Little Toy Car

I built this little guy back in Grade 8 in Woodworking class. That was the best class I ever got to take at school. I did it for three years from Grade 7-9, and then the school I was at from 10-12 didn’t have a shop unfortunately.

I believe it’s all just spruce from some 2×4s. We were provided cheap lumber for our projects and had to buy our own if we wanted better. This project came from a book and was originally designed to have a chassis with a dovetail rail on top. You would then build various components to sit on top. They would have a matching dovetail bottom and would slide on. The plans called for magnets in each side of the parts to hold them together on the chassis. So you might make 2 or 3 different seat areas, back ends, engines, front grills etc. Then it would become a mix and match. My shop teacher talked me down to picking my favourite set and making it fixed due to time constraints. He was dead right :)

I didn’t realize how dusty it was until I took these closeup pictures. I guess I need to clean it! The whole thing is 8 inches long and about 3 inches wide. I had no ambition or skill to make wheels, so those were purchased from Lee Valley. The gold rail is just a piece of metal rod from home depot that I bent in a vice and painted, adds a nice touch. There is one mistake on it – I glued the back support of the seating area on too high. I didn’t notice it wasn’t all the way pushed down. It bugs me so much, but not worth fixing….

-- Heyz, in the cold winterland of Canada