Pinewood Derby Car
One of the greatest things about being in Cub Scouts is the Pinewood Derby. The guys all get the same car kit from the Pack and have to build their own car with the parts in the kit. They get together about a month later to race them. There’s a fairly detailed set of rules that have to be followed.
Needless to say THE BOY and I have busted our butts on this project. The race is this Saturday morning and our car is already completed. And yes, I keep calling it OUR CAR on purpose. He’s only six so THE WOMAN won’t let me turn him loose with the jigsaw or the power sander. That means I’ve done a good bit of the major work. Most of the dad’s do some level of the work for “safety reasons.” In fact, a couple of the dad’s (or adult partners as Cub Scouts are now forced to call them - thank you ACLU) have pushed to have a bracket at the race for cars built completely by the dad. For now that’s only a dream as the local council feels that too many of us would be ultra-competitive and take all the fun out of.
Pictures of the ‘evolution’ of our car are after the jump. Enjoy.
This is the original sketch for the car. We went with it because THE BOY wanted a car with a pointed nose and “thing up on the tail.”
The raw car came out a bit different than the sketch. Notice that the lines are more rounded on the front of the car and the tail is not quite as crisp as the art work. That’s because I’ve only got a handful of wood working tools and couldn’t pull off the concept.
Here’s a similar angle once the paint went on. The flames on the side are rub on decals. The Flash emblem on top was a bit harder to do.
Another look at the Flash logo. I pulled it off of the ‘Net and printed it out. After taping it to the car I used an Exacto knife to cut the lighting bolt out. THE BOY painted in the gap, then we did the same with the white circle. It’s rough but he’s happy with the end result.
Finally.
These are shots of the final product. Notice that we mounted the weights on the bottom of the car. Most people suggest hollowing out the car and mounting them flush. My goal was to push the weights as far back as possible and to do that I needed to weigths to cross over the rear axles so I couldn’t go that route.
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Good luck! One of the profound regrets of my childhood is never winning the Pinewood Derby. In fact, I don’t think I ever made it past the first round.
I don’t care how many sons I have to sire and force into Cub Scouts so I can live through them vicariously. I WILL win some day.
Comment by Scotus | 15 January, 2007
I was one of the worst Pinewood Derby racers ever. It’s amazing they even let me keep trying.
Maybe I should have gotten someone else to help THE BOY with his car.
Comment by TC the Terrible | 16 January, 2007
I read your *update* so I had to look back to your *original* post. Very cute, even if the paint will create some drag and the design has obvious flaws to it.
I hope THE BOY likes it and DAD can live with not winning.
Comment by b | 17 January, 2007