"Z" for zoom

Original design concept.

This is a project I did for some friends who are about to have a baby. They wanted to decorate the baby's room with the alphabet, where each letter was made by a different friend. I chose the letter "Z" because I thought it was cool to choose the end of the alphabet. The letters were supposed to represent the maker, so I went with a car theme using some engineering to get the wheels to do a burnout.

Car assembly.

 The car was made from six layers of plywood. Each was laser cut and glued together.

Car Interior.

The two center layers were just in the roof area so that car would straddle over the bottom of the "Z". I put in a sub frame piece to support the body of the car.

The "Z" was made from four layers of plywood, also laser cut and marked. The bottom of the "Z" from the "OOM" was one layer thick and the slot allowed the space for the sub frame and axles to slide through. In the back, there were also cutouts to allow it to hang onto nails.

Painted and in the starting position.

 The car was painted with spray paint while the wheels were painted with Plasti-Dip to give it a rubbery feel.

ZOOM.

The axles are a 1/4" hardwood dowel riding on nylon bushings that were pressed in the car. PET spacers sit between the car and the "Z" to take up space and to allow the car to slide smoothly. When the care slides across, the axles ride against the bottom of the slot causing the wheel to spin--giving the appearance of a four wheel burnout.

Here is a quick video of it in action.