Second year racing

Show off your cool vehicle designs and track burning speedsters!
TechGirlPa
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The lights

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TitanNV and Whoda, I will send a better response to everyone tomorrow, but I did weigh a set of the blue lights this evening. They came up as .5 but you have to keep in mind that that is the entire thing. In my case I didn't use all twenty lights and I also shortened the cable coming from the battery compartment in order to make it fit into a smaller space. In one car (skateboard) the cavity was deeper than it needed to be for the batteries, so I was able to add a thin weight above it. Tomorrow I will try to take some pics for you next to a ruler to show the distance between the lights.
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Re: Second year racing

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Ahh that makes sense

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The Lights - More in depth

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Alright guys, I have some pictures for you. Here are the lights to get an idea of their true size right out of the package.
Image

The distance between lights is close to 4". The lights themselves are approximately .25" in length. If you are placing your wiring on the bottom of the car through two holes for each light, simply make each small cavity for each light a little longer than .25". The cavity should also be wide enough to accommodate a hole large enough for your entire light to fit through. I simply held up a light to several small drill bits until I found the perfect size that would not be too small or too large. In the Dino Dig car, I actually did a lot of the wiring and concealing on the top of the car because I wanted an uneven dirt look anyway and I was much less careful about making an even surface. Then after I was done with the top, I made a hole to the bottom for the front bottom light. Also, it is a good idea to leave excess wire on the end after you have cut your wire after the last light. This way if you need to secure the end better, you have the option.
Image

The coated wires going to the light strand reach more than a foot. I shortened mine to about 1" to 1.5" (after completed). Keep in mind though that your actual cuts will need to be longer to make room for splicing your wires back together and taping them. After they are twisted together properly (I also curve mine on the end for extra measure), you can secure them with a tight wrapping of electrical tape. If you happen to have some tiny wire nuts that would fit in your cavity, you could use that too. If you can, leave enough wire that you can pull the battery compartment out in order to change your batteries, but don't leave it so long that it is too difficult to wrap up in the cavity.
Image

This is the battery compartment. Note that I measured it with plenty of room for the power switch to be accessed. When it was time to dremel out the cavity, I just placed it where I wanted it and drew around it, leaving additional space on the switch end of course.
Image

Once everything is in place and secure, you can go around the lights and conceal the holes and wire channels with wood putty. Make sure the channels are deep enough and your wire is sunken into them thoroughly to avoid damaging your wires and lights during sanding. In a couple of places I used hot glue on the back of a light in order to keep it from moving while I was puttying. :)
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Mid America

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Speedster, so I looked into the Mid America race. I haven't registered yet because I will wait a week or so and see how it goes, but.... I may or may not have picked up a "basic racer" block at Lowe's yesterday lol. It looks like they don't light them up in the race so I am working on a design in my head that I can make with the resources I currently have available. I doubt that this year I will do too great, but I very much welcome the learning experience if I can swing the time to make it happen.
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Vitamin K
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Re: Mid America

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TechGirlPa wrote:Speedster, so I looked into the Mid America race. I haven't registered yet because I will wait a week or so and see how it goes, but.... I may or may not have picked up a "basic racer" block at Lowe's yesterday lol. It looks like they don't light them up in the race so I am working on a design in my head that I can make with the resources I currently have available. I doubt that this year I will do too great, but I very much welcome the learning experience if I can swing the time to make it happen.
If you sent a note with the car, they wouldn't turn the lights on for the race?
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Re: Second year racing

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Vitamin K, the rules say that if it has light, they have to be turned off, so I am assuming that means they leave them off for the race. :(
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Vitamin K
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Re: Second year racing

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TechGirlPa wrote:Vitamin K, the rules say that if it has light, they have to be turned off, so I am assuming that means they leave them off for the race. :(
Aww, what a bummer! I wonder why that rule?
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Re: Second year racing

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Vitamin K, I don't know, unless it has to do with the it being something extra for the handlers to take care of for the cars that are sent in.

III. – Prohibited Items that can NOT be used
Magnets, springs or suspension systems of any type.
Starting devices, finish line devices, propellants, or propulsion systems
Wet paint, or Sticky substances
Glass or excessively fragile parts
Electronic or lighting devices (if lights are on the car they must be turned off)
Bearings (except in Pro-Bearing Division)
No use of Guide Pins or such devices
Axles and wheels attached to any device that mechanically alters rotation or spin.
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How not to ship your derby car

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Vitamin K
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Re: Second year racing

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Ah, shipping horror stories!

5Kidsracing put together a pretty good how-to for the NPWDRL league...though it would work just as well for sending to Mid-Ams: http://npwdrl.boards.net/thread/74/5kidsracing-shipping

(You can disregard the stuff on staging notes...not sure if the Mid-America folks follow those conventions.)

Pretty much assume the delivery folks are gonna be playing football with your boxes.
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Re: Second year racing

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Thank you Vitamin K! I assumed I would need foam but I wanted to see how others did it. I have had several items from Amazon damaged lately (one of the light sets was packaged with stain removing spray that burst open), and so if I am going to do this, I want it as secure as humanly possible lol.

Do they send the cars back after the race I wonder?
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Vitamin K
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Re: Second year racing

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TechGirlPa wrote:Thank you Vitamin K! I assumed I would need foam but I wanted to see how others did it. I have had several items from Amazon damaged lately (one of the light sets was packaged with stain removing spray that burst open), and so if I am going to do this, I want it as secure as humanly possible lol.

Do they send the cars back after the race I wonder?
Of course!

You do, of course, need to provide a return shipping label.

If you send to Mid-Americas, it's suggested you send the stuff in a box with some extra space and weight allowance in there, because they send back a LOT of free goodies and, of course, potential trophies.
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Re: Second year racing

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They have a rule for everything!!

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TechGirlPa
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Re: Second year racing

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Tomorrow evening is the church race! I will let everyone know how they do. :)
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Graphite Clean Up

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In case anyone is interested, I have discovered that baby wipes work very well for wiping graphite off of car surfaces! I used Member's Mark (Sam's Club) brand (the unscented). They even worked well on painted surfaces that had little to no top coat.
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