I am making my daughter's car to look like my C5 and it is shaping up nicely. I would like to put some kind of Corvette decals on it but can't find anything on the web. Does anyone know where I might be able to score these?

 

Check out your local hobby shop and purchase a plastic model kit of your model corvette. The decals found in the kit will work on your pinewood car. Many people in our Scout pack do this.

Jim

 

um... forgive my stupidity... but isn't the theory that SHE's supposed to make it?

 

Duh...never thought of that. Kinda expensive tho to spend $10-15 on a model for stickers for a $3 car. LOL
She is 10. Do you have young children? I have to cut it out on the band saw for her, then she sands it. She wants it to be fast and look good so I have to help her. She helps me out with everything she is capable of doing herself.

 

Yes I had children, and when they were young it was done whittling with a knife to get the shape and they also decorated it. Yes, I advised and answered any questions, discussed how to make it faster and why it would make if faster, but they did the work themselves. To each their own.

 

Pardon this dumb question... I have a 7 yr old daughter which is why I ask... do girls now enter the Boys Scouts and hence the Pinewood Derby or do Girl Scouts now enter the former Boy Scouts Pinewood derby? Been a long time since I did it myself. For what it's worth, my grandpa made me do most of the car myself but he helped a little so my car wasn't 100% junk. I thought my car looked great but it ran like a dog. All the kids that had parental help had weight loaded in the nose, etc. I wasn't dead last but I was toward the bottom. LOL!!!! I think my car looked similar to the Dodge 024 Omni but carried the Smokey and the Bandit colors. Good memories!!

 

Just a few speed tips. Polish the axles and the bore of the wheels. Use a small file and knock the crimp marks off the axles before using sand paper to polish. Use toothpaste and a pipe cleaner for the wheel bores. Add the weight to the back of the car. You want the car to balance at about an inch in front of the rear axle. Check out derbytalk.com, lots of good info.

It seems to be a controversial subject on how much of the actual work the scout does. I helped my youngest grandson build his car. For the most part I took the project over even including the design to get the most speed (axles closest to the rear of the car). He helped all he wanted too but not all he was capable of doing. He won every race at pack level! He was really excited but I could tell his attitude was not a sense of accomplishment or pride. He placed well at district and council races, didn't win, was disappointed and his attitude was where do we shoot the bow and arrows.

I felt i may have had made a mistake by not "MAKING" him do all he was capable of doing on the car. This year another grandson ask me to help him. I said sure, pick out what you want to make and we will go from there. He picked a hummer. Bad axle placement for speed but by golly its his car and we will build it. I had to make him do everything he was capable of and try some he wasn't. Then I helped. I showed him how to polish axles and then put him in charge of getting it done. He didn't win, placed 3rd. He was very proud of his accomplishment and it showed. He also won the "judges favorite" for his Hummer.

I'm not trying to tell you how to deal with your kid, just my experience. I didn't realize until after all the races for my first grandson were ran what I had actually done. It was almost obvious to me at the races this year which kids had done the most of the work to their cars. One kid showed up with his car and the wheels wouldn't even turn. Someone had told him to glue the axles in the wood block so they wouldn't move. He had used too much glue, it got between the axles and wheels. He knew everything there was to know about his car. Others didn't have a clue how that block of wood had magically turned onto a fast derby car. It all seems a bit unfair to me. But maybe not, one wins the other learns more. In the long run the one that learns more will eventually be the winner. I couldn't help but feel bad for the kid that his wheels wouldn't turn. With a little help from one of the guys there they got them broke loose so he could at least race it.

Didn't realize how long winded I had been til I hit post!

 

You can buy the testers kit where you print whatever image you want with an ink jet printer, then spray it with their clear sealer. These are the water removable decals. The white paper works good. The clear works good with darker colors.

The vette body style is not the best for speed. We made a wide body vette my boy's first year, and it was slow. Now we go low and keep the weight in the back over and around the axle (lead and tungsten). Work the axles and wheels too. I have my son work in half hour blocks over the course of a few months, so he does a good majority of the work and does not loss interest.

 

 

Back to the question of decals, I have seen a lot of 1/24th scale decals on eBay.
Mr.Bill

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trks...at=0&_from=R40

 

Ha ha...my first car was a blue Dodge Omni 024! It was a piece!!! This is a church race called the AWANA Grand Prix. It is very similar to the Boy Scouts Pinewood Derby, so I figured I would just say that as everyone would know what I was referring to.

 

This will be our 4th year...I guess I should have stated that, but it wasn't necessary for my original question. I am letting her do what she wants on it other than cutting. I will let her do the paint, but no electric tools at this age. She has won 3rd and 2nd in past years, but never 1st in racing. She wants this car to be fast and look cool so that is my goal. She is only in 4th grade and just turned 10.

 

Sounds like she is doing well. Good luck to her and post up a pic of her C5 derby car!