Pinewood Derby: Part 1

This is our third year in the pinewood derby. It’s our favorite scout event of the year. Jacob won his den his first year, and we were number one in the pack last year. This has turned into one of those fantastic father / son events that I just love.

We’ve got the process down this year and I wanted to put up some pictures of him working on it.

Step 1: Cut Out the Car
We start by tracing a cutout of the car. Jacob used the jigsaw by himself, with the exception of a little piece at the end, which proved to be just enough for me to demostrate how to almost cut your finger off. Ouch!!

Step 2: Sanding and Weights
I didn’t get a picture of this, but we used a drill press to make a hole just wide enough to add pennies for weight. Then we sanded, and sanded, and sanded, and sanded.

Step 3: Sanding the Axles
Okay, if you want the car to go fast, you need to fix the wheels and the axes. The old style wheels have a little bump on them from the compression mold. That’s got to be sanded down – but this year, we have the new style. The axles (nails) have a little nub under the head that has to be sanded down too. A jig with some sandpaper and a Dremel does a pretty good job.

Step 4: Paint
We used three paints this year. First was the primer.

Then I had some spray paints. I talked Jake into midnight blue with a metallic flake. This part was all dad, and I didn’t want him breathing in the fumes. Emma chose purple for hers.

Then we added stickers. We used dry transfer ones. Not the easiest, but I have to admit that they look really cool after I hit them with the clear coat.