Pinewood Derby time

[Sam Colalillo]

I remember how much fun the pine wood derby was when I was young, even though I did not get to build my own car. Yes, my father was one of those Dad's that built the whole thing, but he took it to extreme by building the car in the R&D lab of Bendix wheels and brakes. The machinist that built prototype parts made bushing for the wheels, machined the axles, ETC.

My car took first place every year until the last year I raced. That was because my brother joined cub scouts that year and he won first place, I got second. As I read the rules this year, I noticed every thing my Dad did is outlawed.

I’ll admit, I spent time on my son’s car, but we did it together. He spent hours sanding primer, he mixed the paint. I even let him spay the first coat of base color. I laid the clear coat though.

Thanks Wrench Monkey for some of the tips. I did not want to ask my Dad for help, in fear that he would take over the project. As my son raced the car this weekend I never hounded him to be careful with it as my father did me.

We did continue the family tradition which made my Father very pleased. The car is confiscated as it will continue onto the district race. This race happens to be the same weekend as Bowling Green. My father has already volunteered to take my son if I can not make it to that race.

We belong to a small pack. I remember the pack was much larger when I was in cub scouts, but we had fun. Here are some photos of the big race.

 

[Race Jace]

We had a blast making the car. My son and i worked on it together. We first drew up the basic design on my solid modeler prograr (autocad inventer) I ran the cad and he told me where to cut and what to cut. he was very picky. We then put it on the manual mill and machined the shape, he turned one handle in while i turned the handle that did the cutting. We drilled new holes in the opposite side as the factory slots and milled the slot side off. Our group had very strict rules and you could not alter the wheel base and the wheels had to be smooth. no ribs or grooves.

We hollowed our the inside of the wheels to make them lighter and did all the tricks to the wheels and axles the books said to do without making them illegal. My son painted the car and then i painted the bottom where the center of the wheels rub with dry film moly lube. it worked our great.

We hollowed out the bottom of the car and drilled and tapped two holes at the back of the car and installed several different length 1/2" set screws in the back of it. we could adjust the weight with different length set screws and also could adjust weight placement easily depending on how the track was. It turned out great.

we did a lot of testing and made sure the car went straight and the wheels did not wobble or rub inside or on the axle. We did not make our car sit on 3 wheels, probably would have been better but it did not come out that way.

We took first and even beat the scout masters cheater car that had all of the cheater stuff that we were not allowed to do.

my son was beaming. great fun.

 

[Wrenchmonkey]

Here are some photos of the big race.

Your photography skills never fail to entertain me

 

[QKRNYRS]

Your photography skills never fail to entertain me

That's Funny........ Sorry, Sam.

 

[UNGN]

Man, I can't believe it's already been a year.

This year, its the Mach 5 from speed racer, at least our interpretation of it.

This year, I started a week earlier instead of the day before so I can make it smooth and the paint be dry before the race.

Here are the pictures of the rough body, with the fenders glued on. The weight as shown is 3 OZ with the front end practically hollow, so I can load up the back of the car with lead and the balance point is right in front of the rear wheels.

 

[jsta6]

Man, I can't believe it's already been a year.

This year, its the Mach 5 from speed racer, at least our interpretation of it.

This year, I started a week earlier instead of the day before so I can make it smooth and the paint be dry before the race.

Here are the pictures of the rough body, with the fenders glued on. The weight as shown is 3 OZ with the front end practically hollow, so I can load up the back of the car with lead and the balance point is right in front of the rear wheels.

man, you are out of control...

 

[jsta6]

pic of cubmobile with body kit I threw together the night before the race (supposed to look like a '32 Ford coupe)

[/URL] [/IMG]

 

[mjdwyer23]

nice!

 

[regal-nut]

man, you are out of control...

ya i agree! my freand matt is the same way as you can see from last year with a clean sweep with 4 trophies. this year he is building i funney car that the top will flip up.

 

[413turbo]

bring back memories for me. the car i first built wasn't good, but then dad helped; or i should say he let me help i still remember, he had me run the wheels on a belt sander, so they were rounded and didn't have a wide contact area. then we put bullets (3 i think) in front of the rear axle. took it to the post office to weigh it, and drilled some out of the bullets until it was on the gram. red w/ pinstripes - wasn't much to look at really, but won 1st place. i suppose all of those mod's are outlawed now???

 

[UNGN]

man, you are out of control...

My Wife never should have got me that new Dremel tool a few years ago. I can turn these things out in only a couple of hours.

If I still had I my old one, I'd get all involved in the science of actually winning races. But we just go for the "most realistic" trophy each year and don't have to get into the politics of trying to win.

If we win a few races, its a bonus.

Hogging the wood is the easiest part of Pinewood derby for me. The rest of the prep is what I don't like and would be the same if I had block of wood or we made something that looks cool.

 

[regal-nut]

I tried to get matt to send picks but he said that he will not revell any thing till the race is over sorry guys i tried.

 

[Rivical]

Geez Pauly, I aint shy, OR SKEERD!!! I gotta share that Mach5 with some guys on another forum WOW!!! Yeah, we do well, my son's better at the speed aspect than the shaping. Sometimes I've cleaned up his body work at night and reprime em. But he's gettin the swing of bondo-ing the oops'es now too.

Alright, since you guys've seen the completed cars from last year I'll show some progress pics n stuff and my roughed in body for this year. Yeah, there's alotta clear on the finnished cars and they get multiple time baked in mama's oven@ a starting temp around 180deg. As Paul said, this year it's gonna be a true Hemi powered flopper, pinned shut as per the rules of course. 71 Charger based "Killer Bee". That was the last year for the Super Bee and this is the last year for us.

 

[Rivical]

Yes, there's alotta trophy's here! I'm personally proudest that he's gotten best paint 3yrs running, me once, his sis once in her div. too! Wish the pics did justice to my boy's paintjobs. Everything is spraybombed, no fancy stuff. Dry and waxed, handled wrapped in old socks til race time to keep from blackin em up. Always flipped over end-to-end if needed too. Side-to-side makes a mess. The green exotic out front is black base, then white with wadded up ClingWrap stuck all over it, then candy green ClingWrap'd, a second shot of the green, and topped w Boyd's Alumacoupe Pearl Yellow. After baking, the decals went on(stupid thick hobbyshop decals, worth buying a kit just 2get good ones!) Then about ten coats of clear sanded and polished. The Corvette is ChinaMart glitter ladelled onto a black body over wet clear and smoothed down with Frosty spoons(no kidding!) Then taped and candied, and cleared twice every day for a week and it still sucked into the glitter a few months after the race! Kinda looks like it has acne now!lol The stars were masked w/ the same ones you see on the paper's they bring home from school! We messed up the sandrail lookin one. I misted some laquer craft store green glitter over his day old, just decalled green pearl and it crazed everywhere but under the decals. I freaked, he freaked, then I saw opportunity for us to win best paint! For ten days he'd sand it and clear it before school, I'd bake, then I'd sand and clear some more at night after work and bake. 60-some coats later it was smooth again and looks like green crackle-glass! It's truly amazing to see up close but doesn't photo well.

 

[Silver Fox]

Man, I can't believe it's already been a year.

This year, its the Mach 5 from speed racer, at least our interpretation of it.

This year, I started a week earlier instead of the day before so I can make it smooth and the paint be dry before the race.

Here are the pictures of the rough body, with the fenders glued on. The weight as shown is 3 OZ with the front end practically hollow, so I can load up the back of the car with lead and the balance point is right in front of the rear wheels.

Please post some pictures of this when you are finished. My son and I would like to see it.

Rob

 

[turbojimmy]

Geez Pauly, I aint shy, OR SKEERD!!! I gotta share that Mach5 with some guys on another forum WOW!!! Yeah, we do well, my son's better at the speed aspect than the shaping. Sometimes I've cleaned up his body work at night and reprime em. But he's gettin the swing of bondo-ing the oops'es now too.

Alright, since you guys've seen the completed cars from last year I'll show some progress pics n stuff and my roughed in body for this year. Yeah, there's alotta clear on the finnished cars and they get multiple time baked in mama's oven@ a starting temp around 180deg. As Paul said, this year it's gonna be a true Hemi powered flopper, pinned shut as per the rules of course. 71 Charger based "Killer Bee". That was the last year for the Super Bee and this is the last year for us.

Very nice work. What do you mean by 'pinned shut per the rules'? I like what you guys are doing with the fenders. I assume you're using blocks attached to the main part to shape them and then take them off for the hollowing work? I could never do what you've pictured, but I'd be happy to come up with a crude, fendered car. They look more like 'real' cars.

Jim

 

[UNGN]

Very nice work. What do you mean by 'pinned shut per the rules'? I like what you guys are doing with the fenders. I assume you're using blocks attached to the main part to shape them and then take them off for the hollowing work? I could never do what you've pictured, but I'd be happy to come up with a crude, fendered car. They look more like 'real' cars.

Jim

The fenders are actually pretty easy if you have a dremel tool and sabre saw or scroll saw.

just trace the outline of the car on 1/4" strip stock (if you want to have large openings - like my black GN) or on a 1" X 4" if you want to have really close fitting wheel openings (like my Mach 5).

Cut out 2 (one for each side) and then hollow them out for wheel clearance and weigh reduction.

Have your son drill out the body block from the sides, because it can look like hammer dog crap, but will be covered by side pieces. You need to hollow out the block, because the car will be over weight if you don't.

I use a 1/2" sanding drum on the dremel to rough shape the side pieces.

Be sure to make clearance in the body for the top of the tire, because when you put in negative camber the top of the tire rubbing on the body will slow you down. I made this mistake on our first full body car and didn't realize it could rub there until after the race. I just make sure there is lots of clearance, now.

 

[UNGN]

Ok here are the tricks wheel cavity # 14,1,12,13 do not use!!!
cavity # 11,15,17 are fair cavity# 4,8 are the best

I was going to going to use a #12 and a #13 then I remembered this post.

I compared a #12 to a #4 and though it spins as long on a nail with a thumb flick, the #12 and #13 were noisier and you could feel more vibration in the nail than with the #4 wheel.

Thanks for the tip! I have a #4 and #8 for the back and two 15's in front (only one will be functional)

 

[Silver Fox]

I was going to going to use a #12 and a #13 then I remembered this post.

I compared a #12 to a #4 and though it spins as long on a nail with a thumb flick, the #12 and #13 were noisier and you could feel more vibration in the nail than with the #4 wheel.

Thanks for the tip! I have a #4 and #8 for the back and two 15's in front (only one will be functional)

Okay guys - help me out, as I cannot figure out what you are talking about and am in the process of helping my son out on his car.

 

[regal-nut]

Okay guys - help me out, as I cannot figure out what you are talking about and am in the process of helping my son out on his car.

the numbers are cavity numbers that the mold has. look on the inside of the wheel. RIVICAL can help you out better then me. I will back out now and let you all have some fun,but i will watch