Parking Garage for Matchbox and Hotwheels Cars

My two sons, and perhaps to a certain extent my daughter, now adults, accumulated and played extensively with Matchbox, Hot Wheels, and similar brand small model cars throughout their childhood. These cars were always their favored toys. As one of them outgrew these toys, they were automatically passed down to the younger child, and as these things are wanting to do, always concurrently grew in size. When the last son outgrew the collection, my wife, being somewhat of a hoarder of toys, packed up the collection, about 200 vehicles by then, and stored them for future progeny in our attic.

Life continued, my grandson came along, and subsequently he inherited his father's, aunt's and uncle's collections of Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars, all having been lovingly packaged and stored for years by his maternal grandmother..

The cars, generally stored in boxes, or carrying cases designed for the cars, when distributed to my grandson, took up quite a bit of space in his playroom. As most experienced, when played with, the cars rarely made it back to their storage places. A problem in need of a solution.

My son came up with an idea for a solution, having remembered seeing a picture of a parking garage for small toy cars made from a wire reel.

Cable reel - 30 in dia x 18 in hi

1/4 in plywood - for ramps - hand held jig saw = plywood blades

1/4 in wide wood strips for curbing - cut from edge of 3/4 in quarter round stock - band saw 1/4 in - 8 tpi blade

Paint - wood primer and finish paint - acrylic - various colors - paint brushes, small rollers - supplies

Five (5) swivel casters - wood screws - attach to bottom of reel ( if four are used it will tend to tilt when leaned on) - battery powered drill, various drill bits, screwdriver bits

Set of hinges for flip top - flip top cut with Dremel Rotary Tool - !/8 in router bit for wood

Wooden drawer knob - for flip top

Palm Sander - 5 in dia - various grades sanding discs

Air Nail Gun - pin and brad size nails

Compressor - without tank - small shop type up to 100 psi - for air nail guns

Liquid Nails - or equivalent adhesive or glue

Vinyl Chart Tape - !/8 in and 1/4 in wide - white and yellow

My son volunteered to find the proper reel and I was designated to make it work.

The question - where could we obtain the right wire reel, made of wood, and of proper size for the project?

From experience, I knew that power, telephone, and cable TV companies purchase their transmission wire in bulk quantities. The wire is generally furnished wound on cardboard, wooden, or metal cable reels. The cable reels came in various sizes dependent upon the wire type, size, and quantity.

Before retirement, my background was in the engineering and construction of large industrial plants. There were always plenty of wire reels laying around in the materials yard and many went to clients or workers for conversion into a patio table.

I gave my son some general specifications for the reel and he began a search. Somewhere along the line, through social media, my son ran across a gentleman who was in the business of buying and selling all types of used wire reels. We found one of suitable size and my son delivered it to me.

I have a small shop in the basement of my home, where I have movable work tables, various woodworking equipment and tools, and shelves, both on the floor and the walls, for the smaller tools and supplies. This reel, being larger than envisioned, and more cumbersome, relatively speaking, I soon realized I had to make it such that it could be maneuvered around the area available and not encumber other projects concurrently being worked on in the shop. Also, t felt I needed to be able to place the reel on it's side and/or upside down, at various times to be worked on.

The first thing I did was to put heavy duty swivel casters on the bottom.so I could turn it and move it.

The second thing, I realized the need to protect the fragile plywood edges from splintering when rolling across a concrete floor or turning on it's edge. It was not light in weight, but I had a few ideas.

I had to find some flexible edging material. Researching, i found a vendor that made a vinyl edge material for video game machines and had the 3/4 in material I needed available. This to edge the top and bottom plywood used on the plywood edges of video machines,

These measures subsequently turned out to be convenient, if not essential, for the handling, the transport, the placement, and the flexibility and mobility built in, when placed in it's new home, my grandson's playroom..

The initial activity was painting, as all the wood on the reel was bare, top to bottom, first with primer, then final coat. I would only need touchup the paint after completion.

I planned to make the ramps to be made from a vinyl, rubber type material, but couldn't find a suitable product that would take the radius of the ramp curves and keep the ramp level at the same time, without support every .few inches Thus, the ramps became the most challenging part of the project.

I decided to use a thin plywood. Getting the radius correctly modified for the downslope took some calculation, layout on paper and cardboard, along with a bit of trial and error. The ramps were outlined from a cardboard model, then cut out from the plywood, trimmed with their curbs, and painted. before installation on the reel. These curbs, on each edge of the ramp, after being cut to length, were soaked in water until well wetted, then bent to their road curve, and clamped until thoroughly dry.. A small gauge air nailer and glue were used to place the curbs on the plywood roadways, The other curbs and wood strips on the final garage were similarly attached.

Other challenges were cutting the hole slots in the top of the reel, and the second elevation, so the cars could roll down the ramp without overhead obstruction. This additional floor, so to speak, was not contemplated, but was designed and made to separate two types of wire, . This mezzanine was 3/4 in plywood, same as the top and bottom.

As I was finishing the top of the reel, I decided to add the heliport for a small RC helicopter, and a hatch in the very center of the top, for storage. The lines for the parking slots were penciled in and subsequently finished using vinyl tape. This thin vinyl tape, generally used in constructing presentation charts, .was easy to work with and cut readily using an Exacto knife such as used in model work.

I had planned to present the garage to my grandson for his birthday in October, but it ended up as a Christmas present. The endeavor, once started, seem to take on a life of it's own as the work progressed. I thought of and added many more features than originally scoped and contemplated. However every hour expended was a labor of love, and just the look on my grandson's face at Christmas was well worth the effort.