2011 car a 1959 Cadillac

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ah8tk
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2011 car a 1959 Cadillac

Post by ah8tk »

2011 car a 1959 Cadillac
On Christmas Eve as we were leaving my sister’s house, my nine year old niece came up and asked "can you help me build my pinewood car?" (at this point it was Christmas for me!) Of course I said yes, I asked her if she had the kit and the rules. She said she was going to get the kit the next time she went to her Wednesday church class. I told her mother we needed the kit (assuming it was an Awana kit), the rules and if she could find out what kind of track the race was going to be run on.

The day after Christmas, Noah and I were going to some hobby shops to look at stuff. On the way we decided to call my niece and see if she could come along with us and look at cars to see what she would like to build. She liked a lot of cars from a 63 Thunderbird to a 2002 Camaro, but at the end the final car she chose was a 59 Cadillac. I told her the 59 Cadillac could have come from the factory in a pink color. My niece told me she hates the color pink, she would like her car to be black with a white top.

For the next couple of weeks she was not able to attend the Wednesday night class. When she got the kit she called me and said the car needed to be completed the next Wednesday for the weigh in. This left us only 7 days to complete her car. We arranged for her to stay over with my son on the weekend and also for the school holiday. I placed an order with Maximum Velocity for some extra Awana wheels and axles (in case we had gotten some so-so wheels or axles) and an Awana Pro Body tool.

I had drawn up some plans and when she arrived she drew up her plans for the car using some pictures and a die cast model of a 59 Cadillac:

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The kit she had received was not an Awana kit, but a Maximum Velocity kit. The MV kit has excellent wheels and axles included with the kit and of course a very nice pine block (I would recommend this kit to anyone having a derby that does not require a specific kit, very good parts). Her block had been “pre-cut” by someone at the church so all we needed to do was finish it (yea right):

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The rules say we needed to use the block included with the kit so we glued the pre cut block to another MV block and trimmed all of the pre cut from the block:

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We then drilled new axle holes into the new block, put the wheels on and ran it down our test board:

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We cut some 1X sides and cut out the wheelwells out on the jig saw. I guided her cutting out the first hole and she completed the other three holes with me looking on:

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She then used the drum sander to clean up the cuts and to make the wheelwells even around the wheels. We marked and cut out the bulk of the wood in the center of the car, before we glued the sides to the car:

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And saved this much weight:

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Then I ran the car through the table saw to reduce its width to 2 11/16”:

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She used the plans to mark the block for cutting out the shape:

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We then worked on rough carving of the block:

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Then we had to make the rear light pods out of 1/8” dowels. The trimming and the fitting took a long time:

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Then the sanding began, she began with 150 and then sanded again with 220 grit:

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Then she adjusted the weight to 4.75 oz. I figured there was going to be a lot of aluminum tape applied, on this build, so I didn’t want to go the traditional 4.8 oz weight we usually use before paint. We had drilled out most of the excess wood in front of the wheels and we had a aluminum cover for the bottom cut out. My niece was able to add almost 3/4 of an ounce to the rear of the car:

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She then applied primer to the car and set it aside to dry for about an hour.

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After the dry time we applied some spot putty and sanded, re-primed and sanded with 600 grit.

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Back out for paint, painted the top white (wait 30 minutes) mask the top and spray the black.

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During the time we were waiting for primer, spot putty and paint to dry, Noah, taught my niece how to polish the axles using the drill press. She also used chrome tape to customize the wheels for her car.

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At this point she needed to go home and get prepared for school the next day, so I told I would finish the car and bring it to her on Wednesday. All that was left to do was apply the decals and chrome tape and put the wheels on and align.

The next day, after work, I applied the chrome tape and the decals. I didn’t want to spray clear on the car as I have had enough paint troubles in the past, so I decided to use Future floor wax (it had worked in the past without any troubles). The only trouble with Future is it dries very slowly so you need to cover it or you can end up with a lot of dist in the clear. Here was my solution:

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The next morning I had slid the wheels on and placed the car on the scale, expecting it to still be less than 5.0 oz. But the scale read 5.03 oz. I figured that if they used a 2 digit scale we were still at 5.0, but you can’t count on that. So I went looking for somewhere to lose some weight from. I finally trimmed a little off of the aluminum cover:

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- - - - - - - - - - The 1959 Cadillac - - - - - - - - - -

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Then we needed a name for our race team, after a lot of ideas (some good some not so good) we came up with this:

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When I was building some more car carriers for our cars I purchased a small toolbox and made an insert for her car:

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The race is Wednesday night, can’t wait!
Last edited by ah8tk on Sat Dec 12, 2015 8:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Scubersteve
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Re: 2011 car a 1959 Cadillac

Post by Scubersteve »

Wow, that is great work. I'm sure it'll be a hit at the race.
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sporty
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Re: 2011 car a 1959 Cadillac

Post by sporty »

ah8tk


nice article, history and awesome work and great looking car.

All the stuff you do or are involved with is just works of art.

Sporty
Chipper
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Re: 2011 car a 1959 Cadillac

Post by Chipper »

ah8tk,

That is wonderful. Thanks for showing us the process you did with your niece. And also, thanks again for your permission to use your design and help in the trophy/display stand project we will be doing soon.

Chipper in Yankton, SD
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Re: 2011 car a 1959 Cadillac

Post by quadad »

Awesome !!!!!!!!
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Re: 2011 car a 1959 Cadillac

Post by whodathunkit »

It's all about putting a :) on a childs face.
Love the 1959 Cadillac!
And good job useing the PPE (personal protective equipment) kids!
Safty First Always! & Good luck with the race.

Very nice looking Cadillac! :clap:
What type of automobile can be spelled the same forwards & backwards?
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ah8tk
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Re: 2011 car a 1959 Cadillac

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We went to the race Wednesday night, I was expecting the track to be an old wood PWD track that has been around for years. But no, it was a new 32’ aluminum Freedom track.

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In the check in / repair area they had a Milwaukee Hole Hawg with a forstner bit in it mounted to some sort of drill press, for weight removal, and a older analog postal scale for measuring weight.

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The race was run using Gran Prix Race Manager , racing for points, so there was a lot of racing. There was only one other car there that could top the ’59 Cadillac in the preliminary racing. They advanced 8 cars to a run off then took the top three and had a championship round. This is where I feel the graphite car was slowing down and our car was staying the same.

here is a video of the `59 racing in the prelims:

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In the championship round all 3 cars raced once in each lane, we won 2 and the other fast car won 2, so I was unsure if we had first or second place. They announced the design winners, and her car was first. Then it was the speed awards and she got a second, first place trophy for speed.

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All in all a good night of racing, being her first PWD, I think she had fun. Maybe another kid hooked on Pinewood Derby. At the end I asked my niece what made her car fast, she told me it was placing most of the weight in the rear (I guess she did learn something).

This is the first time I have had anything to do with an AWANA race, this one was very well run and quite entertaining.

Thanks all, for the compliments on the car!
Last edited by ah8tk on Sat Dec 12, 2015 8:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 2011 car a 1959 Cadillac

Post by Scubersteve »

congrats to her (and a little to you too) on the win. Good work all around.
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Re: 2011 car a 1959 Cadillac

Post by gpraceman »

That stop section hanging off the end of the table would make me very nervous! Some really fast cars may not stop in time being taking the plunge, especially once that stop sections gets a bit of wear and embedded with graphite. :eek: I always throw a jacket or rolled up towel on the end of the stop section as a "just in case" precaution.
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Awana Grand Prix and Pinewood Derby racing - Where a child, an adult and a small block of wood combine for a lot of fun and memories.
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ah8tk
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Re: 2011 car a 1959 Cadillac

Post by ah8tk »

There was one car that did this (the other fast car), in the last race. But the 59 always stopped straight and true.
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Re: 2011 car a 1959 Cadillac

Post by whodathunkit »

ah8tk & kids.
CONGRATS on the design & speed awards!
Alot of good hard work the smiles say it all.

I really like the wheel style of the max-v mv kit!
It sure made the hub caps pop on the little tuches
on your 1959 Cadillac.
What type of automobile can be spelled the same forwards & backwards?
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Re: 2011 car a 1959 Cadillac

Post by dirtjoedirt »

beautiful car. I am curious tho..how did you make the front grill?
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ah8tk
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Re: 2011 car a 1959 Cadillac

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The grill is made by forming the front end of the car to get it to look like the car you are building. The car is painted and ready for finish decals:

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A piece of aluminum tape is fitted to the front of the car to match the shape of the grill (the chrome part). Then a decal, black lines printed on clear decal paper is affixed over the aluminum tape:

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The rest of the decals are applied and the car is clearcoated (or in this case future floor polished):

When it is complete it looks like this (the license plate is actually a separate decal printed on white decal paper):

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This car was built in a week so there was not a lot of time to go back to get it right (I knew the decal was wide enough to fit the car, but the height was off). If there was, I would have elongated the grill decal. So there wasn’t so much space below the front bumper (it would have looked better).
Last edited by ah8tk on Sat Dec 12, 2015 8:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 2011 car a 1959 Cadillac

Post by dirtjoedirt »

where did you get the decal and aluminum tape from. I'm all about taking some ones ideas and making them my own :D
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ah8tk
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Re: 2011 car a 1959 Cadillac

Post by ah8tk »

I use Microsoft Visio to draw the decals and print them on Micro Mark decal paper.

The aluminum tape explanation is here.
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