New member, saying hello.

[Dscross]

Hi everyone, new here and saying hello. My son and I build pinewood derby cars for his cub scout races. We liked it, and so we're both trying to learn more. We both want a home track to perfect out builds.

His district race is in a few weeks, and we'd be glad for any advice on how to improve. At pack races his cars first three runs were all 3.8820 on a 48/49' track. The fastest time was 3.7700 on the same day by another car.

Thanks for having me here, I look forward to learning more.

 

[AceMontana]

Welcome. Your in the right place .. Best advice i can give is read ,read ,read

 

[Thinkin'Bout Racin]

Hi everyone, new here and saying hello. My son and I build pinewood derby cars for his cub scout races. We liked it, and so we're both trying to learn more. We both want a home track to perfect out builds.

His district race is in a few weeks, and we'd be glad for any advice on how to improve. At pack races his cars first three runs were all 3.8820 on a 48/49' track. The fastest time was 3.7700 on the same day by another car.

Thanks for having me here, I look forward to learning more.

When you are done reading ....read some more! There is a TON of great information here. When I started, I read everything back at least 3 years. The more you read, the better questions you will be able to ask. The guys are great here about answering questions!

Welcome and good luck ....you are about to enter the rabbit hole!

 

[Dscross]

When you are done reading ....read some more! There is a TON of great information here. When I started, I read everything back at least 3 years. The more you read, the better questions you will be able to ask. The guys are great here about answering questions!

Welcome and good luck ....you are about to enter the rabbit hole!

Just found out about pledge... is that still a thing? How didn't this come up in my hundreds of searches? Ok, more experimenting to do. The graphite situation is one We have trouble with, cant seem to get enough of it to stay on the axels. I burnished the axels, my son used a cut off q-tip to burnish his wheel bores, still the car slowed down by .01 seconds after the first 6 heats. There are other problems we need to address as well, but getting graphite to work better and better polish wheel bores is a big one. Has anyone tried to use the graphite spray on axels? Getting more to hold on the axel until it can dry and be inserted in the wheel bores?

 

[Castoro Racing]

I can't agree with the above more. We went from 2 2nd place finishes in our den to the fastest car in the pack and district all based on the knowledge of this forum. You just need to read everything you can on here. Go back to all the old posts in your free time and ask the questions you have. You just need to be willing to put in the work.

 

[Pinewood Outlaw]

A friend of mine tried graphite spray and didn't like it....said it made it worse. Jist stick with good axle prep and polish. Next time try finding a .093 pin guage or smooth end of a #43 drill bit that you can polish to a high shine too burnish wheel bores with graphite. Qtip brand stalks can chew up the inside of a wheel bore

 

[Dscross]

A friend of mine tried graphite spray and didn't like it....said it made it worse. Jist stick with good axle prep and polish. Next time try finding a .093 pin guage or smooth end of a #43 drill bit that you can polish to a high shine too burnish wheel bores with graphite. Qtip brand stalks can chew up the inside of a wheel bore

Thanks

 

[Charles Studer]

Pledge is a thing. Spray polished axles....let dry a few minutes ? 10 or so...wipe off with a Non shedding cloth and graphite prep

 

[DerbyBoyz]

Pledge does work very well with graphite, but needs to be dry not wet. I have had better luck with SailKote with graphite. I would spray some in a glass jar then dip axles into it. Let dry, then polish with a buffing towel.

 

[Ohly]

Pledge is a thing. Spray polished axles....let dry a few minutes ? 10 or so...wipe off with a Non shedding cloth and graphite prep

Thanks for the post, am now at this step and didn't want to hurt my now polished axles