Pinewood Derby Journey

We are not lumped into the group of cub scout families who spend weeks preparing the wheels for a pinewood derby car,  many late nights perfecting the weights and finally the paint job.   Jason spent a weekend cutting and painting  Jayce’s car and I said I would finish up putting the wheels on before the weigh in the next week due to his leaving for California… 

Conversation between Bro. Vance (Pinewood Derby Professional and seriously awesome guy) and I, as I dropped off Jayce’s car 3 nights before the race. 

Me:  There you go-

Bro. Vance:  Looks good! (picks it up) Hm, it’s really light.  Did you put an weights in it?

Me: Nope, just thought we could slap some on the bottom. 

BV:  (He has a very calm and kind voice) Oh…  Ok… Hmmm.  So, there are no weights in it at all?

Me: Nope.

BV: Ok, we can work on that.  (He spins the wheels a bit)  Sooo, how did you prep the wheels?

Me: Umm, prep? 

BV:  Did you do anything to the wheels?  How did you put them on?  (as he turns over the car and his eyes get wider)

Me: I just took them out of the box, tapped ‘em in with a hammer and then stuck some wood glue on there so they didn’t have a chance to fall off this year.  (yes, we lost a wheel in the past.  I can’t imagine how that happened…)

BV:  (lots of quiet and kind small hims and haws…)

Me: It’s ok,  you aren’t going to hurt my feelings.  What do we do?  (I’m laughing and nearly crying at this point)

BV: Well, I’m just worried I can’t make a car slow enough that this will beat it… (he made a smart car to lose, it was sweet.) I’m not even sure if this car will make it all the way to the end of the track.  I’m surprised the wheels roll at all.  (As he rolls it across the counter)  One of the wheels doesn’t even touch the ground.    He finally starts to laugh. Loudly.  And says well,  what’s Jayce doing right now?  (7:30pm)

They started over completely.  Jayce spent that night until 10 pm and the next afternoon through 9pm in Bro. Vance’s garage creating a new derby car.  And it was awesome.

(Even though I did use silver leafing paint for the stripes and mod podge on the reject car)