Pinewood Derby/AWANA Grand Prix pics needed.

Seeking inspiration for upcoming races. Ya can't have too much fun with the grandkids. But you also gotta have a cooler car than all the other dads. Show off your rides!
Thanks.

 

Funny you bring that up.........we just did a "Cops and Rodders" car show last month here, and had the scouts do their Pinewood derby race there. Got Homey Depot to kick in free car kits for the spectator kids to build. The kids had a ball! We'll definitely include them in our future car shows.

 

Nicely done! OK to copy that idea?

 

I have my sons block of wood sitting in front of me right now. I'm going to try to make it look like my hudson sedan. I'll poste pics later.

 

Here's one I helped my son make when he was in the boy scouts. The roll bar and the exhaust pipes are 1/8" aluminum welding rod. The engine was just some scraps of aluminum drilled and filed. The intake tubes were little scraps of aluminum tubing and we flared them by hammering a blunt chisel into the end of 'em. We made the windshield by heating up a little scrap of acrylic with a heat gun. We had a lot of fun with this thing, but it was slow. He won an award for "coolest design".

 

I did a 32 roadster a few years back when my oldest son was in scouts. Used 1/24 model kit parts. I will post a pic later. Chris

 

My boy and I were the kids to beat for three years. They had a "Dad's Class"...nobody would run me! Each year we spent more than 40-60 hours out in the shop building cars. My son is probably the only kid who used a band saw, drill press, electric drill, polishing wheel, dremel tool, belt sander and blow torch to build pinewood derby cars!
For the unlimited class, we hollowed out cars and filled them with melted plumber's lead. Legal weight was 5oz. Our cheater cars were over a pound and a half!

Year One: matching So-Cal speedshop bellytankers, with rear engines exposed (blower and pipes...you can buy those kits). Reversed paint jobs: white body/red nose on one, red/white on the other. He took best of show and placed in the middle of the pack for speed, I took fastest of the meet.
Year Two: He built a school bus; best of show, placed upper third for speed.
We also made matching Mopar Wing Cars; a daytona and a super bird, as our cheater cars. Fastest two times overall.
Third Year: Tameless Tiger-inspired cars. His was the new one, mine was the old AF/X. Both Heavy cars. Fastest times of the show, and they made us team trophy.
his legal car was a plain wedge, painted orange with tiger stripes, and was fastest in the troop. In three years, we built 8 cars, spent a couple hundred hours, have a whole wall of trophies, put a 1/8-inch layer of pine dust over everything in my shop, and spent a surprising amount of money, proving idiots will drive up the price of ANY form of racing. And it was sooooo worth every single second of it.

Since we made matching cars, I'd cut one or run the power tools and show him, then he'd do it on his. We cut out the blanks for the belly tankes on the band saw...He did good, but I was pretty tense. He ran all the tools (with close super vision). By the third year, he was getting the tools set up on his own, ready to start when I arrived to supervise.

So-Cal belly tankers are pretty easy to shape and make, and you can teach your kid about aerodynamics too. He developed a great grasp of it in second or third grade, thanks to those cars, and still refers back to it in 7th grade--especially when I take him to races, or we're talking about some mods to the Suburban.

-Brad

 

wow that takes me back to my childhood

 

Here's mine, crappy pic.

 

This is my Nephews car from last year.
Yup, he was a Tiger Cub.



This was my Nieces car from last year. Using the parts in the kit, the accesory canopy and a few plastic easter eggs.

 

We just built and ran a late model dirt car with #17 Kenseth DeWalt graphics. Widened the body up from the standard kit. Cleaned house. It was perfectly legal, even. I'll post up pics tonight.

 

A trick I was taught was take the wheels and stack them all on a nail, chuck that in a drill (so they all spin at the same time) and sand them all till they are all the same size and round (you have to stack them real tight, you don't want the axle hole to waller out). Seemed to help, I was one car away from the state finals )/ I still don't know if I should be proud of that or bummed I didn't make it). Mine was your basic 'doorstop wedge. The one that beat me was just thick enough to hold it's ballast weights without having them poke through both sides. I don't recall where he put his weight though.

 

C'mon-more pics, please!

 

Couple of pics:

 

heres my dad and grandpa's cars they carved back in the 60's

 

We had a car show where everyone got to vote on favorite 1,2,3 cars.
Wheels were passed out 30 minutes before race with axles to make it easy
and fair as possible. Only one complained because he had gone on the web and
spent like $30 on special polished axles and balanced wheels. I guess he didn't get the memo.

 

Those are some sweet cars! Like, all of 'em.

 

For my daughter's 6th b-day party we had a pinewood derby car race. We handed out kits about a month prior and raced on her b-day. Everyone had a ball. We had awards for craftmanship, fastest car, best cruiser (slowest), best crash, most lost pieces. Here are a few of the cars: blue/white one-mine, gold one with "occupants"-my daughter's, flat black one-my dad's.

 

We found out not to get the aftermarket 5-spokes...they slowed the car way, way down. The hard plastic scout kit wheels are the best.
-Brad

 

You gotta send me a pic when you finish it !!!!!

 

This is the one my son and I built for scouts

 

Some of ours from the past few years.

The woody and the coupe are mine. The bubble top and the t-bucket with Rat Fink are my son's. Yes, he did the bulk of the work on his, including all of the paint work. He's a heck of a sander!

 

No doubt. Couldn't agree more. Make sure the mold numbers on the inside of the wheels match. It makes a difference. The wheels stamped with 18 seemed to work the best for us. Crap, we spent too much time on this stuff. But man was it fun.

 

Here's another one we made. The fenders were blocks of balsa wood glued on and carved up. It was faster than the first one, but still a loser. Looked pretty cool though.

 

I think it was Fernando who said "It's better to look good than to feel good".

 

Here is a site that hosts a monthly race. They have a lot of pictures and videos. Not necessarily HAMB inspired cars but they like to have fun.

http://www.p-d-d-r.com/

Chris

 

Here is a car I found on their forums.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w90/dapine/deuceIZwild002.jpg

 

Some great ideas guys. My son just got his kit last night and we were brainstorming.

He got first last year with his 8-Ball Special. I'll have to take a pic and post it. I cut out the rough form and he did the rest. It came out pretty cool.

I found one of mine from back in the day. It has a cracked wheel so I'm going to replace it and run it in the father and son races.

 

My boys from last year.

 

this will be the first time since my childhood that I built a Pinewood Derby car. My son Joined the Scouts this year and Im real proud of him.We got our kit yesterday. We are planning a real purpose built wedge. Probably not too flashy but we hope it goes like stink...