Aoshima Kei Food Truck Converted To Overland Explorer

[oldcarfan]

I bought two of the Aoshima food trucks from Lionheart Hobby and decided to do something different with them. This is the first completed one. I decided to turn it into a pint-sized overland truck and this is the result. Walmart has some interesting toys that proved to be a good source for parts. The Maisto mini trucks are 1/43rd-ish scale and are a good source for small vehicle parts. I bought a couple of them for $3.79 each and broke them down for parts.

As for the actual Kei truck, it has steerable front wheels and I reversed the steering knuckles to raise the front and put a beam axle on the rear to raise it. The wheels are from the little Maisto trucks and scale out to about 12-13 inches in 1/24th scale. In my head, I figure you could use UTV wheels and tires to make it work. The roof light bar and the spare tire are from another Maisto mini truck and the winch, headlights, and taillights are from a Jada Toys 1/34th scale Jeep, another good source for smaller sized parts and tires.

The Kei trucks are really tiny in real life, a lot of ranchers in my area are using them for utility vehicles. My pictures aren't great, but I used a 1/24th Welly Porsche Cayenne as a size reference.

[stavanzer]

Very Nice Build! Clever Conversion and use of parts!

 

Good Show!

[ChrisR]

COOL!!

[hct728(Bob)]

A Japanese Jeep! All ready for the Dakar Rally!

[PappyD340]

Nice!

[ncbuckeye67]

That's some great work!