Well, the boys helped take it apart, clean it and paint it. I did the final assembly. Materials used (in case you want to do the same for your kids) were: Krylon Fusion plastic paint, colors used were white and "Chili Pepper Red" (this stuff is really neat paint - if you need to paint plastic, it's the way to go!) and some basic gloss black enamel we had lying around.

That's it. The rest was removing stickers with a hair dryer, disassembling, cleaning and regreasing the gearboxes, a little elbow grease here and there and a new set of wheels from http://www.svcvaccum.com. I now officially have $100 into a normally $250 toy, and it's totally custom now. No silly stickers.

The new battery shows up mid next week!