I ran across a post where someone was selling TWO cars. One was this Jeep Hurricane and the other was a Dune Racer. I was able to snag the Hurricane, equipped with a battery and charger, SCORE. The seller assured me the vehicle worked, just needs some cosmetic love.
Picked it up, and headed home
My husband was pleasantly surprised... I think? I rarely tell him when I am getting a new car, I just show up with it.
I am NOT a hoarder of these, we have them stored nicely in the garage in a custom made little carport (you can kind of see it in the background of the bottom left photo). I promised myself and my husband I would only take on one project at a time.
Clean-up time
This Jeep is by far the dirtiest/most worn out I have gotten so far. Dawn/Soft Scrub + muscle power helped to take some of the grime off of it.
Here is what it looked like in its prime:
The Evaluation
After I get the vehicles home, I look them over to see what part(s) I'll need to order for it. This car was in pretty good structural condition, except for the radio (see below), and there are a few smaller holes in two of the tires. KidsWhips had what I needed for a fair price.
A little fun before the work begins
Me and the kids popped out to my parents the weekend after getting the Jeep, and my daughter wanted to use it over there, so my husband loaded it up for a short road trip before I took it apart.
Disassembling it was fairly painless, and I was happy I did because look at how dirty it was UNDER everything. This is AFTER I had already cleaned it the other day. WOW!
Let's hope I can reassemble as easy as I took it apart. The manual should be able to help me if I run into issues. On to the prime phase!
I went through 6 cans of primer!
The Plan
After I had everything primed, I began researching the paint job I wanted to do. I knew it would be pink/purple (my daughter’s request). Should I try a vinyl wrap? How can I make it unique, but not cheesy. To Google!
I found some jeeps that were purple and saw how they retained the rugged look. I knew I wanted the transition from purple to pink to be fun... so I chose a halftone design. Used the Cricut of course!
Keeping the other items in the Jeep black/silver was the best bet to help keep the rugged Jeep feel.
The last item I had to paint was the seat, so I did a soft assembly to help confirm the color choice.
My daughter‘s favorite color is purple. Other things to consider is, how it will look when you are viewing the vehicle at different angles - It all needs to flow.
The back of the seat was painted pink, because when you are looking at the Jeep from the back, you see pink on the trunk.
Choosing a seat color
The front should be black, but a simple bit of purple wouldn’t hurt anything.
This was by far the most work as far as disassembly and reassembly. The manual helped me with both. BUT the original listing said it came with a battery/charger AND worked. So....👌.
Items I replaced:
Working radio (totally worth it)
Lessons learned:
Take photos of how the shifter reassembles before taking it apart.
The final product
