Isaac's Derby Car Weekend!

by Bill Martin III (Grandpa)

This post is long overdue.  As I sit here with Isaac on Memorial Day Weekend, I want to post a favorite memory of Isaac and Grandpa's from earlier this year:

Yesterday, Isaac (grandson, almost 7 years old) made a Pinewood Derby car. We found a design and template online as well as hundreds of sites that give tops on how to build them and make them fast. He cut out the template and since it wasn't exactly to scale, I helped him trace it to fit the block. We then headed out to the garage to cut it out. I traced the car shape on some practice boards and with safety glasses on we practiced cutting out cars on the band saw. (I have a beautiful old Delta band saw that was my grandfather's.) Then Isaac cut out his pinewood derby car. I then showed I-man how to sand the car with course paper and a sanding block. He got bored with this pretty quickly so I finished sanding out the saw marks and getting it to size.

I then went to Ken's Market to get an accurate weight of the car. The rules allow the car to be 5 ounces and you need to add weight to achieve this. Isaac and I had picked up some weights as well as paints and decals the previous day at Hobby Lobby in Gaylord. I drilled three holes in the back part of the car and burried the weights inside. Since I didn't have any plastic wood or bondo handy I covered the holes with spackle which turned out to work just fine. I also chiseled out a couple of recesses into the bottom of the car to hold the final allowable weight.

Isaac then gave the car the final smooth sanding. I set up a table on the porch on which to paint the car. I set up one of the practice cars that Isaac first cut out to use to practice painting. We found that Isaac's hands are not strong enough yet to hold a spray can and depress the nozzle with his pointing finger. So he managed to work the spray can by holding it two handed and depressing the nozzle with a thumb. Good thing we bought extra paint because it took a lot of practice to learn to keep moving the can and spray past the car being painted then stop and go the other way. 

So, I-man put the first coat of paint on the car. Unfortunately, (or maybe luckily) it was bed time and Isaac did "good brushing" and went to bed. While Isaac slept, grandpa sanded a few runs out of the first coat and applied two more finish coats. After Isaac found his Easter eggs and Easter presents this morning he looked at his car and noted how nice and shiny it looked. Today he will finish up by applying the decals and car number. The wheels and axels are ready to install but I am going to try to convince Isaac to wait till race day to install them cause they are pretty fragile and can easily get nocked out of wack. Plus we bought some graphite to lube them with and it is very messy.

So, I had a great Easter weekend with my grandson. I hope you had a great Easter weekend too.

Renegade Car!

Today Isaac is heading north for a great adventure, building his Pinewood Derby car with Grandpa.  I’m hoping they send some pictures so we can post here!  We sent a car for grandpa to build one too. !

My Bear Snuffy!

I have a little teddy bear named Snuffy. He is black. He is very special to me. I like to sleep with him at night time, he has he has white underwear on all the time he also has a karate uniform.  I love him. I got him from build a bear in Florida.

Here I am!

These are some photos of me!

 I'm standing on a huge crack in Mullet Lake!

 This is me at the Museum.

 This is me getting my new belt!

 This is me at Karate!

This is the radio station WHMI that we visited for Cub Scouts!

 This is me