First car ever

We are building a scout car and my little guy seen a pic of a fender car online and said “I want it to look like that!” So here it is before paint & weighting.

 

Those fenders are too wide

 

Well that car looks a lot better than my first car! Good luck.

 

Should I sand them down flush with the wheels? They are just balsa.

 

Yes..i did that on the first fendered car i built..there is a car right above for reference

 

Got it! Thanks for the advice.

 

If I may also recommend... they don’t need to be so much higher than the wheel either.
Ditto what TRE said. The car in his avatar pic is it. Ignore the ones in mine. Lol. That pic is old.

 

Balsa is fun to shape but keep in mind once is gone its gone.

 

Very nice! It is obvious you've got some skills. Did you angle the bottom of the fenders out so they have no chance of rubbing the rail?

What other prep did you do to the wheels and axles?

 

One other thing to keep in mind... you don’t want to have too much frontal area. Angling your front fenders inwards towards the front corners of the body is a good idea as well. Similar in concept how the rear fenders are shaped.
One thing you can do is look at any league racing videos that John has posted. He records them all. You can see how the pros all do it. Which is just like in TRE’s avatar. Actually look up top to the preview of the recent championships you will see Ballistics car up close. That’s a good shot at the most common set up for fenders.
Hope that helps.
Jimmy

 

Cm had a very good point that must not be over looked, you may have already accounted for this but on the under side your fenders must not be closer together than the inside spread of your rear wheels. They could pinch or drag the rail like brake pads slowing you down the length of the track.

 

Funny you should mention that. After going back and sanding the fenders down to be flush with the outside of the wheels I noticed that on the inside, so yes, I did sand the inside edges and bit and angled them out to make sure they don't come in contact with the track.