I made this a few years ago with my son when he was 8 years old.
It’s Cub Scout Pinewood derby car…They give you a block of pine and you make what you want. (If you look at the photo, the same block you start with is actually UNDER the car in the pic) In previous years I just made the basic cut out for my son, he sanded it, spray painted it, and ran it.
This particular year my son saw me looking at a Dremel tool at Home Depot and mentioned it to my wife, they picked one up for me for Christmas.
Long New England winters and too much time on my hands lead to this…
I used a bandsaw for the basic shape…the dremel to make the fine contours using a sanding drum attachment…and some automotive buildable primer, duplicolor spray paint, and 5 coats of clear…the FERRARI stickers came from a model we purchased just for the decals and went on UNDER the clear coat.
My son sprayed on the primer, the color coat and the clear …with some help.
He LOVED this car!! It won every award they had.
WARNING: ALL spray painting was done in the GARAGE…NOT on those granite counter tops!!
My youngest son loves the pinewood derby. Every year at Christmas we get him the pinewood derby car kit. He and his grandfather spend the spring time designing the car and building it. His grandfather is an AIA certified architect as well as an artist so I can’t hope to compete with that. Plus it is a great activity for the two of them. What is great is seeing all the other cars that all the “kids” put together. I have seen hershey bar shaped cars. Hot rod shaped cars. All kinds of crazy stuff.
That’s a great job!! I remember doing those when I was a kid. I tried to make mine look like my dad’s 1974 Dodge Polara… Since the basic shape of the Polara was the same as the original pine block, I didn’t have too much carving and sanding… I just had to paint it green. :biggrin That Polara was a tank and probably saved our lives when a tractor trailer rammed us from behind doing about 50 mph when we were stopped at a light. :shocked … But that was some job FDJAKE…
Nice Derby Car. I made a batmobile and a Yellow Freight Semi-truck since my dad worked at their corporate HQ when I was little. It sucks that the most aerodynamic car is just a dumb wedge at around a 30 degree angle.
Amazing detailed work on that car fdjake! I’m surprised you even let your son play with it. If I made something like that I would probably keep it locked in a cabinet for people to admire
I’ve won many a Pinewood Derby race in my days but never with a car that nice. I did all of my own work on them, my father refused to be one of those parents that did the bulk of the work…he’d rather see my struggle through it then not do it myself.
