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Do you remember pinewood derby cars

L

ljzimmer

Oct 24, 2007
209
2
#1
Hang with me for a minute, this will all make sense in a second...

Do you remember those pinewood derby cars that you made in cub scouts? The first one that I made, I told my dad that I wanted it to look cool. He told me to draw the shape out on a car and he would cut it out. He cut it out and then broke out the rasp and began shaping. Then he gave me the sand paper and told me to make it smooth.

I've been working on a piece of maple that I cut out in the shape of the bass I've been planning and last night I broke out the rasp to give it a little more shape. I immediately remembered working on that car for hours. This all comes together because my dad at that time was a instrument repair guy and worked in the same shop with one of Nebraska's best luthiers. After I had worn my arm out with the sanding, Dad helped me to paint my car, and then took it in to work and had it lacquered. It was the coolest looking car out of them all...and the slowest!

Anyway All of that to say thanks to you all for being an inspiration for my project that will hopefully start after Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Loren
 
#2
hahaha, wow, what a coincidence. right now in my highschool woodshop class we are building them to test aero dynamics and stuff over different car shapes. anyway, good luck on the build, and be sure to post pics, we are hungry for build threads!
and im gonna be starting my next build after christmas as well, so watch out for it.
Merry Christmas to you too
 
#7
There were always kids in my cub pack with sleek Ferrari-esque pinewood cars, weighted and lubricated with graphite. I was always in awe of such cars because despite my best attempts with my official boy scout pocket knife and some model paint mine always came out looking like mini-vans or moldy loaves of bread squeaking down the track at moderate speeds.
 
#8
I had a really ugly car that was slowest.

I was new to cub scouts, and no one told me, or especially my dad, that the parent "helps" the scout with the car. So I set to work in the basement with a pocket knife and whittled the car into a rounder shape, kind of like a '32 Ford with no fenders except with no style.

Imagine our surprise when we got to the local Pine Wood Derby competition and saw all the band sawed and shaped cars with lead weighting and perfectly polished laquer paint jobs. Tuned wheels were a big thing too. Mine looked like a 9 year old put it together himself.

Bass Content - eventually I learned how to shape wood and made my own bass.
 
#9
I did this a couple of times for Awana Clubs.

My dad helped me to make a smoth curved car. It wasn't anything fancy, just one long compound curve. We weighted it with tire weights hammered to shape and cut to size and a little bit of graphite lubricant. I was too lazy to paint it, so I made the mistake of painting it plain yellow, and carrying it it an Aldi brand Velvetta cheese box. It was the plainest car there. Everyone called it the bannanamobile or the cheesebox racer, which made me feel bad... Until it took second place overall, loosing only to an adult leaders wedge shaped car!
 
#10
Precious Memories...

That brings back a few...I actually one state a few times growing with the cars I built...it always made me feel good when I went to a big meet and there I was carrying my car in a shoe box and a tube of graphite. I would walk around and see the cars that the dads actually built and they would have a stand out and a tackle box loaded with gear and the kid would be sitting in the corner playing video games.

What sweet victory it was to beat those old guys, poetic justice in a way

good luck with the build

peace
 

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