chassis by 15mm & added extra strength via a alloy plate.

Cut away the insides of the chassis & made holes on the outsides to accommodate a stick pack.

Stripped the gearbox to fit bearings, I found that the gears were in superb condition. I'm guessing that it was only run a few times & in mud hence the vehicles appearance.

I fitted a vintage yokomo motor which is similar in performance to a sport tuned. I kept the pumpkin pinion to guarantee wheelies & hopefully a good run time.

Next step is to clean & paint the body & fit some radio gear. I want it to look like a well used old truck so will probably go for a flat paint finish & keep the cracked windscreen.

I'll post more progress pics as I go.

[mongoose1983]

Looks awesome! Great idea.

BTW, nice turntable

[billg4]

I did the same mods a couple years back, but ended up fitting a lexan pumpkin copy shell to save even more weight.

Fun trucks to mod up and configure, you are doing a bang up job

[Static Age]

Cheers guys. I guessed someone else must have done a pumpkin or lunchbox like this before.

I think I'm going to go for a mat grey primer paint job, though I'm not 100% sure. At least if I don't like it it's ready to receive a colour coat.

Should be able to paint it some time this week & post pics.

[mongoose1983]

It's a matter of tastes of course, but I always liked the grey primer color. All the cars painted that way look awesome when the wheels are white, like in your truck so I presume it will work perfectly.

[Singleseven]

Very nice, a great little project you have there; so does this make it a bit like the original Pajero; I imagine it will still pull wheelies?

[Static Age]

The difference between this & the original Pajero is the slight addition to the wheelbase & the battery location. I'm using the pumpkin/lunchbox motor adaptor & pinion so I'm expecting wheelies.

The oil filled shocks are an attempt to improve what I predict to be terrible handling but it should be a fun stunt truck rather than a racer.

[kontemax]

With the Pumpkin/Lunchbox motor adapter & pinion gear certainly your car will do wheelies but certainly will have a crawler speed.

Due the smaller wheels the Punpkin pinion gear will give too hi-ratio to your car.

Original Pajero does wheelies with normal Hornet 18T pinion gear and silver can 540 Mabuchi motor. On the Pajero the battery is in a different position, is higher and in the rear end of the chassis but I suppose that with a modified motor your car would do wheelies even with the battery in the middle of the chassis. The Pajero does "too much" wheelies so I suppose that new battery position will balance the car better between wheelies and stability. So I suggest to keep the original 18T pinion gear.

Max

[TA-Mark]

The wheelies are good with this size wheels. With the Lunchbox size wheels, the wheelie-bar is too short and it very often tips over too far. I have this same setup gearbox with Lunchbox motor mount and long brass pinion on the back of my Grasshopper. It wheelies just fine, although I do have just a touch more power.

Top speed is around 55km/h... If you're game.

[kontemax]

Yes but you have a powerfull brushless motor...

Max

[Static Age]

That hopper looks great fun. I cant imagine that the pumpkin chassis will be too stable at that kind of speed.

[TA-Mark]

That hopper looks great fun. I cant imagine that the pumpkin chassis will be to stable at that kind of speed.

It's mostly the bouncy balloon tyres and pogo-stick suspension that makes the Pumpkin unstable. Stop the tyres from ballooning and bouncing with some inserts and wide gaffa tape stuck to the inside of tyre, and use oil dampers and it's quite stable too. But it will still wheelie over the short wheelie-bar and stand up on the tailgate.

This is a great looking project, but it will maybe need a bit more power to make it work as planned.

[Static Age]

It's mostly the bouncy balloon tyres and pogo-stick suspension that makes the Pumpkin unstable. Stop the tyres from ballooning and bouncing with some inserts and wide gaffa tape stuck to the inside of tyre, and use oil dampers and it's quite stable too. But it will still wheelie over the short wheelie-bar and stand up on the tailgate.

This is a great looking project, but it will maybe need a bit more power to make it work as planned.

I've done all of those mods on my lunchbox & it really helps, like you say it still wants to flip over the wheelie bar. If the old yokomo motor isn't enough then I have few others that can make it more lively.

[Static Age]

Radio gear in & a quick test in the house confirmed that it does wheelie.

[Static Age]

I got around to painting it last night.

I think all it will require now is the third shock mod.

[billg4]

looks very nice, great job fixing it up. Almost looks like it was a Tamiya idea.

[Static Age]

Thanks. Been running it today. Not quite enough power to wheelie on the tarmac. I tried the Pajero/Hornet gear ration with the 18 tooth pinion but all I gained was more top speed.

Just carried out the third shock mod, lots of the rear axle bounce has gone & I now get more grip. Time to go back to the lunchbox/punmpkin pinion & a hotter motor.

Its a nice evening so I'll have a go now.

[TA-Mark]

Fit a 25C or greater Li-Po hard case pack. Less weight where the battery is and more punch will mean wheelies with the current setup.

As a comparison of difference on a completely stock setup (TEU101-BK and silvercan). With a Ni-Cd/Ni-MH the CC-01 Pajero will barely squat down into the rear suspension on hard take-off. With a Li-Po fitted and no other mods it will just lift the front wheels off the ground and squat completely down in the rear suspension.

[IBIFTKH]

Looks great on the Sandblasters, nice paint too.

[Static Age]

Put a hotter motor in & it wheelies fine, as long as it can get grip. The wheelie bar could do with a slight adjustment to get longer wheelies. Other than that its really good now,

Thanks for all the positive comments.

[Tamiya1/10]

Always liked the Bumpkin hard body is so serious, but thecartoonish wheely chassis takes the realism away.

Like the primer look finish you have doen so far.