This project started out with the idea to create cars to match an option wheel in one of my grandson's activity books. These were built in 2017. The six images and the corresponding cars are shown below. I started out giving him a single car. Then after several months I'd give him another one. The last few were in the form of a birthday present.
Purple sedan
Green coupe
Red Sports car
Red hatchback
Blue jeep
Orange mini-van
After these 6, I wanted to make a few more. The green bus was based on a couple buses in the book.
The purple truck was just because everyone needs a truck.
And finally the orange hot rod was inspired by a few projects I had seen online.
The color is from Transtint dye - the purple and orange were from mixing 2 colors together. The finish is General Finshes water based polyurethane. I took some time to wax the axles and wheels and add washers. They really scoot on a hard surface!
I have put profile plans for the cars up on a website. I’ll also include them here. Just print them out at a scale that gives the right size for the wheel base. I used blanks that are 1 7/8” thick. I got the wheels & axle pegs from craftparts.com .
Nice job turning fiction into reality, Steve. What are you doing to do when he shows you an ad for a BMW right before his 16th birthday? 😀
There’s a link in your site’s blog that you might want to redirect to here…
I had seen in your LJ bio that you had worked for HP, but I didn’t know you designed printers. I spent a big chunk of my career working on printing/plotting software—UI for composing and submitting print jobs, etc. we always had a couple of HP printers (from big DesignJets to LaserJets) in the lab for development and testing. It’s a small world sometimes.
Those are great Steve, a wonderful gift and they look easy to make with the right tools. Along with being durable for hard playing. Well Done. And thanks for sharing.
Wow, I spend a couple hours on the last gift and come back to all these comments! This place is great!
Dutchy - Thanks - I haven't worked on that website in a few years. Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. Steven - Thanks. I built them a few at a time so I didn't get too tired of scrolling. Luckily my scroll saw will cut 2" thick stock. Ron - If he asks for a BMW he'll get on that is a variation of these above :). Nice catch on the misdirected link! It took me a while to find that one (I fixed it - thanks again). I worked on DeskJet, OfficeJet, and Edgeline printers. Started out on impact printers and then the original DeskJet. ChuckV, shipwirght, Eric, Albert, 987Ron, SplinterGroup, HokieKen - I have to admit I had a good deal of fun "test driving" each one!
G'Day Steve, Not normally a fan of painted wood but these little cars are great sir. Love the shapes and yes, this time the paint brings them alive, ready for hours of fun and play.
Thanks crowie - I used the dyes since I want to get a close match to the pictures in the book. Your natural colored toys always look great Thanks Barb - it was fun to spread this out over several months.
