Refinishing old homemade pack track

DIY tracks.
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JSG
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Refinishing old homemade pack track

Post by JSG »

Our pack has an older homemade wood track that is getting a little rough. The lathe center rail has alot of unneccasary joints and splinters easily. Unfortunately I think it is held down with nails and an adhesive so replacing the center rail probably wouldn't be easy. We thought about sanding the whole track down and putting coats of polyurethane on it. With years of graphite getting worked into it I don't know how well it would adhere to it. Also where the track sections join the plywood doesn't mate up well. There is about a 1/16" drop from one section to the next. My thought was to build a better joint with a piece of flat steel on the bottom rather than plywood. Another option would be to just build up the lower section side with epoxy so the transition is smoother.

Any thoughts are appreciated
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Darin McGrew
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Re: Refinishing old homemade pack track

Post by Darin McGrew »

It sounds like refinishing the old track would be a lot more work than building a new one.
doct1010
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Re: Refinishing old homemade pack track

Post by doct1010 »

Darin McGrew wrote:It sounds like refinishing the old track would be a lot more work than building a new one.
My thought as well.
JSG
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Re: Refinishing old homemade pack track

Post by JSG »

:D Yeah we talked about that. Our biggest problem is that everyones hung up on keeping the track at 6 lanes. Our budget is tight but we could probably get enough material donated to refinish it. Maybe I'll look into how much it would cost in materials to build one.
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gpraceman
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Re: Refinishing old homemade pack track

Post by gpraceman »

One option would be to pull off the lane guides (best you can if they are glued on), give the whole track a good sanding, attach some new lane guides, and give it a few good coats of polyurethane.

Another option is to use the BetaCrafts aluminum plating to resurface the track. You'd still need to pull off the old lane guides, but overall, it would seem to be less work than the first option I mentioned.

Final option would be to build a brand new track.
Randy Lisano
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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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