Building myself a track Chapter II

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 4:08 pm

When I built my first track, I wandered around Lowes lost, and frustrated. I didn't know what I needed, what it cost, and most importantly how to explain what I needed, and what I needed it for to the people in the store.

I ended up with a overpriced thin piece of 4'x4' fiber board, 24' of weather stripping for guard rails, and tack nails, for 30 bucks. When I got home I didn't think I'd be able to do anything worthwhile with what I got, but I ended up with a decent little track, that fits perfectly at the end of my bed, so Ican hide in the bedroom, and play with my cars in peace, but now I've outgrown that track, and I want something bigger.

So now we enter the second chapter of my track building adventure.

This time I came at it much more focused, with a good idea what I wanted to do, and what I needed. Basically I wanted Cabo's track. So I went to Lowe's again. Got a full 4'x8' sheet 1/4" particle board. 40' of 1/2" clear vinyl tubeing, and 2 boxes of 1 5/8" nails, for 20 bucks. I wanted black tubing but it was at the end of the roll, and flattened, so I got the clear instead. That was my only problem in Lowe's. I had originally planned on painting it with chalkboard paint, but that was going to be too expensive, so I just got a couple can of some industrial black enamel for 3 bucks a piece.

So far I've just painted it. I could have used a 3rd can, but that's ok, it just supposed to look like asphalt, not really be pitch black.

Now I just have to lay it out. I thought about having an overpass, but decided I liked my thing with the outside oval, and a technical infied. So I just kinda expanded on what I did before.

Here's my rough sketch of what I'm planning.

I'm open to any suggestions to changes you guys might have.

Once I get that nailed to the track, I'll have my basic track to race on, but I planning on adding details like grass and cliffs later on as time goes on.

VooDooMafia · Post by **VooDooMafia** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 4:19 pm

Looks like you re off to a good start. when I decided to build mine(still building it now lol) I did the same as you did on your first except I unded up with a few sheets of styro and started cuttin that up.

Is the outside oval going to be banked?

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 4:56 pm

VooDooMafia wrote: Is the outside oval going to be banked?

I wish.

It gonna have to be leaned up against the wall when I'm not using it for now, so I'm keeping it flat as possible, but later I wanted to add a raised up section with cliffs. Maybe I can make one end banked too.

Right now I need to figure out how to lay this out on my wood. I'm looking for a piece of string to help draw corners, but I think I'm about to settle for speaker wire.

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 5:41 pm

Ok, I got it all together. It's pretty much exactly as I drew it.

Now I just need to add some yellow lines. That'll probably be all the detailing I add for now, but what's cool about this track, is there is plenty of room to grow on. So this will be an ongoing project.

SilentWolv · Post by **SilentWolv** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 5:53 pm

Looks good. I know your modded cars will like those long straights. Too bad the railings aren't those rope-lights. But then that might make your eyes freek out after awhile.

I caught your post a little late. I was gonna suggest this..........

How's the layout run?

We might get to the point later on, when you're ready to do some landscaping/rocks etc.

VooDooMafia · Post by **VooDooMafia** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 7:40 pm

Looking great dave now lets see a clip of the cars on it

Yea I bet you will never be finished as there is so much you could add/change to it.

I picked up some Street lights onsale at the hoby shop that I plan on adding to the track but you know how it is....as soon as the track is racable you spend most your time runnin laps

ph2t · Post by **ph2t** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 8:00 pm

where's the ramp man? you gotta have one of 'em! Nice work dude!

ph2t.

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 8:22 pm

SilentWolv wrote:Looks good. I know your modded cars will like those long straights. Too bad the railings aren't those rope-lights. But then that might make your eyes freek out after awhile.

I caught your post a little late. I was gonna suggest this..........

How's the layout run?

We might get to the point later on, when you're ready to do some landscaping/rocks etc.

I'm lovin' the long straights. It's so nice being able to hear the car wind all the way up for once, and I've got a reason for those teal gears now.

Yeah rope light would have been cool. The clear tubing gives it a cool modern look. I keep thinking I need to fill it with glitter or something.

I like your layout, I would have borrowed some ideas from that had I seen it.

This layout seems good. Seemed kinda hard at first, but it's not the track I'm used to. My other track had all 4' straight, and all right angles. After while you got a rhythm to it. This one is a little more curvy. Kinda messed me up.

The chicane is kinda cool, because if you hit it right you pass straight through it. Hit it at the wrong angle, and it's a nightmare. There's a difference between challenging and annoying, and the chicane got annoying. So I mellowed it out a little bit. Just a half inch each side, and that helped drastically.

Also the strip in front of the pit lane caused one too many hang ups, so I ripped that off. I'll have to paint a line there.

Traction is not what I'm used to. I'm gonna do something about that.

@VDM, I'm planning to get a clip together after I paint some lines on it, and get a little more used to driving on it.

...and you're right I'll probably never be done.

@ph2t, I've got a couple ramps I throw down whenever I need a little extra action. You'll probably see them on here too.

Post by **CaboWabo** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 11:32 am

more inspiration, excellent dave - looks awesome.
makes me wanna start another

Ahh5hit · Post by **Ahh5hit** » Fri Dec 26, 2003 3:37 pm

I have been looking for ideas for a track, and this is perfect. I too went looking, but didn't have a clue what materials to get, so I walked out.

Did you just drive the nails right thru the tubing? Or did you use any kind of little sleeves? How far apart are your nails?

BTW: Looks great!

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Fri Dec 26, 2003 4:21 pm

Ahh5hit wrote:I have been looking for ideas for a track, and this is perfect. I too went looking, but didn't have a clue what materials to get, so I walked out.

Did you just drive the nails right thru the tubing? Or did you use any kind of little sleeves? How far apart are your nails?

BTW: Looks great!

I just drove the nails through the tubing.

The nails I used are 1 5/8", but they stick up a little too much for my taste. I'm going to try to find something closer to 1"

As for spacing I just put the nails as close as I had to, to get my curves right. On the straights I put a nail on each end to stretch out the tubing and make sure it was straight, then I put one about every 10 inches.

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Sat Dec 27, 2003 10:36 pm

Here's one I'll call, "How I crammed a 8' x 4' track in my tiny apartment"

So the wife stole the dining room table to use as her work station, leaving a big empty space, where the Christmas tree sat the last couple months. Now Christmas is over, and I've moved in.

Here we see it put up, to make the wife happy.

Since I had the dart board set up there already, that makes this kinda of a gaming area. I just put stuff that was in the way elsewhere, and was light weight, so it would be easy to move.

So I can just flip it down, and be set to go like this,

Damn kid, already all up in my Kool Aid.

Anyways, it's too bad I live in an apartment, because if I lived in a house, I'd go 'Monster House' on it, and hinge it to the wall, and put flip down legs on it. So I could just undo a latch, flip it down, and the legs would flop out.

Someday maybe...

sessiz · Post by **sessiz** » Sat Dec 27, 2003 11:21 pm

Nice dave. I too live in a freakin apartment and am limited in my track space/building freedom. You got what looks like a nice track man. How old is your kid dave? My boy is 2 and I don't freakin dare take my cars out in front of him. He goes all apeshit on them. I guess he's found out daddy's one weakness.

I swear I heard his motorworks car crying one night.

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Sun Dec 28, 2003 8:17 am

My kid's 3 and a half. Up until this point I've had to hide in the bedroom, with the door locked to enjoy my cars, because he pretty much turns into a spazz around them.

That was one my biggest fears about this track, not being able to hide from him, but it's worked out well, 'cause his favorite game, and my biggest problem is that he likes to play dinosaur, and try to step on my cars, but with the nails sticking out, if you accidently step on one it hurts like hell, and he must have found that out the hard way, because he absolutely will not step on this track. So now he'll just sit by the sidelines and watch, which is handy, 'cause I have an automatic car flipper now.

I feel for that poor Motorworks car. I tried to give my kid a Thunder Charger, but when he killed it after a couple days, I stole it back for parts.

Ahh5hit · Post by **Ahh5hit** » Sun Dec 28, 2003 11:44 am

All I can say is....I like how you deal with your kids.