Sheriff Woody

I was leaving work one day with a pine car track in the bed of my truck, as one does, when my boss stopped me and said he recently found an old Pinewood Derby kit while going through a box of his childhood things at his parents' house. Three weeks later, this was on my desk.

The wheels date the kit to 1980-1988, which means this is exactly the kind of kit I had built when I wrote my aunt this letter.

It was missing three axles, the instructions, and the number decals. He had cut the block into the shape seen here using a coping saw - pretty nice handiwork I must say - but that's where they stopped.

I sanded it, applied a coat of matte clear, and installed the wheels on some unprepped axles. I'll add some stick-on weights underneath and race it as-is.

We entered Sheriff Woody to the pine car race in Fort Walton Beach, where it was...present. It's not nearly as fast as it looks (and it doesn't look very fast).