My son Justis and his pinewood derby car...We need your help!

Cool,great start.Good luck on raceday.It was one of the highlights for us.
My son still has his on his shelf from a few years back.

This one did the best.Took 1st in his den,and 3rd in his pack.Won best paint too.

 

She's maxed out at 5 oz and ready for paint!

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The car looks great! What paint scheme is it going to get?
Remember: Weight, Wheels and Axles are most important (other than you and your son making great memories, of course).
Let us know how it turns out.

 

AMEN!! There's nothing more aggrivating then seeing a pristine pwd car you know damn well the kid didn't touch.

 

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Sweet

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Cool. Drill out the axles and fill them with graphite. Then cap each end off with wax.

 

'59 CADDIE - ROLL ON!
I did this a couple years with my son - now he's 24. No one said otherwise and we wanted to do something totally different. Got a '59 Caddie plastic model kit. The scale was about right. Had to section the thing to make it shorter to fit the wheel base. Narrowed the body and those big chrome bumpers. Glued it all together and gave it a good coat of red paint. After all that work you could tell it was a big fin Caddie - We got rave reviews! Not the fastest car but it was the most noted! Won the favorite car award that year!

 

Podium finish in Budapest, 39 autoUnion GP facsimile.

 

I have never had the opportunity to compete in a PWD, so forgive me if this idea does not apply. After reading through both threads I did not see this mentioned. Why not start with 8 wheels, and face each in half on a lathe? Then, hollow out the inside. Glue back together and sand and fill so that the tread is pristine. Now you have lighter wheels, less rotational inertia, so faster acceleration (plus, you can redistribute the weight removed where it helps you more).

 

this will work every time, put as much weight as they will let you as high and as far back on the car as possible.... like a fin. good luck

 

My son and I did the same thing. We had a blast. When he got older, he did a science project (went on to state finals with it) on aeordynamics of PW derby cars. His results showed that aerodynamics has little effect. The block of wood out of the box vs a wedge vs a thin slab... what had the greatest effect was the accurate placement of the wheels/axels. reducing the rolling friction is the secret to a successful PWD racer. Regardless of the results, you and your son will get the best thing possible out of this experience: great memories! Good luck, have fun and most of all... LET HIM DO THE WORK! Guide him but let him enjoy the successes/failures of the experience.

 

Wow Justis, nice work!

 

When I was a kid, me and my old man made one to look like a belly tank! It was never very fast, BUT, everyone was impressed by it, and I won an award for design.

 

My father and I made ECTO-1 --- even painted the logo on with 1-shot. It was shaped more like a two roadster rears welded in the middle. I beat everyone, I even got tired of winning at the pack meet (i was little), finally beat everyone and took home a gold medal that I still cherish. went on to districts after that and won several times, hell they even launched my car backwards and it still beat everyone. Those were the days. yes I still have the car.

 

It's race night!

We are going to carry the car to the derby in this cedar box for a little intimidation factor.

 

WOW, That thing loogs great, and the look on his face says it all! Go get 'em, Justis!

 

Good luck guys- ours is Sat... thrashing on the paint while dodging the raindrops to get done

 

Looks cool, Have fun! Hoping my boys get into scouting. Just for the derby cars!!

Some guys were talking about doing this at car type get togethers. We did Valvcover racing this winter and had a ball! Basically bolt a valvcover to a peice of thin plywood with skate board wheels under it and go racing. Ramp as a 4x8 sheet of plywood about 18" off the ground at the back.

 

Thanks guys!

Pre racing starts at 5:30

 

Good luck guys, but you’ve already won because you got to spend time together, and build a great looking car and a bunch of memories. The rest is just gravy.

 

good luck... car lucks great!

 

Have fun, guys!
My suggestion: keep it in a bag of the powdered graphite before the meet tonight.
That box is super cool, man!

 

Is it possible to add too much graphite?

 

1st round win!

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2nd round win!


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Lost 3rd

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Nevermind,Justis! You're #1 on the HAMB & that says a lot!! Congrats to you & your ol' man!!

 

Right on!