2011, pinewood derby cars (TRON)

[sporty]

K-

Here is Tron. Its a prototype.

We are gonna make another one, but better, I painted black on clear plastic, masked off the lines. but even with using pre-mask, it had some bleeding issues.

So I am gonna do a vinyl template. Got the leds off center aswell.


Some brief info.

3mm led blue used. 4 used. I think next time will use 6.

6 AG 13 batteries, cheap china ones I got off e-bay for like $2.00 for 10 of them.

Plastic bottom, chrom vinyl ontop and inside the wood walls and underneath the top cover, chrome vinyl placed for better reflection the the blue leds

Car not 100% built, need to add weight and wheels. adjust some of the wires and mount on / off switch. Which Im just gonna use soem copper foil for the contact for on off and rotate it or something. The switch I got, you have to hold on to be on. Small but not what I want.


So should have a better tron car in a few days. Until now, this is the first atempt and it glows nice. just uneven and you can see the not so perfect lines after bleed through of the paint.

More cars to come, Just did not get pics of them yet. Non led ones. and hope again to get the better tron car done within a week.


with led on and lights on in room-



lights off with led on, tried to block camera light and red light, but did not work so well.








Let me know what you think ? Does it look okay ?

The led looks better in person, does not look so bad, but in pic you can see some of the wires, I did not hide them good enough.

Sporty

[pwrd by tungsten]

Very Sweet Sporty!!!!!!!!!!!

[sporty]

Here is a logo I did, added onto plastic already.

It's not completely like I want, A line or two off center. But no bleeding with paint and looks better. I may tweek it some more. I also did a clue one.

I will maybe have them done tonight or sunday evening and will post them. I had to order some more batteries though.





Do you think the line art, image looks okay ? Or change some more ? Does it look close enough ? Or should the design look more like the first one, that is finished ?

Sporty

[pwrd by tungsten]

It is going to be so cool no matter what....

However I think I like the doubled up lines fo the first one...

I am not a huge Tron expert though...

[1Dad2Scouts]

That's cool! You got my wheels turnin'!

[sporty]

Clue - Yellow.


Here is pic of the back of the top, it looks like gray, but it's chrome backed, to add better light pick up. I also went back to the first design, just not painted, but done with a plotter. Got one or two more to make, a blue tron like this, dont want to take apart the first one. Then I'd like to do a red one also.

I will do more pictures when I get more batteries and the copper foil and have the weight and wheels on. It will look better.



Inside of the car, Leds- 6 , clear,(yellow). I think for yellow, the clear bulb is not the best way to go without a yellow tint plastic used.





Top on the car-




Lighted up, but yellow does not look as good as blue. But looks good in person.



I turned out the lights for the next pictures, I was getting that red light from the camera and causing it to look red, when I took the picture.







I think I should have added 2 more leds at the very back. I think el tape in blue and yellow would work better also. but the inverter is big.

[sporty]

I am thinking a chap-stick tube empty will work for placing the batteries inside of them. then place 1/2 in the weight placement whole and use tungsten plates under the weight area. Them cubes glues in at the very back.

I'm giving up about 1.5 oz of weight to do this. Atleast the batteriest are where I would usually place my some of my weight. So we are also giving up some speed. I just do not know how much until its all together and then we can test and tune and see what we can get them to run and how much less we loose in time due to this type of car.

I'll share that also when they are all done and track tested. We also have 4 other cars, built and already tested and tuned. But they are nothing fancy.

[sporty]

TRON-

with light and flash on-





with flash off-(duh figured out how to turn off and red light )








with the lights off-


I'm really happy now how they are looking, my son solderied the blue led wires, his frst time. He was all excited. I need to cut a few more decals, I ran out of black and the tron on one side messed up, lol.

I'm done palying with these until the rest of the parts come.


P.S. My kids said I should sell em or do a kit of them.
Sporty

[whodathunkit]

Sporty,

how do you do it man? COOL!!!!

[sarge]

That looks sweet!

Have you thought of using a frosted piece of plastic for the top?
It may spread the light more evenly and hide whats under it.

[sporty]

I thought about froster, or what they call defuser / defused plastic. Not sure where I would find some, as thin and light as what I am using.

I have some etching solution but its for glass. I think using neon transluesent film would work also.

You ever seen that yellow plastic or blue plastic, sometimes used for gift wrapping or on some candys wrapped with it. that would work also.

I may play around with that stuff.

Sporty

[FatSebastian]

You ever seen that yellow plastic or blue plastic, sometimes used for gift wrapping or on some candys wrapped with it.

Celophane I think?

[tgrimstead]

That looks awesome man! Never seen Tron, but that is still sweet.

[sporty]

Yeps.

I ordered a few things,

defusser vinyl plastic sheet to try, transparent neon blue, red, yellow, sheets. I also ordered some of the transparent celphane. thanls Fatsebastain.

So be a few days to try these out. It still looks very good as is, but There is room for improvement for more even led light distrubtion. I just dont want to loose the color look I have now and dull the brightness.

Sporty

[*5 J's*]

lookin' sharp Sporty.