Cigar boxes are nice for cars, being already very neatly made. You can
get at the cigar stores, at small cost, if not as a gift, any number
of boxes with square ends, that is, with the ends of the box as high
as they are wide. After you have washed off the paper, get two boards,
one a quarter or three eighths of an inch thick, and the other somewhat
thinner, both being the width of the box. Saw off pieces three inches
longer than the boxes, for platform and roof.
First fasten your trucks under the thicker board, which is the bottom.
To do this, bore a gimlet hole exactly through the middle of each truck
block; put a six-penny nail from the bottom, first through the hole in
the truck block, then through the cast-off part of a spool (_b_, _fig.
5_), or half of it if too thick, or a small twist spool a half-inch
high. Nail one to each end of the board loosely, so it will turn.
Now, carefully take apart your cigar box, and mark on each long side
a row of windows, like a passenger car, and in each end piece mark a
door. Saw them out on a jig saw. (If you have no saw you can paint
windows on the outside.)
After cutting the windows and doors, put the box together again, with
the brads which held it before, and laying it on to the platform board,
so that each end of the board projects for a platform, nail them
together. Then open the cover (which must never be broken off) and nail
the roof board on to it in the same way; that is, so it will project at
each end. Use brads for this nailing. The object of fastening the roof
to the cover is that you may open your car and fill it with passengers
if you choose.