[B]Who's Gettin Ready 4 Pinewood Derby's?[/B]

Man I wish I would have saved all of mine, or at least taken pictures. This thread has brought back some good memories. I do remember always getting disqualified for having too many modifications. I think I had one that was like a streamliner.

 

This is a great thread......... I too was into the pine wood derby thing,
I was the only one at our church with a bandsaw.... I would cut out upto 200 cars and when an intercity church was invited it would go upto 250.
It was funny for the young kids 2nd graders were all stock models,
when ya get to the 6th graders it was all 3D cut outs, some were crazy.
the door stops or the wedge were by far most popular, and easyesr to cut.

mine were all cars..... here some... even mom's car..
Roach

 

the boys have started on cars

 

now i will try the pics again

 

My Son's Pinewood Derby Cars

 

Here's my kids cars, with my candy apple red one in front (for the dad's unlimited class). My kids do all their own sanding/painting (spray bombs) They don't look like much, but they have been 1st and 2nd the last 3 years at our church. I haven't lost a round in 4 years in the unlimited class

This Saturday, I'm opening my shop to anyone from our church to come and work on their cars with my tools.

I left them with the note on the bottom of the invitation: "Be Here or Be Slow!" We'll see how many take the challenge.

My keys to speed:
Max out the weight. Always go in "heavy", our church allows you to take weight off to pass tech, but if you go in "light" you can't add more weight (silly rule, but everyone plays the same)

Friction looses the race

3 wheels down, 1 front up

Balance point 1"-1 1/2" in front of rear axle

Sand/polish the daylights out of the axles.

Cone/taper the backside of the nail head.

Cone/taper the inside of the wheel hub where it touches the body

The front wheel axle that touches has an ever so slight bend to it where it enters the body. I mark the nail head at 6:00 and test roll the car. I then adjust the "steering" of the car by rotating the nail. Every time your car hits the center rail, it's like hitting the brakes. It takes 15-20 test runs to get it exact. I have a little 10'-12' test track I made from plexiglass with a strait line drawn down the middle. Only about 12" high at the start, with a 6'-8' run out at the bottom.

I use only 1 or 2 drops of Ny-Oil. It's a synthetic lube. Expensive at $14-$15 for 2 or 3 ounces, but it doesn't evaporate like WD-40. Graphite works well, if that's all you are allowed by the rules, but no comparison to Ny-Oil on the track.

We are NOT allowed bearings or washers of any kind.

I use a wheel mandrel to true the wheels.

I match mold numbers on the wheels.

Each modification probably only gains a thousandth or so in time, but when you do enough of them, you can win by a car length instead fractions of an inch, considering most races are in the 3 second range for a 32' track.

 

I used old die cast car bodies on two of my sons cars. We won parents choice award the last 3 years. you can see the cars on our web site on the scale slackers pagewww.slackerscc.com

 

paul i will tow it over there for ya with my truck

 

This one did the trick for my boy a few years back >>>>.

 

Go buy some Slip Plate. It is available at some hardware stores, Grainger, Northern Tool, etc. If you are limited to graphite (I never use liquid lube), this is the best possible product. You spray it on, let it dry, and spray on 2 more coats. Then put the axle in a drill and buff it with 000000-steel wool or a cotton cloth. It will get really shiny. Do this AFTER you have polished and trimmed the axle and casting flash. Then powder the wheels, install the axles. Once the car is fully assembled, pump some more graphite in there. the wheels will spin for days. Slip Plate is spray-on graphite, it is used for industrial machines and such and is perfectly legal because it is still graphite, just dissolved in a solvent and a liquid binder. once it cures, it is on there and slicker than snot.

Its also a great way to clean up your old exhaust manifolds. It doesn't burn off like paint and it looks just like fresh cast iron.

 

we raced last night there were a lot of fast scouts my boys were in the thick of it but did not win for speed they did get 1st and 2nd best of show robin super hero car was first and the bandit was second.my cab over i built at the last minute won the open and my daughter got third in the open. we are going to re polish the nails and do the big district race on the 21st of feb.

 

The race is next week.
The A.D. is my nephew's and the Jag/Cunningham is mine for the Siblings and Family class.

 

Nice work Stevie... William's race is next weekend to and ours are still looking a little "squarish"- guess we need to get off the pot, huh?

 

Ive done so many oh so many....I have five boys, 4 down and the downsydrome boy to go. I love it. I dont have any pictues but I can share a neat trick with you all that not only helps with weighting the car but looks cool too. If you want to run headers or exposed pipes,, if you take rosin core solder and "weld" them together, the rosin drops out and leaves a hollow tube that just fits the bill scale wise. The last one we did with pipes looked alot like the formula car at the top of the thread and we drilled in from the top behind the driver and infront of the rear spoiler and installed velocity stacks. Way cool. Never buy weights when you can make them from solder, and even cast something with wheel weights or solder.

 

Its all about reducing the friction and balance

 

Here's a neat visual trick.....Take a picture of your kid, front and or side photographs, and glue them in the window spaces so it looks like he's driving.....

 

I have 2 boys that are 2 years apart. We built quite a few cars but I don't have pictures.

I would make a car at the same time to help teach but they did all of the work on their own cars. My boys now 24 and 26 years old still have the cars. They never won top eliminator but did get a runner-up and a couple 3rd places.

I cherish those moments and know the memories be with my kids forever.

 

Here's my two boy's fleet from several years racing. The first one was the yellow indy car and the last one was the soap box derby car. Funny, the soap box car was the only one that won the racing competion, although we won appearance awards every year. The green streamliner was painted with nitrocellulose candy green left over from a flame job on one of my hot rods. We built the soapbox car after catching shit every year for overbuilding. I was the cubmaster for four years, and the only hotrodder of the dads. Good times.
Tony

 

Yup, every year we here grumbling about "Uncle Steve built his car". What's funny is, this is from Dads that built their kids car. We even made a photo album last year of Christian building the car. The comments started at the set up last night and Christian quickly set them straight that he spent a lot of time with a coping saw, a File (Rasp) and sandpaper making his truck. That is why I built the sports car, so they could see the difference in finish from one to the other..so of course, Christian is spending extra time on his to make it look even better. I raise the bar and the little guy jumps higher. I love it. He spent time today with his Poppy learning how to run the drill press so he could take some weight off. Paint is next. This should be fun.

 

Looks like different kits and wheels than what we had in the 60s when I was a cubmaster !!!!!

 

Someone mentioned using "Slip Plate"- haven't been able to find it here- anyone know where I can get some??

 

Well, these little cars, go karts, mini-bikes, then Camaros and off road cars led to a mechanical engineering degree and a great job at 21 years old. An engineer who can machine, weld, and fab is an in-demand commodity. The fire was first lit with these silly pine wood derby cars.
Post up pictures of your and your nephews cars when they're done, and good luck on race day.

Tony

 

I was already told that many of the dads either have the cars cut on CNC machines or buy the bodies/wheels from a pro...

THIS IS NOT what I would call following the scout oath.

My son and I are going to build the same car, so that:

1) He can learn by seeing what I'm doing and copy it with his own hands and

2) People will know that HE made it.

 

This is from a few years back. But I thought I would show my son's shark nose ferrari. He used the band saw, and sand paper for the shape. He painted it. I made the roll bar and touched up the paint.

For speed we polish the axles (chuck up the axle in you drill press or drill and sand with 1500 grit paper) and enlarge the holes in the wheels. Hobby lube the axles. We have tried almost everything for speed, even lifting one wheels higher than the others for less friction. The only real speed tip I have is les friction and a perfect 5 ounce weight, or what even the max weight is for you race.

Never really settled on the perfect formula, but in 4 years of pinewood, he either came in second or first in his class.

 

What is hiding in the background?
Is that a Richie Evans Modified?
You built at least one Super...right?

 

My son was in Cub Scouts years ago and had his first Pinewood Derby. I did some research and we used the following ideas for his first car.
1- weight approximate 1" in front of rear axle for balance
2- cupped the plastic wheels in a lathe for less surface area on the track and less rolling resitance
3- put graphite on the axles before every run
4- the rules said that you had to run the metal nails that came with the kit for the axles and could not replace them with plastic. I found that electroless nickle was a harder and slicker surface than the zinc that was on the nails. I stripped them with acid and plated them with the nickle. It helped that I worked in a plating shop at the time and had access to the acid and nickle.
His first year and he beat the entire den. And except for the lathed wheels and nickled axles, he did all of the work himself. But yes, those were a couple of very big "excepts".

 

Steve,

We tried to do a Nolan Swift tribute one year, but it was destroyed. But like all kids from Central New York, we like our engines mounted a little off to the left.

Joe's first year derby car was a little like the Bobby Stelter's "Flying Woodshed". Man I loved that car.

Bill