PINEWOOD Derby Cars Ready...Including Mach!

The pinewood derby season is almost here...I just finished (or almost) FOUR cars...One for my niece, one for each of my girls, and one for A guy named Don Mcneal...Some of you may remember him from the 80's Miami Dolphins and a National Champ winner and U. Of Alabama. He was #28 DB for the fins. Here's his pic
He's the childrens pastor of our church and asked me to do his car for him.

Here's his car:


Here's my older daughter's car...Hers should win something for design at the local meet, but I built it as a speed car. I barely rolled it on the garage floor, and it went all the way across to the other side...still have to put the clearcoat on it.



Here are the pics of the Mach...I still have to wet sand and re-gloss the top. Keep in mind that the size of the parts are larger than the car Im allowed to build, hence the disproportions in places.






This one is all four together...I posted the one with the blue flames before.

The local race is in March, and states in April...Ill keep you posted.

RC

very nice work

Thanks

BTW...That flame was my FIRST attempt at gradient painting with my new airbrush

RC

use graphite on the wheels?

Thanks for the reply....LOTS OF LOOKS, only 2 replies

This year, IM trying Nyoil II on the wheels:

http://www.maximum-velocity.com/5107.htm

If you know anything about these cars, take a look and tell me what you think

Thanks
RC

lol holy crap...and i thought graphite was a hightech trick.

Everyone uses the graphite. I figure at the state level, doing the one thing different may make the difference. I already polished the axles with 400 the wet 600, then Mother's

RC

September?? I didnt know they have races that month.

Couple of thoughts though:

1. The Mustang "may" run well, but is not really built for speed...the others are.

2. The Wheels are AWANA wheels...is that the one you need, or BSA wheels?

3. If you cant use my car, you can bring Little Joe and your kit over, and we'll build him a nice car. I have the band saw, drill press, and belt sander...ALL of which are REALLY useful.

RC

me and dad cleaned house when i was in boy scouts with our car. we drilled holes in the back ,put lead weights inside and did the graphite trick on the wheels. no one was even close!

You mean like this:

hehe, that's a sweet mach.

neat trick that I did when I was in cub scouts was to slant the nose of it from the front towards the back on the bottom side. this only works if your track uses the little rods that fold forward that start your car. when the rod folds forward, your car gets that little bit extra head start. also, if you have sources, have the axles nickle plated. I loved my dad working for the governmet. He ask when he had free time if he could work on the car a little. had the axles nickle plated, the center hollowed out and filled with lead and set in epoxy. we would get it as close as he could to the weight limit but just a little over. since everyone's scales are different, we would drill out little by little to get the weight right on the money. another trick if you can get away with it it sand and smooth the wheel surface. if you take off that outside self and make it smooth, helps you some there too.

I meant to turn it over so you can see how the underside is hollowed out to get weight off.


RFM: You can see on the Dolphin's car the front wheels are trimmed. The fronts on the lightening bolt car ave as thin as a nickel.

In terms of weight...I work with a food scale in the garage...then I take it to the post office when Im done. SInce the axles are longer than needed. I have an 8" bolt cutter that I bring with me to weighing. If the weight is over, I take out the front axles (since theyre longer than needed) and snip a little peice off

What do you think about the Nyoil? DId you read the link?

Thanks
RC

BTW....Here is the site where I bought some supplies in case youre interested:

http://www.maximum-velocity.com/

The guyz there (esp Randy) are really helpful, and they have lots of goodies.

RC

I'm confused about the Mach. Why is there an engine... floating above the engine bay? Why not put a hood on it then put a large supercharger coming out of the hood or something to that effect?

1. If you read above you would see that the Mach Model I bought has pieces larger than the car Im allowed to build. The hood on the actual car is metal and cant be trimmed....

2. Im already at the weight limit as is, and the hood would add a LOT more weight...the engine pieces weigh almost nothing.

3. It looks cool.

4. These are 8,9 and 10 yo kids...you thinnk they know the proportionate difference?...they thing it looks cool.


RC

Oh ok. cool.

Here's a pic of my car from about 16 years ago.

That Mach is going to drag aaaaaazz! But at least it'll look good doing so