2009 Parent/Sibling car AMX/3
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2009 12:22 pm
The car I wanted to build this year was a 39 Chevy Street Rod, but as time wore on I realized that there was not enough time to Finish up the Batmobile and The Mach 5 and build a street rod pinewood car (carving out and finishing fenders can take a lot of time).
Late last year another member of DerbyTalk had built an AMX/2 derby car -- My AMX/2 derby car-- when I viewed the post, I had recently obtained a poster of an AMX/3 and found some additional pictures of AMX/3s and started some drawings of it, and that is where I left it. It seemed like the AMX/3 would be an easy build (but I had almost completed 2 convertible PWD cars, so just about anything seemed easy). I just needed to complete the top view of the car in the plans.
I didn’t even start my car until 5 days before the derby. The first night I glued it up and cut it out with the band saw. The second I worked on carving it out, the third I had some time to sand and prime...
When it came time for paint I needed to paint 2 colors in a couple of hours. I read the side of the Krylon paint I was using it said dry to the touch in 12 minutes. I had already painted the top red, so after 20 minutes after the last coat of red I masked the red and cut out the wheel wells and painted the bottom black. I waited the 12 to 15 minutes and pulled off the masking tape (expecting to see paint peeling off with the tape), and it was just fine.
After adding the decals and clearing the car I put the wheels on. The first time down the test board the car the car turned hard to the left (it hadn’t done this when I tested it as a block), after 4 or 5 more times down the test board I figured out what was happening.
I originally had drilled out some wood to get the car down to 4.8 oz. before painting. We have always run our cars “backward”, with the long overhang towards the back. This car is built with the long overhang in the front, there was apparently too much weight still in the front of the car and it was riding on the raised wheel. So I drilled out some more wood from the front and added some lead to the rear. It took two moves before it would not lean towards the front.
The car finished 7th in a group of 20 racers.
Late last year another member of DerbyTalk had built an AMX/2 derby car -- My AMX/2 derby car-- when I viewed the post, I had recently obtained a poster of an AMX/3 and found some additional pictures of AMX/3s and started some drawings of it, and that is where I left it. It seemed like the AMX/3 would be an easy build (but I had almost completed 2 convertible PWD cars, so just about anything seemed easy). I just needed to complete the top view of the car in the plans.
I didn’t even start my car until 5 days before the derby. The first night I glued it up and cut it out with the band saw. The second I worked on carving it out, the third I had some time to sand and prime...
When it came time for paint I needed to paint 2 colors in a couple of hours. I read the side of the Krylon paint I was using it said dry to the touch in 12 minutes. I had already painted the top red, so after 20 minutes after the last coat of red I masked the red and cut out the wheel wells and painted the bottom black. I waited the 12 to 15 minutes and pulled off the masking tape (expecting to see paint peeling off with the tape), and it was just fine.
After adding the decals and clearing the car I put the wheels on. The first time down the test board the car the car turned hard to the left (it hadn’t done this when I tested it as a block), after 4 or 5 more times down the test board I figured out what was happening.
I originally had drilled out some wood to get the car down to 4.8 oz. before painting. We have always run our cars “backward”, with the long overhang towards the back. This car is built with the long overhang in the front, there was apparently too much weight still in the front of the car and it was riding on the raised wheel. So I drilled out some more wood from the front and added some lead to the rear. It took two moves before it would not lean towards the front.
The car finished 7th in a group of 20 racers.