The Making Of....Pinewood Derby 2009

Here we are again, fresh into the month of January, which means none other than Carter sharing his birthday weekend with the cubscout family. It's Pinewood Derby time!

This year, we actually started the car a full three days before weigh-in was supposed to happen. But, unfortunately the event was cancelled this weekend due to our weather delays causing schools to be closed - the venue in which it's held. Three days might still panic some folks, but that is SO much more time than is really needed to do this project. In fact, we didn't even open the box until less than 36 hours before weigh-in last year. And he had a top car, so we weren't sweating it this year. (we sound like pros now don't we?)

Um, here's a screen shot of this morning's temp and the reason why school and activities were closed. Brrrrrrrr!



Last year, Carter held the track record for the Derby, and won first place in his Tiger Cub Den. He qualified to race in the last heats against the other Dens in our Pack, but we had a few mishaps with his wheels falling off on the track. I guess after needing to race so many times, the car couldn't handle it. That, and probably the way he would play with it on the floor in between races - a sight that made most father's who are really into this, gasp in horror! It's not a hotwheel car afterall - it was a hand crafted vehicle that needed to be handled with care. Oh, who cares right? It's for fun - and he sure didn't care. Of course, until his wheels kept coming off and he couldn't continue to race.

But this year, we glued those axles into place so we won't have that looming over us again. He wanted the same design of car... a corvette, but wanted it red this year and the number 8, which stands for how old he turns this weekend. He's a patriotic boy, so he wanted stars and stripes again too. If you know Carter, he likes things to stay the same, so we couldn't really veer too far off from last year's model. Hopefully it will race as good as the blue one did!

Here are some pictures of the process, The Making Of 2009's Pinewood Derby car...

His block of wood cut out at Grandpa's house in the shape of a vette... the blue car is last year's model he made.


The underside needed to be cored out to fit our flat weights. That was a pain, and the most time consuming part!


Sanding his car...


Painting the vette... we were glad he had a red shirt on after this craft - he is a messy painter like his mom!


Spraying silver sparkle paint on his car in the garage - um, safe to say he has a pretty heavy hand on the trigger! I think the entire garage is covered in sparkles now!


Adding his stickers, his favorite part next to painting the car...


And lastly, the car cannot weigh more than 5.0 ounces. Got it right on again!


Of course I will add pictures from the actual Derby once we know when the rescheduled date will be. But for now, we can breathe a sigh of relief to know the car is done, the weight is perfect and it's ready to go. Now we just have to hide it until Show Time so he doesn't send it down his Matchbox ramp in the basement!