How To Make A Homemade RC Car? 11 Steps with Pictures

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We can see boys and girls playing with radio-controlled toys everywhere. But very few know how to make a homemade RC car. The market is full of remote control toys, but what is more fun than building an RC car with your child and sharing that magical time with them?

If you prefer you can choose one of these remote control cars for children. We have prepared a mega buying guide with the best ones.

In this post, we have decided to show you how to make a homemade remote control car for children. So that you spend more time with them and so that you both learn more about this hobby. Plus, there are a lot of benefits to kids learning how to make crafts. 

All the materials that we are going to use can be easily found in any accessory store. And we also make it easy for you with a video where he explains it perfectly:

Step 1: Watch the video on how to make a homemade RC car

You know we like to make things easy for you. That is why we always try to put explanatory videos where they show you how to do things, so that you don’t have to imagine them and have it much easier.

Go ahead and watch the video on how to make a homemade remote control car for kids. Below you have all the steps that appear in the video, so if you don’t feel like watching and reviewing the video, swipe and keep reading.

Step 2: the parts to make a homemade RC car

As we have said, the RC car parts are very easy to find in any store: Also, below we added links to every part of an RC car, that you need when you start making a homemade RC car.

• Plywood or any other material that has a minimum of strength to support the rest of the car parts.
• Paperboard –
• Wires with a thickness of 3mm –
• 4 plastic wheels with a diameter of 7.4 cm –
• 2 elastic bands –
• 2 motors –
• 1 Paliglobo –
• A Li-Ion Battery –
• Cables –
• A switch –
• 6 LEDs –
• 2 100 ohm resistors –
• An emitter and receiver circuit –
• Instant glue –
• Hot glue gun –

In addition to these materials, you will also need:

• Pliers –
• Pencil and ruler –
• Drill –
• Compass –
• Marker –
• Tin and soldering iron –

Step 3: the chassis

To assemble the chassis, the first thing we will need are two pieces of plywood measuring 16 x 1.6 cm each.

Then we will mark with the help of the ruler and the pencil 5 cm on each side of the two pieces. In total there will be 4 brands.

Once marked we will take another piece of plywood and we will make 4 triangular wedges. And we will also cut two other pieces of plywood, this time with a size of 28 × 1.6 cm. Quite longer than the first two.

We will fix the triangles on each side of the elongated pieces of plywood (28 × 1.6 cm) using the silicone gun.

Then, the sides of the triangles with the first two pieces that we have marked with the pencil. Joining them right at the marked point, and as it appears in the image.

Now we will mark the elongated pieces at 10.5 cm.

Once marked we will need another piece of plywood 16 × 9 cm in size. We will make two marks with a distance of 6 cm on each side. These marks should match the marks on the elongated plywood pieces that we made earlier. So we will join them with the silicone gun.

About 5 cm from the end of the chassis, we will make a mark and drill with the drill. We will have to drill the two elongated parts of plywood. That circle will serve us for the rear axle of the car.

Later we will have to make a pulley out of a piece of cardboard. For this we will make two circles with a diameter of 6.3 cm and one with 5.6 cm. We will drill them in the center and join the 3 using the silicone gun. We have to put the small circle in the center.

Step 4: the axle of the car

Now we will place the axle so that the pulley is in the center of the vehicle’s chassis. Before joining the shaft to the other part of the rc car, we will have to place a rubber band next to the pulley.

To connect the shaft with the pulley well, we will use instant glue.

Step 5: placing the motor

The time has come to place the engine to power our car. To do this, we will glue the motor to the central part of the chassis with silicone, and we will join it to the pulley with the elastic rubber.

Step 6: the rear wheels

To place the wheels, first we will cut two pieces of paliglobo and we will place them on the chassis wire. They will serve so that the wheels do not slide neither in nor out.

To join the wheels with the chassis we will put instant glue.

Step 7: the front wheels

To build the front wheels we will first have to cut 3 pieces of plywood. One elongated (we will make sure that about 2 cm protrude on each side of the chassis) and two much shorter. The measurement of these small pieces has to be the same as the part that protrudes from the chassis of the longest piece.

Now we will make a hole in each of the pieces and we will join them to the chassis in the same way as the video indicates.

Then we will bend two wires to make the mechanism of the front wheels of our homemade rc car and we will introduce them into the holes we just made. We will fold the wires back into the chassis and bend them again by the same measure.

We will cut the excess wire and place the wheels. Fixing them with silicone so that they do not come off.

Then we will cut a paliglobo with the measure of separation of the front wheels. And we will mark them in the same place where later we will join them to the ends of the wire that we have bent previously.

Step 8: the second pulley

Now we create a second cardboard pulley. Two 4.5 cm circles and a single 3.9 cm circle. We will join them as the previous pulley.

We will place a wire that will serve for the pulley shaft and fix it. In the central part of the front wheels we will make a hole and place the pulley, to later drill the paliglobo tube. We put a rubber band on the pulley, we introduce a wire in the paliglobo tube and we fix it to the pulley.

To fix the second motor we will remove a part of the plywood. And once we have the motor fixed, we will put the rubber on the motor pulley.

Step 9: the circuit

Now we will fix the radio control circuit in a place where there is space and we will join the circuit cables to the motors. To feed the power of the car we will use a 3.7 volt battery.

We will connect cables to the battery contacts. We will fix a switch somewhere on the chassis and then we will make a series connection of the battery, the switch and the receiver circuit. Once connected, it should look like this:

We repeat, we know that they are complicated steps and you may not understand it well by reading it. We recommend that you watch the video to do it correctly .

Step 10: the lights

We pass the antenna of the circuit to the other side and we will connect two white LEDs in parallel, which we will place in the front of our home remote control car.

We will need two more white LEDs and two red LEDs. We will join the legs of a white led and a red led (negative with positive). And we will do the same with the other two and connect them in parallel. To check if they work, we will check with a 100 or more battery and only the white LEDs should light up when one part of the battery is connected, and when it makes contact with the other part only the red ones.

Now we will solder the cables from the LEDs to the motor that drives the rear wheels. We will do it with 2 resistors of 100 or more and we will solder it to a leg of the motor and later the cables of the LEDs.

Step 11: the body

To make the bodywork in the video they have used stone paper, but you can do it with cardboard perfectly. Here, you and your child should investigate which design you like the most and make your own design, either by copying it from a photo or by printing it and then cutting the cardboard in the same way.

We will place the LEDs in the holes that we have previously made where the car’s fights should go and join all the parts with silicone to the chassis.

You have just painted your homemade remote control car and check it out. If you have followed all the steps there should be no problem.

Make sure that you follow all the steps that we mark here and in the video of how to make a homemade remote control car for children. It will surely be a unique opportunity to share time with your child and learn many new things.

What did you think of the how to make a homemade RC car? Leave your opinion in the comments.