You have whole websites and blogs dedicated to this one subject. How to make a fast derby car? How to cut out your car? What's the best shape for your car?
And I will be the first to tell you that we researched a lot before this ever came up.
Even our council's Facebook has posted so many interesting things about derby..and tips.
So anyway, you will start off with a block of wood. Our pack provided us with derby box, which had a piece of wood, 4 tires and 4 nails. When I saw the wood, I was thinking how in the world do we turn it into a car? I don't have any fancy tools so I bought one of those little saws that come in the kits at the scout store. After sawing on 1 pc for 30 min, I went and invested in a drimmel. Between the drimmel and a drill, my brother in law, Josh, helped make it look like a car.
Even our council's Facebook has posted so many interesting things about derby..and tips.
So anyway, you will start off with a block of wood. Our pack provided us with derby box, which had a piece of wood, 4 tires and 4 nails. When I saw the wood, I was thinking how in the world do we turn it into a car? I don't have any fancy tools so I bought one of those little saws that come in the kits at the scout store. After sawing on 1 pc for 30 min, I went and invested in a drimmel. Between the drimmel and a drill, my brother in law, Josh, helped make it look like a car.
He even taught my son to use a drimmel! I'm not going to lie because while he educated my son, I also learned how to use it...lol
So once we had the basic shape, we went home and painted it. My son wanted to do skulls and asked it I could paint it.. I'm an ok painter but I knew I couldn't do a skull. So I went to Hobby Lobby.
Fact: Hobby Lobby has a nice section for derby. There are weights, derby kits like Batman cars, dry graphite, scales and stick/rub on decorations for the cars. And you can use a 40% off coupon! So I bought his rub on skulls there. And this is a batman kit I bought for me to do.
Yes those are my Olaf pants..lol. but I loved this kit. No cutting required. Came with weights, paint, sticker decorations, sandpaper, paint brushes, wheels and nails. And I loved making this one.
My son's was a lot more work and I actually like his better...don't tell him that.
I did all the gluing of the driver and motor. LJ put on the wheels with Daddy's help. He helped me spray paint it yellow. He put some of the rub on decorations with. He had more fun working on this with his father than with me. I don't mind, it was fun to see my husband and my 7 year old brag about who was going to win.
So we missed the big day with the other packs because of some kids not being ready. At 1st I thought that was rude to postpone out pack because of a few kids. But honestly, I thought everything came together better than what it would have been. And I loved having ALL the kids in our pack participate.
We had it at a park that was close to our meeting place. And it was a blast! While adults were getting everything ready, the kids played on the playground right next to our pavilion. It was free for our pack to have it there and the kids would just run off between rounds to get some energy out.
Everyone came together to really help this be a great day. Ms Melanie got breakfast items, including milk and donuts. Ms Josie came with a huge platter of fruit that the kids devoured. Our new cubmaster was engaging with everyone. Our den leaders set up the track and fine tuned everything. And it was a lot of fun!
And this is how your son will act when his car races... this was the 5th race that his car participated in and so far he won all of them.
I was very proud of my son. He went the whole race undefeated and won a gold medal. Oh, the night before the race, I weighed his car in at 4.99... so to get that extra 0.01 oz, I painted his weights at the bottom. It worked! His car was exactly 5 oz. They clocked his car going 179 miles per hour. His usual time was between 2.7 and 2.8 secs.
Everyone kept asking what we did to his car to make it so fast. I don't know! We spray painted 3 layers of yellow, we sealed everything with modge podge, we distributed the weights everywhere.. I just followed directions from the internet.
When they called my son up to get his medal, his little 7 year old chest puffed up with pride. I noticed this because I never saw him puff up before..lol
So yeah, it was nice. And the funny thing is that before the race and all through the race, I kept telling him that it's ok if he lost. He would still get a badge. I was basically getting him ready to loose. I had no idea that he would win! Undefeated!
In 2017, he again placed.
And trust us, we had no clue he would.
2nd place!
The boy's cars are in the pic above. My car is the bottom set of pictures. All the kids loved it. And we, as adults, get to use the track after the official race. It's a lot of fun and the kids love it.
And again in 2018, he made first! Boy that was a close race!
He also refused help from us in making his car. The only thing my husband got to do was cut out is cut out my SON's design and I got to help epoxy the battery in the car. The rest, he did!
His car was the one with lights. He said it helped teleport the car to the finish line. My husbands was the blue car and mine was carved like a desk with books on it, complete with a lamp that I couldn't figure out how to make light up. LOL. My son's car beat EVERYONE'S car, including the adults and his old first place car.
If you would like to help support James in his adventures with scouts, please click Here
Thank you!
No comments:
Post a Comment