Pinewood Derby Season

"davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com" (davesaddiction) 01/23/2015 at 10:44 • Filed to: dadlopnik, pinewood derby, pwd

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Post 'em up! This is my first year building one with my oldest. Has been a lot of fun, and a decent amount of effort. I had him do everything that he could do himself. We even got to use his great-grandpa's old plug-in drill and Dremel for parts of it.

For those in the know, it's a three-wheel rail-rider with polished axles and some serious rear camber. We did a lot of research before starting ours... Hope it all pays off!

Here's "Crazy Eight".

Living dangerously... Hope their scale doesn't read heavier than ours!

thebigbossyboss > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/23/2015 at 10:51

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Awesome. We used to do that in boy scouts. I don't have any pictures, but I loved to do it.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > thebigbossyboss 01/23/2015 at 10:54

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Definitely a good time. Good stuff for building future gearheads, too.

briannutter1 > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/23/2015 at 10:56

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The car in the background wasn't a spec scouts car but we have a local competition where anything goes.

Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy > thebigbossyboss 01/23/2015 at 10:57

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I got a 'Best in show' in Scouts for an Aeroflash replica inspired by Hotwheels Highway 35. I had fun.

thebigbossyboss > Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy 01/23/2015 at 10:58

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cool.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy 01/23/2015 at 11:03

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Nice!

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > briannutter1 01/23/2015 at 11:03

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WHOA! Awesome...

Destructive Tester > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/23/2015 at 11:36

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You can always have the last bit of ballast be adjustable. I always used wood glue for the last bit of weight (used small fishing sinkers) so they could be easily removed if necessary. Always went into inspection with a slightly heavy car and adjusted the weight to read the max on their scale. (now that I work in equipment calibration and calibrate scales, this idea has made me break-out in hives)

William Byrd > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/23/2015 at 11:42

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haha nice. My son's is in 2 weeks. Time to get started this weekend! Can't get him to settle on a design, will likely go with some sort of wedge, wheels, paint, weights, done.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Destructive Tester 01/23/2015 at 12:05

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Ha! I've got 0.3 ounces of stick-on weights that we can pull off if necessary, so we should be good. Someone told me that their scale only reads 5.1 if the car is actually 5.1 or more (doesn't round up from 5.051). Any clue if that's accurate? I guess it makes some sense for a scale used for billing - you don't want to round up and overcharge someone, even if it's a tiny bit.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > William Byrd 01/23/2015 at 12:11

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Watch this with him, and then see if you can get away with just that - ha!

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/23/2015 at 12:24

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I won "best in show" in fifth grade. Will post a picture of the car when I can.

Destructive Tester > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/23/2015 at 12:27

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It really depends on the specific model scale they are using as they are all a bit different. Generally, any measurement tool used for commerce has a +0/-XX tolerance, meaning that it cannot indicate more than what is being sold but can indicate lower within the tolerance. If the scale they are using has a standard calibration it would have a normal ±tolerance meaning that it could indicate either high or low, within the tolerance of course.

Another tip maybe once he gets a bit older is to completely coat the car in a skim coat of bondo once you have it shaped to enable you to get a nice smooth finish. It's purely cosmetic; but having a bright, smooth, shiny car among the dull rough cars really makes it stand-out. My troop always did a "Best Looking Car" award and I always owned that shit! The fact that I had a lot of model car experience didn't hurt...

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > sm70- why not Duesenberg? 01/23/2015 at 12:44

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Please do!

Axial > Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy 01/23/2015 at 18:49

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I build a blockier version of the Thrust SSC for the one Pinewood Derby I participated in. Won Best Design, but failed on the track. :[

justAnother G6 > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/27/2015 at 11:11

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This is our 5th yr of doing Pinewood Derby. Admittedly I have done most of the work on the cars thus far. I'll have to take/dig up pictures. The second year we made a speeder bike from Jedi. Last year we did a Lotus 38 and a Stegosaurus. This year my oldest wants to enter a Missile Truck and the youngest wants the USS Hornet (CV-8) loaded with B-25s for the Doolittle raid.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > justAnother G6 01/27/2015 at 11:18

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Awesome. Yes - pictures, please!

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/28/2015 at 10:43

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Just saw this in linked stories. I still have all my pinewood derby cars in a basement from when I was a kid.

The one year I finally had a winner, I had a wheel malfunction.

I did make one look like it had a supercharger "popping out of the hood" with the weights tho lol

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 01/28/2015 at 10:52

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Nice! His car ran really fast the first few runs, and won a couple heats, but then started slowing down. He wasn't top three in his group (we were surprised), so he must have been 4th. Not too shabby. I need to upload some video to share.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/28/2015 at 11:18

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Cool! I remember building 4 of them, first one had the "engine mod" lol, and was all done up like Dale Earnhardt #3 Goodwrench car. second was a silver wedge, 3rd was a gold car, standard cut off the nose to stick on the rear look, but with a hole drilled through the stuck on the back wedge, you know for my theory of aerodynamics! 4th was a curved top blob type that was blue, was the best one. looked like one of those hyper aerodynamic cars, top of the wheels was higher than the body line i think. That's the one that did good and then had a faulty wheel.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 01/28/2015 at 12:09

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A few of us dads went in and bought a used practice track off Ebay so the fun can continue - ha!

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/28/2015 at 12:12

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Nice! and—-track testing!

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 01/28/2015 at 13:54

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Yeah, buddy. It's built for two, so we can have some pretty fun run-offs with our group of kids.

justAnother G6 > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/28/2015 at 14:02

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Here is the speeder bike. Ewok is on for the ride.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > justAnother G6 01/28/2015 at 14:12

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Sweet. I had that Ewok!

justAnother G6 > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/28/2015 at 14:25

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I'll see if I can dig up pics of the others or just snap new ones. I haven't scavenged from them too much... yet.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/28/2015 at 14:47

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That's pretty cool, i bet the kids love it.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 01/28/2015 at 14:51

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They'd better - ha! Picking it up next weekend.

Drakkon- Most Glorious and Upright Person of Genius > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/30/2015 at 10:00

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Cross posting time!

Only the other Jalop dad's will have any idea why we painted and striped them like this.