If your child wants to enter in Pinewood Derby Grand Pix race, you will definitely want to build a Pinewood Derby car. These cars are popular among all cub scouts and since 1953 Derby race has been a major event for them. Back in 2006, the event was included in America’s top 100 events list.

Pinewood Derby cars are very easy to build and more because there are many building kits available for buying online. They come in a variety of fast Pinewood Derby Car kits and designs in order to keep your collective up to date. The kits consist of a body, cylindrical axles, an instruction manual and a decal kit. You can also buy custom parts and paints in order give your car a more customized look. Apart from these kits and additional supplies, you can also order Pinewood derby car plans if you feel you are  handy and can build them. These templates are available in several patterns and designs which will help you to build a cool Pinewood Derby Car from scratch.

Revell Sprint Car Pinewood Derby Car Kit DerbyMax.com

Most boy scouts decide to prepare their Pinewood Derby car from scratch when entering their first Pinewood Derby GP race.  To do so, the most important thing is to prepare a proper blueprint of the car you would want to race with. Attention and patience should be put in while sketching up this drawing. Once the drawing is finished and the design is finalized, trace the template on the wooden block used to make the body of the car. The outline should be as clear as possible as this will be used as line of reference while shaping down the wooden block. A handsaw and few other woodworking tools are used to provide the required shaping, and this should be done under adult or parental supervision.

Now comes the process of making the axle slots. You might consider the option of having longer wheel bases as they tend to move faster.  Try to have the two pre made axle slots nearer to the end of the block. Keep in mid that these new slots should be exactly square with the sides of the block unless you want your car alignment to be off.

After the previous two steps, you will be greeted with the basic model of your car. All it requires is smooth finishing. Usually wheels are attached after the car is painted. Achieving quality paint job is whole lot easier than it seems. Before applying the paint its necessary to prime the wood surface of the car. Sandpapers of different grits are used for this purpose. Start with the lowest grit, then gradually move to higher grit. Its not required to have different coats of paints. Spray paints are easy to work with and gets the job done. But if you are interested in having an elaborated design, painting by hand is recommended.

Once the paint dries, its time to fix the wheels. before that check for extra plastic or burrs that might be present on the tread of the wheel. If you find any, sand them down.

Here you’ve have a fine and band new Pinewood Derby car made from scratch. Do remember to see that most of the job is done by your child instead of you. That will provide a sense of pride and will help him learn to create from his imagination.

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