Cars, Cars, and More Cars!

Greeting All!

The Big Awana Grand Prix is not until March, but Jon and I are trying to get a head start. My first project is a dump truck. Here is a picture of the unfinished version. I still have a lot to do on it. My sample car is a cast iron truck that used to be my Grandpa's. It's pretty beat up. It's never been taken care of, so it doesn't look too good.

In my last post I showed you a picture of my car that flew apart when it crossed the finish line. This year my truck will shoot a blast of fire out the exhust pipe which you can see behind the cab. One of my next steps is to paint it and then put a switch on the bottom to turn on the glow plug and ignite the flash paper. I don't want to wire it up before I get it painted. I'll send another picture when I finish it.

Jon is working on several cars, one for Audrey and one for Madison. They will both shoot flash paper as well. Audrey's will be an army tank with a cannon in the front. It will be activated the same as mine. Jon took the micro switches from some old printers. They are ideal for what we want. Audrey's tank will be covered with camoflaged shrink wrap and will have eight wheels--four to a side. Since speed is a major concern, it will only have three wheels that touch--less friction you know. I'm not sure what Madison's car will be. He'll also make cars for himself and Annette.

Here is a picture of the car I plan to make for Gma's entry. I bought this model. I won't put it together, but I did scan a side and a top view which I'll use for tracing the car on the wood block.

I'll use some of the parts on the wooden model--the radiator you can see on the front, the head and tail lights and wind shield and anything else that I can scavage. As you can see on the box, it is a 32 Ford Street Rod. When we have curved fenders and other parts we usually use the light weight patching plaster you can get at Lowe's. When you get it painted with a gloss coat on top, you can't tell where the wood and plaster come together.

We don't usually use the solid wood block since the cars would go over the 5 ounce limit. We used to drill holes in them to get rid of the extra weight. Now we just glue parts together and have a hollow car. You can always add weights. My truck is up to 4 ounces without the paint, so I might have to add a little bit. They go faster if you can keep the weight as close as possible to the max.

You ought to have your church start an adult division of the Awana Grand Prix just for the grown up boys in your church. We have a lot of fun with it.

Love Gpa G.