Car Plans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Secrets, tips, tools, design considerations, materials, the "science" behind it all, and other topics related to building the cars and semi-trucks.
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ohiofitter
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Car Plans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by ohiofitter »

I'm not a very artistic guy,when it's comes to drawing. Is there any websites
out there that give you free car plans? I've seen all the pay sites,and wood not rather buy plans from them.
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gpraceman
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Re: Car Plans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by gpraceman »

The Pinewood Derby SuperSite has some good templates that you can use.

http://home.simplyweb.net/bosworth/template.htm

I put these in a binder and let the kids look through them at workshops. For those that don't know what to build at all, it can give them a jump start.
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Darin McGrew
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Re: Car Plans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by Darin McGrew »

There are car books at the library that seem designed as plans for derby cars. They're coffee-table books, with a different classic car on each page. The cars are shown in left profile, right profile, overhead view, front view, and back view. And the size of the page makes the images about 7 inches long bumper-to-bumper.

But you can use pretty much any picture and a photocopier with a zoom feature. To get it to look right, I recommend matching the size of the car's wheels to the size of the derby car wheels, and working everything else from that. (Rules that restrict axle placement may limit your ability to pull off some designs like this.)
Last edited by Darin McGrew on Tue Sep 25, 2007 2:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Darin McGrew
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Re: Car Plans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by Darin McGrew »

gpraceman wrote:The Pinewood Derby SuperSite has some good templates that you can use.

http://home.simplyweb.net/bosworth/template.htm
None of the links to PDF documents (the templates) work any longer. :-(
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psycaz
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Re: Car Plans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by psycaz »

Don't forget about using

http://web.archive.org

to be able to find the templates.

Just copy the shortcuts (right click on the links, then select copy shortcut) then just paste in into the web archive and you can find the templates.

Hope this helps.
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gpraceman
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Re: Car Plans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by gpraceman »

psycaz wrote:Don't forget about using

http://web.archive.org

to be able to find the templates.
That is interesting.

Anyways, I shot an email to Larry Bosworth about the broken links.
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Go Bubba Go
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Re: Car Plans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by Go Bubba Go »

Darin McGrew wrote:...But you can use pretty much any picture and a photocopier with a zoom feature. To get it to look right, I recommend matching the size of the car's wheels to the size of the derby car wheels, and working everything else from that. (Rules that restrict axle placement may limit your ability to pull off some designs like this.)
The method we use that is similar to Darin's recommendation is to take a digital picture from the various sides, then cut and paste the images into a PowerPoint presentation for easy manipulation of size. You can either "pull on the corners" to keep the original ratio of height to width, or "pull on one edge" to vary the height or width independently.

See Ramone - the bouncing, light up, musical Low Rider or Lightning McQueen - Little Bubba's 2007 Car or Grandparent Cars 2007 - Doughboy and Chicken Caddy for examples of using this method not only for the template, but for our "homespun" decals. Note that the Chicken Caddy shows a "build up" rather than "cut out" method of shaping a car, this approach can come in handy for many designs.

Regards,

Bubba
"Who's Grandpa's neighbor?"... Phil Davis, Down and Derby
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Darin McGrew
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Re: Car Plans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by Darin McGrew »

Go Bubba Go wrote:Note that the Chicken Caddy shows a "build up" rather than "cut out" method of shaping a car, this approach can come in handy for many designs.
Absolutely. I figured out quite a while ago that it's easier to build than to carve. A few of my designs take that approach to the extreme: The wheels are attached to a 1/4" slab cut from the original block, and everything else is a decorative shell that is attached to (and that completely covers) the slab. This approach doesn't help your speed at all, but it's a great way to pull off some designs.
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Re: Car Plans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by Go Bubba Go »

Darin McGrew wrote:
Go Bubba Go wrote:Note that the Chicken Caddy shows a "build up" rather than "cut out" method of shaping a car, this approach can come in handy for many designs.
Absolutely. I figured out quite a while ago that it's easier to build than to carve. A few of my designs take that approach to the extreme: The wheels are attached to a 1/4" slab cut from the original block, and everything else is a decorative shell that is attached to (and that completely covers) the slab. This approach doesn't help your speed at all, but it's a great way to pull off some designs.
In pretty close agreement with Darin again, except that our "slabs" are a little thinner and often have the center removed i.e. a rail car frame.

If you get a little creative, the "build up" approach can help your speed for "bulkier" designs in a least a couple of ways:

1) Hollow out the insides of the pieces you are gluing onto your slab. This allows you to remove the weight from the "inside" of the car in a way that you could not do with a conventional cut. Think M&M i.e. "thin candy shell", but with no chocolate or peanuts in the middle (just not too thin or it could be easily damaged during handling).

2) Use balsa, spruce or other lighter wood to make your "body". Our reasoning has been that if a bare rail car is acceptable under the rules, why not a rail car with some other wood glued on top for decoration?

The above techniques result in less weight spread across the middle and front of the car, which allows for better weight distribution (i.e. more towards the rear and more densely concentrated).

The Chicken Caddy makes use of both of these techniques, and still had room for about 2-3 oz. of lead (IIRC) in the rear to maintain the 5 oz. weight limit. Were she made from solid pine, she might have been close to 5 oz. with no weight added.

Mrs. Bubba's The Game of Life - Mrs. Bubba's 2007 car also makes use of a "hollowed out" balsa body, and also had room for 2-3 oz. of lead to maintain the 5 oz. limit (without pegs, that is :wink: ). If you look closely at the Game of Life car, you will see the front end of the "frame" sticking out in front of the body of the car :shhh:
"Who's Grandpa's neighbor?"... Phil Davis, Down and Derby
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chad9229
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Re: Car Plans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by chad9229 »

BSA now has a book out full of designs, I have not purchased it or seen inside of it, but here is a link from Amazon:


http://www.amazon.com/Pinewood-Derby-De ... 004&sr=1-1
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Re: Car Plans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by DerbyAddict »

BSA now has a book out full of designs, I have not purchased it or seen inside of it, but here is a link from Amazon:


http://www.amazon.com/Pinewood-Derby-De ... 004&sr=1-1
The gentleman who wrote this book, Troy Thorne, is a Scouter who also happens to be the Creative Director for Fox Chapel Publishing, a big name in woodworking publications.

This month's Scroll Saw Magazine has plans for making a Jeep for the Pinewood Derby. It all comes out of 1 block of wood and should pass all inspections. I am just finishing one up, styling it as a WWII era Willys and having a blast doing it. (BTW, if you do make this plan and get to the part where you are carving out the front wheel wells, DO NOT use a Dremel with a router bit to help speed up the work. Don't ask me how I know this, but I do.....)

They are offering the article as a PDF download free of charge. Here is the link:

http://www.scrollsawer.com/inthisissue.php

Its called Off-Road Racing Jeep.
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Re: Car Plans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by dstory »

If you are artsy and maybe a bit techie, you should check out SketchUp. It is a free program by Google that could be used to make 3d plans for cars. It is downloadable at http://sketchup.google.com/. I use it with middle school students and they have no problem figuring it out with minimal instruction. I would love to see car plans made using SketchUp.

Happy Racing
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Re: Car Plans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by ah8tk »

here is the direct link to the article, I missed this post in January and had to search the site to find. Looks like an interesting plan.

Off-Road Racing Jeep

http://www.scrollsawer.com/pdfdownloads ... y-jeep.pdf
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Re: Car Plans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by Nitro Dan »

I have over a 120 for downloading over in this thread:

http://www.derbytalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=6218" target="_blank

-Nitro Dan
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