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Cardboard Car Template: Build a Race Car or a Biplane with Free Downloadable Patterns



Good Morning Friends! I wanted to share a full tutorial on how I made the DIY cardboard box cars for our drive in movie night. Below are all of the step-by-step instructions on how to assemble your own cardboard car.




cardboard car template




Step 1: To assemble the DIY cardboard box cars you will need cardboard boxes; I used these 18 x 24 ones from Lowes that I already had sitting in the garage. You will also need packing tape, hot glue, a box cutter, scissors, and a ruler.


But what to use for templates has always been a challenge. Chip board is commonly used, but expensive and sometimes hard to find. Poster board from the arts and crafts store works, but depends on the thickness available, and is also not cheap. So you can imagine just how excited I was when the Fab Forums posted the video below where they go a tip from a viewer about Ram Board. It comes in a couple different thicknesses, so you can get exactly what you need for whatever job, and it is only $30 for a 50 foot long roll of this stuff at Lowes or Home Depot. Hell, you can order it on Amazon!


For a while during quarantine, I had been thinking that it might be fun to build something out of cardboard. Then, I saw a post on Instagram where Vans was challenging their customers to create things out of their sneaker boxes. These things, combined with me missing the Formula 1 season, made me think that I should build a scale model of a Formula 1 car out of cardboard.


Now, to be fair, I have no delusions about how rough an archaic the outcome is. I know the chassis is (for some reason) lopsided and that it looks like something an 8-year-old could have made. I get it. However, I am proud of the fact that, without any official blueprints, plans, kits or templates to go off of, I was able to work out how to replicate the overall look and design of the final product. Not to mention the hours of dedication it took to actually assemble it.


For the piece of cardboard you use for the top of the car, you will need to cut along the darker lines. This will create the shape of the body and allow for a hole in the front that will serve as the cockpit.


The thin lines inside the shape indicate the placement for two pieces of cardboard that can be attached to the side of the spoiler which would be the wing. I did not add these wing pieces on the template because a) I forgot to and b) now you can angle the pieces of the wing element however you want.


Step 1: To assemble the DIY cardboard box cars you will need cardboard boxes, duct tape, hot glue, an xacto blade, scissors, and a ruler. I wanted all of the boxes to be the same size so I used these 1824 cardboard boxes and they worked really well. They were a good size for the older kids too.


Step 20: Apply hot glue to the silver metallic trim and place all along the sides of the noodle. Repeat until you have completed all of your bumpers. Then, hot glue entire bumper onto the front and back of your DIY cardboard box car.


Have had a blast making cardboard cars (slightly different design but inspired by yours), and downlaoding and designing this adorable ticket booth, now working on concession stand and license plates! Great resource to make a very special 3 yr old girl very excited this week!


Thank you so much for your message! I am so thrilled to hear that you were able to use the cardboard box car inspiration and printables! I hope your 3 year old has an absolutely wonderful birthday! Thanks again so very much! I really appreciate your kindness!


2. As for the kitchen challenge, I decided to use self adhesive book covering with the car. I think it adds some additional strength to the cardboard and is less messy than paint. I found some on special at Kmart for $1.99 per roll so I grabbed three. Cover the tops of boxes 1 and 3 with the book covering.


5. To make the car door: I used scrap card to make a template of a shape that I was happy with. Then I traced the shape onto the side of the middle box and cut along the marked line (leaving the one side attached as a hinge). I used strips of book covering as tape which I ran around the door and the door frame to neaten the raw edge of the cardboard. I decided to only make a door on one side to give the car greater stability.


9. Making the steering wheel: I had kept the piece of cardboard that was left over when I cut out the sink space in the kitchen project and it was perfect for the steering wheel (but any scrap box card will do, just trace around a plate or bowl and cut it out with your utility knife).


To make the car, first I cut the flaps off a large cardboard box. Then I penciled in the front shape of the car on one side, and cut along this line with a craft knife. I was using a sturdy double-walled box so it took a little time! I left the front part of the box uncut to make the windshield/windscreen. I used the piece I cut off as a template for the other side, completing the front shape of the car. Then I shaped the back end of the car.


I used foil paper circles for the rear and front lights, and some black card stock for the side windows. For the licence plate I downloaded a blank template from Education World and glued it to the back of the car.


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The first step is to make some ears from cardboard. You can experiment with shapes using construction paper. It's thin enough to be easy to work with, and still stiff enough to keep it's shape when folded. Once you have a design you like, it can be a template for markign the design on the corrugated cardboard.


The construction paper prototype can be used as a template to mark out the design on cardboard. Mark them out with the corrugations running from the tip down the length of the piece with the two wings to the sides.


Folding the ear results in the bottom and sides meeting along the edges of the cuts. That means there's nothing to glue to. Although hotglue provides some structure itself, it's nice to have a bit more support for the joint. You can do this by cutting a matchstick shaped piece of cardboard to glue inside the corner. That lets each surface (the bottom and side in this case) be glued to this support. 2ff7e9595c


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