My grandson won the "Best Design" award for his racer today. Last year he won "Best Appearance". He actually drew out the design of his car on paper and the made a cardboard template. With little help from his dad and me (grampa) he cut it out on the bandsaw and final shaped it on the disc sander. He then sanded and filled and painted it. He really did the lion's share of the work which is good for a seven year old. He is actually a very handy kid. Unlike his dad (my son) I don't have to tell him "righty tighty--lefty loosey" he intuitivly does it correctly.
I always loved building pine wood derby cars when I was a cub scout.I do'nt think I ever won a race but mine and my brothers cars were always cool looking.I remember one that my dad and I did to look like a land speed record holder.I cant remember the name of it but it was one of the jet engine types.
Me and my 6 year old have the Derby coming up next Fri. We have 3 cars being built right now. He has his and I have one for raceing and then we are building another one that looks like a roadster to take just to have fun with and show off. We been working hard and doing all the speed tips. just hope all the extra work was'nt wasted. That was the idea behind the roadster. Do a quick and minimal build and see how it does against our other ones that we did all the tricks on.
Levis where did you get the decals? Here's ours from last year. Haven't even started on this years. Gotta get busy.
[ QUOTE ] Levis where did you get the decals? [/ QUOTE ] The SOCAL sticker is one I had from a show. The others are images I borrowed from the web resized and printed them on some label paper. You can make antthing you want that way!
LOL maybe a rodz/kustoms gokart drags! local, regional, then nationals!!! rofl where are my dies for that bender... T.
the speed tips and tricks really work....my son and I built 2 cars...and one for my daughter too...won every race one year...took second the first time! We bought a little kit from the hobby shop that showed us what to do to go fast without actually cheating
brewsir, share with the group. What kind of speed tricks you usin? Anybody else got any secrets? We spent so much time on ours last year that I told him this year we we're just gonna stick the wheels on a plain block of wood and go racin.
Me and my son build matching SoCal bellytankers last year! Mirror paint jobs, one had ruby red metallic body with white nose/scallop, the other was opposite. We added the little supercharger kit with zoomies behind the cockpit, countersunk into the body. His was dead legal, and he placed right in the middle of his pack for speed, and second for appearance. (I'd told him I wasn't sure we could win speed, but we'd definately come home with a show trophy!) Our den had a "Dad's Class" so we wouldn't try to cheat-up our kids cars. Mine had razor thin wheels, and over a pound of plumbers' lead melted into the hollowed out body. Sucker was so heavy it bent an axle! Whooped 'em all. Fastest car of the meet. This year Andrew said he wants to build a front engine dragster. I think we'll have to do matching cars again And then we're gonna have to build one to win the race, too. I saw a guy who took the block of wood and drilled a 1/2-inch hole top-to-bottom, just ahead of the front wheels. Then he removed the wood between the forward edge of the hole, all the way to the end of the body. (So it looked like a keyhole). Then he simply put a small piece of metal (Paper clip) across the keyway. At the starting line on the track, the cars are held in place with a little wooden finger that sticks up, and the forward most part of the car is against that finger. As the finger drops AND CLEARS THE CAR, the car rolls forward. This guy's design had that finger touching the very top front edge of the block of wood. As soon as the finger started to lay down, it cleared that edge and the car began rolling. The open keyhole in the body cleared the finger as it was still falling. He won by virtue of a hole shot every time. It's ugly, but gets the job done! -Brad
We are having an open-house at work (performance and accessory warehouse) and we are sending kits out to all customers who are coming as well as all of the manufacturers that we deal with. This could be fun... I'm expecting that the factories will have a lot of fun with this.
Brad54, that sounds like a nice lookin duo. Got any pics? I was thinkin of doin a belly tank design this year. We didn't win anything last year either, (didn't have a best appearance) but everybody liked the looks.
I've got some pics, but don't know how to post 'em here (that whole host server thing baffles me). PM me your email addy, and I'll send you a shot of them, and maybe you can post them here? We had a blast building them. Probably the only kid in the den that got to use a band saw, drill press, belt/disc sander and Dremel tool! My son got to use them too! I'd show him how to do something on mine, then he'd go to town on his. What a blast! -Brad
It's great getting the kids into that. I still have mine from when i was a kid that i made look like a dirt track sprint car with a roll cage also. It didn't win but it looks cool on the shelf.
Ben sure looks mighty proud in that pic GB. Bet the guy behind the camera has a pretty big smile on too. Guess the grandapple does fall far from the tree
OK.... Start by turning the axles (nails) in a drill and using a very fine file to remove the "part lines" from when the nail was made. Then polish the axles until they shine like mirrors...I used fine emory cloth and then worked to chrome polish....it takes time but is probably the best speed trick we used...and its legal! We also chucked up the wheels and sanded them smooth and then polished them to be shiny plastic again....low friction means less resistance...rolls easier and faster. Shape really didn't seem to affect the speed much at all...one kid had a big firetruck looking thing that was faster than most of the cars. Make sure the car rolls in a perfectly straight line...you do not want it bouncing off the side rails and scrubbing speed. Do not let anybody roll it around on the floor before the race either...that was the hard part...a bunch of the kids were pushing them around and of course they all wanted to do it...but that screws up the wheels and possibly the "alignment" Let him play after the race ! Sand the body smoooth and put a nice paint job on it...hell you can even wax it...don't know if it goes any faster but it will look good! Be sure to recess the weights into the body...we drug slightly the first year because I wanted the car as close to the track as possible...had to make a slight adjustment! Also be sure to have max allowable weight...we adjusted ours at the race using the "official" scales. The cool thing about all this stuff is that my son was able to do most of it himself....or with just a little help from me....so it really is a cool father/son project! Oh yea...lots of graphite ...if they let you,lube up before every race.
Great to hear 48bill and congrats to your grandson! Our local pack/region focuses on the "creativty" factor... my son's car lost out to Noah's ark on a block.
The Jalopy Journal
