It’s easy to make a small toy car from just items in the recycle bin.
Recently we got some “Push-Ups” novelty ice cream treats from the grocery store. These are orange sherbert in a cardboard tube. You lick the top and “push-up” more ice-cream by means of a plastic stick and plunger.
When done eating the ice-cream, throw away the sticky cardboard tube, but wash and save the plastic stick and plunger.
Take a clean plastic bottle from the recycling bin and drill a pair of holes in it a little larger diameter than the plastic push-sticks. Pass the sticks through the holes and you have axles! Then add the plastic plungers on both ends of the sticks for wheels.
That’s it, you have a great little toy car make entirely out of plastic items from the recycling bin. You can decorate it if you’d like, and then race them through the hall-way, in the driveway, or for some real fun, down a big ramp!
My two-year old was having lots of fun with the one that I built for her, and older kids can build ones themselves easily!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Nifty project but that bottle looks suspiciously like what they serve only up in First Class seating these days…. Been making frosty screwdriver floats, have ya been, Ben?
Yes, you got me. That IS a small cooking wine bottle. It’s a good solid plastic that has a little heft to it, so it makes a really nice race car. Many drinking water bottles now are really thin and light plastic, which is hard to easily drill.
ANY plastic bottle can work for a Push-Ups Racer, as long as it’s narrower than the axels. For a fun variation, try an inbuprofen bottle!
Hey this is great I found this through your sprinkler idea on instructables. You could add some broccoli rubber bands to the wheels for some traction if you have those too.