Start Your Engines!

Evidently, Home Depot does cool craft projects for kids on the first Saturday of every month-- who knew!? Last week we were down at JC Penny getting Cooper's blessing pictures taken and had just found out about the Home Depot shindig from our neighbors-- so we wandered over as soon as we were done with the pictures. We got there just as they were cleaning up, but they still had one race car kit left, which they let us have, along with a Home Depot apron for Ian (with his name written on it in genuine Sharpie black marker). We took the car home and built it after lunch. Here's how the project went:


Step 1: Look cute. Check! We laid out the tools we would need and put down some foil to protect the table from the glue. Ian calls his apron his "Big Bib."

Step 2: Read the instructions. Ian was really gung -ho about looking at the pictures. He left most of the reading up to me. Basically, we had to glue and nail the two halves of the car together, hammer in the axles with the tires on them , install the spoiler and apply the stickers. (Unlike the spoofs on the stereotypes of most guys, I am in favor of reading the directions. Sometimes I just modify them after reading.)


Step 4: Glue the top and bottom halves of the car together without gluing it to Ian, Daddy, the table, chairs or the clamps. Check.


Step 5: Play with the other parts while Daddy wipes up the excess glue. Ian likes spoilers because Lightning McQueen has one.



Step 6: Hammer the nails into the bottom of the car. Ian learned the hard way that he shouldn't try to grab one of the nails while Daddy is in mid-swing trying to tap it it. Luckily, the nail was almost all the way in and Daddy was not swinging very hard at all. Ian wanted Daddy to do most o f the pounding after that. I tried to get him excited about tapping in the plastic axles and wheels. You can see above how well that worked out.


Step 7: Put on the spoiler, the axles, wheels , et cetera and take the clamps off. When I told Ian to say, "Cheese!" for this picture , I didn't realize just how much the car actually looked like a block of cheese. I guess Home Depot can't really paint the car any color but orange, but I laughed when I looked at this picture.


Step 8: Secure sponsorship. Hey, this racing gig ain't cheap. Ian supervised the placement of the decals and helped to put the HD metal logo on top of the car. He wanted to put it on the bottom, but I'm not sure that our car had that much ground clearance!
Step 9: Track testing at the Jenny Lamb Infanger International Living Room Speedway.

Step 10: The Finished Product! I think with a few aero tweaks and some suspension work we are a legitimate contender for the cup this year.

Thanks, Home Depot!