- FOUND - My Vintage Pinewood Derby Cars
Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 7:26 am
Ever since my son, Noah received his first pinewood Derby car to build (back in 2006), I have been looking for my old pinewood derby cars to share with him. Back in 1992 I had packed them away when we were moving to our new house, never to be seen again.
Every year I take a couple of nights and look through some old boxes in the basement for the cars. Probably at this point, I have been through all of the boxes multiple times looking for the cars. So last week I was again looking through the same boxes (for the same cars), and I had an idea, maybe the cars were in the attic over the garage.
So I finally got a chance to look up in the garage attic. I looked through a couple of boxes of car parts, and then I saw something, it was an old printer box.
The box seemed kind of out of place, I was thinking “this might be the box”. But I had thought that before about some other boxes. So I climbed over to it and opened up the box:
And there they were (nice job of careful wrapping), thrown in with some other junk. So I brought the box down and took some pictures of the cars my dad and I built somewhere between 1971 and 1974.
Back in the early 70s Cub Scouts was a 3 year program, it ran from 3rd to 5th grade. You started as a Wolf and then moved to Bear and on to Webelos. Here are some pictures of my Wolf car:
This was our first pinewood derby car (my dad also helped my reject brother build a car also), so apparently the 5oz. weight limit did not mean much. Of course the cars were measured on a spring type postal scale, that wasn’t very accurate:
The car looks as if it could have been sanded better before the paint was applied and the rear body is not very symmetrical, but it was my first pinewood car (and it is great). It was decorated with plastic model decals that my dad had, and has a thumb tack as a steering wheel.
The Bear car is finished better (could maybe have used some better detail sanding on the edges):
The Bear car has additional weights on the bottom of the car to bring up the weight (maybe a little too much). This was the year when we moved into our new house and moved to a new Cub Scout pack. I remember we needed to paint the bottom of the car black so the finish sensors would pick up the car crossing the finish line, the new pack had one of those electronical sensors to determine the winner. I seem to remember it was lights that showed 1st place (that is what I remember, but that was almost 40 years ago at this point, so I could be wrong). The thumb tack accessories continue.
The Webelo car is a lot smoother. I think I remember painting this car in a cardboard box with model spray paint. This car is way advanced as it actually has a wooden, Fisher Price driver in it (back when they were made of wood). But it is also way underweight. And yes the steering wheel cannot be seen, so the thumb tack accessory is headlights.
None of these cars ever had a chance at winning a trophy, but that is alright. Just looking at them makes me very happy.
It is good to finally have my original pinewood derby cars back (I guess I always knew I had them, but where, was the trouble). Noah can’t wait to put them with all of the other family pinewood derby cars.
I just want to thank my dad for helping me to build these cars (and all of the memories that go along with them). I guess that is indeed what this pinewood derby stuff is for. I guess winning is something, but it is definitely not everything.
Every year I take a couple of nights and look through some old boxes in the basement for the cars. Probably at this point, I have been through all of the boxes multiple times looking for the cars. So last week I was again looking through the same boxes (for the same cars), and I had an idea, maybe the cars were in the attic over the garage.
So I finally got a chance to look up in the garage attic. I looked through a couple of boxes of car parts, and then I saw something, it was an old printer box.
The box seemed kind of out of place, I was thinking “this might be the box”. But I had thought that before about some other boxes. So I climbed over to it and opened up the box:
And there they were (nice job of careful wrapping), thrown in with some other junk. So I brought the box down and took some pictures of the cars my dad and I built somewhere between 1971 and 1974.
Back in the early 70s Cub Scouts was a 3 year program, it ran from 3rd to 5th grade. You started as a Wolf and then moved to Bear and on to Webelos. Here are some pictures of my Wolf car:
This was our first pinewood derby car (my dad also helped my reject brother build a car also), so apparently the 5oz. weight limit did not mean much. Of course the cars were measured on a spring type postal scale, that wasn’t very accurate:
The car looks as if it could have been sanded better before the paint was applied and the rear body is not very symmetrical, but it was my first pinewood car (and it is great). It was decorated with plastic model decals that my dad had, and has a thumb tack as a steering wheel.
The Bear car is finished better (could maybe have used some better detail sanding on the edges):
The Bear car has additional weights on the bottom of the car to bring up the weight (maybe a little too much). This was the year when we moved into our new house and moved to a new Cub Scout pack. I remember we needed to paint the bottom of the car black so the finish sensors would pick up the car crossing the finish line, the new pack had one of those electronical sensors to determine the winner. I seem to remember it was lights that showed 1st place (that is what I remember, but that was almost 40 years ago at this point, so I could be wrong). The thumb tack accessories continue.
The Webelo car is a lot smoother. I think I remember painting this car in a cardboard box with model spray paint. This car is way advanced as it actually has a wooden, Fisher Price driver in it (back when they were made of wood). But it is also way underweight. And yes the steering wheel cannot be seen, so the thumb tack accessory is headlights.
None of these cars ever had a chance at winning a trophy, but that is alright. Just looking at them makes me very happy.
It is good to finally have my original pinewood derby cars back (I guess I always knew I had them, but where, was the trouble). Noah can’t wait to put them with all of the other family pinewood derby cars.
I just want to thank my dad for helping me to build these cars (and all of the memories that go along with them). I guess that is indeed what this pinewood derby stuff is for. I guess winning is something, but it is definitely not everything.