The church that sponsors our Pack is incredibly protective of the floor of their gymnasium and, as such, will not permit us to use it to host our Pinewood Derby. Thus, we are obliged to rent space at one of the local Middle Schools. Because we don't have the luxury of setting up the night before, we run a separate weigh-in/inspection event earlier in the week, in which the cars are checked in and impounded.
When we first joined the Pack, I was a little bit horrified to see how they were storing the checked in cars...essentially just putting them loosely in boxes and hoping that they didn't shift around too much. When I took over organizing the Derby the next year, I was resolved to come up with a A Better Way(™). This is what I came up with.
You need the following:
- Some large cardboard boxes from which you can cut largish (approximately 16" * 16") panels
- A large piece of ⅝" - ⅜" thick styrofoam (get it from the insulation section of home depot)
- Some bamboo skewers
- A hot glue gun
- A utility knife
- A good straight edge
- Several large, stackable boxes used for transporting fruits. Typically about 6" deep. You can find 'em at Costco or something.
What you need to do first is measure the inside of your fruit boxes to find out what will fit inside. You're going to be cutting panels of cardboard that will fit in the bottom of the fruitboxes. In my case, the panels measured approximately 14.25" x 17.5". Cut a panel to fit the bottom of each fruitbox. Take them out and set them aside.
Now, you need to cut strips of styrofoam that are 1.625" wide, by however long you want to lay them in your storage box. In my case, I made them 14.25" long, since I could fit two 7" cars on them, nose-to-tail. The number of strips you need depends on how many you'll be able to fit into a given box, based on the width of the cars. With 17.5" of space, I was able to fit five strips into a single box.
Next, take your bamboo skewers. Snip the pointy ends and cut them into pieces about 2.75" long. You're going to need to take them and push them through the strips parallel to the strip, in the center of where the car is going to rest. You don't have to be super-exact with this. Here's a picture showing one of the panels with five strips atop it.
The final step is to measure the strip placement so that they are equidistant and hot glue them to your cardboard panel. Then, place the panel into the fruit box. To store cars, place a car on the strip, then take a rubber band and loop it over so that it goes over the car, and hooks under the protruding skewers. You want it snug, but not so tight that it's going to cut into the car.
Here's a pic with some cars superimposed over it.
Anyhow, maybe this will give you some ideas! Best of luck finding a safe and secure way to transport those cars.
After witnessing this, this year we are going to deliver our car in a shipping box and deal with the wise cracks. I have also volunteered to help with the pack check in the hopes to prevent this from happening this year.
