2017 Powderpuff Derby Build

[TWarwick07]

Any suggestions on the best way to remove 1 cube epoxied in, if necessary? Or would i be better served trimming out a few ladder rungs If I end up 0.1 over ???

I am at 5.0 right now and i have to put a couple clear coats on still , I weighed the decal decorations and the 3 letters didnt register any weight on the scale. I figure if anything i wouldnt be more than 5.1 oz. So would i be better removing a cube or shaving some wood ????

 

[TRE]

if you dont get the front right one of yours could be hitting the rail

 

[TRE]

by the looks of the pic you took way too much off the front

 

[TWarwick07]

I was afraid of that... The fence on the bladerunner wasnt straight and I ended up taking off almost 1/8 in, Would i be able to compensate by leaving the steering axle out a slight bit further??

On top of my own project I just got a call from my first year cub scout nephew who needs a car for friday night!!

 

[Crash Enburn]

A craft stick (popsicle stick) is ~1/16"). Drill through it, use an axle to line up the hole, and glue it to the body.

Nothing like the last minute, eh? I would suggest a simple wedge design, lay down a spray of some metallic color, and give the boy paint pens to decorate with. No need to get into any finer woodworking.

 

[TWarwick07]

A craft stick (popsicle stick) is ~1/16"). Drill through it, use an axle to line up the hole, and glue it to the body.

Nothing like the last minute, eh? I would suggest a simply wedge design, lay down a spray of some metallic color, and give the boy paint pens to decorate with. No need to get into any finer woodworking.

You nailed it Crash !! I was thinking about using some type of shim to bump out the axle , popsicle stick idea is perfect !!

As for my nephew he is in the same pack that his brother won with that silly tank I built last year so I agree, simple wedge with some weight pockets, polished axles and quick shine on the wheel bores, I was even thinking maybe go with the printed shipping decal logo on the top, no time for paint to dry..... wish me luck

 

[TWarwick07]

So here is the popsicle patch , Glued it on and added a clear coat . Also relaxed the axle holes with a 44 bit on a pin vise. Spent the whole night whipping up a car for my little nephew I got nothing else accomplished on my daughters car tonight

As for my last minute nephew car.......

They came over around 6 and this went from BSA box to !st coat of color in 3 hours !! ( including a quick run to AC Moore for cheap pinecar weights and found a can of testors spray paint for $1 ) Took the advice and went simple wedge, cut it a half inch high and left more than 1/8 around the edge and slots just to give me some room for error with the quick fast woodwork. Looking forward to seeing this run on friday

 

[TWarwick07]

breaking out the axle bender tomorrow night and tuning both cars, Any advice on setting the axle bender to get a small enough bend to steer the car and not be too noticeable?

 

[SuperFastRacing]

Decided to skip the 3rd coat of prime and went to the color. Looks nice but needs another coat to touch up the sides and corners.

You can see the outlines of the weight pockets with the color on the car, The tungsten pulling down on the 1/64 birch ply makes a low spot , I didnt notice with the primer but see it now. If that is the worst of the problems i will be ok with it

Great Pics! we used that same paint and color on my daughters sibling car for my sons pack race. It lays down and looks good when it is dry. I posted some pics on here a couple weeks back. Good luck with your race!

 

[TWarwick07]

HOLY COW !! WHAT A NIGHT !!

Finally got everything as good as it is going to get by tomorrow so here is a look at the finished product

I got everything onto the scale for my daughters car and wouldnt you know it ,, Ended up at 5.1 oz. . So just take out a cube right , sure no problem I have a fresh pack of tungsten putty ready to go. Not thinking the Gorilla Epoxy would withstand the apocalypse. I broke 4 razor blades and a screwdriver trying to chip out 1 little cube and decided to give up before I accidentally damaged the car. I ended up having to gut out the entire ladder section and sand down some of the wood under the nose but I got it down to 5.0 and even 4.9 so I should be good . Here she is ..... I think my daughter is calling her "Blue Love "

Here is the aftermath of 0.1 oz of weight

Got the steering set between 6.5 and 7 inches so hopefully that will keep her straight on the track

SO NOW ON TO MY NEPHEWS CAR .....

I put on 3 nice coats of clear before i went to work and it was shining just right ,, I decided it was a little plain and all day planned on adding some details when i got home. I masked off the top of the car and measured 4 - 1/8 in stripes in from the edge of the car, left the first one covered to keep the blue , peeled back the second and 4th strips to leave a blue stripe in between them and sprayed some spray glue and dumped some extra fine gold glitter i had left over from last years car, peeled off the masking tape and sprayed a coat of clear and it was looking relly sharp. Then my nephew shows up and instead of packing the graphite in his wheels and polishing a set of axles while the last coat finished drying the wanted his wheels on the car to test it out , so after realizing the 6 year old has the attention span of a goldfish I say the heck with it and let me throw the wheels on to get him done so I can work on my daughters car. WELL .... the paint was a little tacky but i figured it was ok .... until i went to push in the axle and my thumb smeared the whole paint and pinstripe job over

Now the Paint is jacked up and the stripes are all fouled up and it got smeared right down to the prime coat. And to top it off we start to tune the car and he tells me he is bored and next time he comes over he doesnt want to do this.... Well your welcome kid ! To top it off the weights in the center were hanging a little low and getting caught on the rail so at 1 AM i was up grinding down the weights to clear the rail.......


Thats enough ranting for tonight, hope my daughters car passes inspection tomorrow and see how this blue bomb runs , It should be fast !!

 

[SuperFastRacing]

Good luck!

 

[TWarwick07]

Good luck!

You were totally right about the weight and the worst part was I said to myself , leave the last cube out because you are getting the putty and I glued it in anyway. no ones fault but my own. We got a couple inches of snow here today and I am hoping the dont cancel the early weigh in tonight

 

[TWarwick07]

So my nephews car ran 6 heats and won all 6 took home the overall fastest time in the pack and earned a spot at districts. Not without controversy though , his car was 7 inches long but must have really been 7 1/64 because it fit in the box but got stuck at the top and didnt go all the way in, they asked him if he made his car with the BSA kit and his blockhead brother said no ???????? Of course it was made from the kit so originally they said he could race tonight but not advance. all this happened before I got there, his grandmother explained to the scoutmaster that the car was from the block, yada yada , everything is good and he ends up pack champion, Happy Kid !!! I missed the whole thing because i was checking in my daughters car for tomorrow. I stopped at his race after it was over to congratulate him and he was happy. They told me in the final race his DFW wheel fell off and he still won the race on 2 wheels and the raised wheel and ran the car right through the stop section every race. Which is why im sure the wheel ended coming off, But none the less the car made it to districts and I will have to tighten up the attention to detail before the next race.


The Judges for my daughters race didnt like my popsicle repair , but i explained i had cut too much wood away and they understood and passed the car through inspection, So 10:30 tomorrow will be showtime. I have her grandfather coming up to watch the race with us tomorrow so hopefully we put on a good show

 

[TWarwick07]

Well Guys my undefeated streak at the girl scout races came to an end but i am not disappointed in my build.

Let me set the scene, I show up with my daughter to the race and it was being run by a different group than last year. this years event was way more low budget, I walk in and they have a 3 lane plastic track , the flat stretch of the track on the floor wasnt even straight the 2 outside lanes had huge waves in the track going side to side. the track was resting on top of the stop section like a ramp and cars would go flying off the track at the end of the race and land sideways on the wheels, Kids cars went missing after check in and they had kids retrieving the cars from the finish line being " less than gentle" picking up the cars . So on to the race

We went undefeated in the 3 heat races but you couldnt see the times and speed from the finish line the projector was too light and they were using a white background for the software on a white wall, my camera battery died after the first race so didnt get complete videos but i will post what I have later. When the cars would run down the lane and hit the waves in the track the wheel would ride into the wave and then send it fishtailing down the stretch after the wave. I know i had my car dialed in but it had the wobbles terrible, but run in the middle lane and straight as an arrow. I know everyone one runs on the same track and all is fair but this was low budget for sure

My daughter makes the top 6 and the finals, I think with the fastest average but all the wear and tear on the car took its toll, even with the wobbles in the outside lane runs we ran a photo finish and missed by a nose twice in both the outside lanes , we ran the middle lane and won by a carlength but in the end we averaged out to 2nd place so not a total loss. Then to top it off they read the results backwards and handed the winner and my daughter 6th and 5th place ribbons before taking them back and getting the finish order right.

My girl had a blast and her grandfather was happy to see her do so well but i really wonder what would have happened if we would have raced on a proper track??? will have to wait for the mid america derby to find out


So back to the roughhousing on the cars at the finish line I have a 1/4 inch chunk of paint chipped off the nose of the car and the wheels that I set a nice gap on came back with a good 1/4 inch of the nail out of the slots on the rears which i am sure didnt help with the wobbles and my DFW steering wheel came back to me facing the other direction ??????? Hope they get it right next year, I am going to take the time to write a nice letter but detail my issues to the people running the event and hope for a better situation next year. But all in all we DID have fun and that is really what counts.

Pics coming soon......

 

[SuperFastRacing]

Well Guys my undefeated streak at the girl scout races came to an end but i am not disappointed in my build.

Let me set the scene, I show up with my daughter to the race and it was being run by a different group than last year. this years event was way more low budget, I walk in and they have a 3 lane plastic track , the flat stretch of the track on the floor wasnt even straight the 2 outside lanes had huge waves in the track going side to side. the track was resting on top of the stop section like a ramp and cars would go flying off the track at the end of the race and land sideways on the wheels, Kids cars went missing after check in and they had kids retrieving the cars from the finish line being " less than gentle" picking up the cars . So on to the race

We went undefeated in the 3 heat races but you couldnt see the times and speed from the finish line the projector was too light and they were using a white background for the software on a white wall, my camera battery died after the first race so didnt get complete videos but i will post what I have later. When the cars would run down the lane and hit the waves in the track the wheel would ride into the wave and then send it fishtailing down the stretch after the wave. I know i had my car dialed in but it had the wobbles terrible, but run in the middle lane and straight as an arrow. I know everyone one runs on the same track and all is fair but this was low budget for sure

My daughter makes the top 6 and the finals, I think with the fastest average but all the wear and tear on the car took its toll, even with the wobbles in the outside lane runs we ran a photo finish and missed by a nose twice in both the outside lanes , we ran the middle lane and won by a carlength but in the end we averaged out to 2nd place so not a total loss. Then to top it off they read the results backwards and handed the winner and my daughter 6th and 5th place ribbons before taking them back and getting the finish order right.

My girl had a blast and her grandfather was happy to see her do so well but i really wonder what would have happened if we would have raced on a proper track??? will have to wait for the mid america derby to find out


So back to the roughhousing on the cars at the finish line I have a 1/4 inch chunk of paint chipped off the nose of the car and the wheels that I set a nice gap on came back with a good 1/4 inch of the nail out of the slots on the rears which i am sure didnt help with the wobbles and my DFW steering wheel came back to me facing the other direction ??????? Hope they get it right next year, I am going to take the time to write a nice letter but detail my issues to the people running the event and hope for a better situation next year. But all in all we DID have fun and that is really what counts.

Pics coming soon......

Powder Puff Derby or Hotwheels Stunt Track! Lol. At least everyone had the same chance. She will never forget it and had a blast. Good job Dad!

 

[TWarwick07]

Powder Puff Derby or Hotwheels Stunt Track! Lol. At least everyone had the same chance. She will never forget it and had a blast. Good job Dad!

Does anyone even use a plastic track at a race, I thought they were for testing at home?

 

[TWarwick07]

Front end after the races

 

[Watchitgo]

Sounds like quite an adventure. Second place is nothing to scoff at and the car looked great.

I have been accused of being cheap, I like to call it thrifty. I typically wrap my tungsten cubes in scotch tape and then glue them to the car. I then cover the weight pockets with ventilation tape. This allows me to retrieve the cubes with out damaging the car.

 

[Crash Enburn]

I have been accused of being cheap, I like to call it thrifty. I typically wrap my tungsten cubes in scotch tape and then glue them to the car. I then cover the weight pockets with ventilation tape. This allows me to retrieve the cubes with out damaging the car.

Like you, I'm quite cheap. I also like to keep my cars after they've had their race lives. And getting the tungsten back out of bodies w/o a lot of damage has been a challenge. So, thank you for the Scotch tape suggestion. I will be giving that a try in my next build.

 

[bracketracer]

That's not a race, that's a demolition derby! Glad she survived it!

Derby Magic sells the plastic "race tracks".