Transform Bed Into Car - Anti Toddler Screen :)

My son asked me to buy him new bed car-like. But it wasn't very niece and costs a lot of $$. So i decided to build one myself. This instructable shows how to make car bed for a kid. You can use existing bed and some material in Your garage like plywood, costruct. wood etc. Then paint it as You like and enjoy it :) I decided to use real car painting - this is very demanding if You haven't tried it before You need to exercise.

Bed that i designed was in 2 variants - first option is one side car (when bed is close to wall on second side) and another variant 2 side car . Ive chosen 1 side but i build both to explain it better :)

Step 1: Preparations - Base Constructution

When You choose to do this on existing bed measure it and put either to large paper sheet or AutoCAD like software. Ive chosen second step. And in the output You have frame of bed and outline of car to fix it to bed. Its very important to to have 1:1 scale otherwise You will have some scaling problem. If You can draw well using pencil (I cant :) You can do sketch on plywood instantly. From CAD pritnout cut the desired car shape with sharp blade and then then with pencil draw it on plywood.

Step 2: Cut the Car Side

Prepare a plywood at least 8mm of size little bigger then desired shape. Stencil prepared in previous step mark on plywood. Use a cutter with thin blade to curves. Try on the spare material if it not makes rough cut - adjust speed and pith if needed. Cut it well :) When finished use sand paper or rotator to finish edges. Some side cutter like tool is useful. When cut put it on the destination bed to check if everything is ok. Try to imagine how to make fixings - they must be safe for kid (no sharp edges) and strong enough to last under force. Inner side of car (the one that will have contact with bed and kid during sleep) must be painted with eco paint - Ive chosen colorized water based wood stain.

Step 3: Fixings

For fixings use construction wood of size at least 10x3cm but can be bigger and depend from Your type of bed and fixings design. Cut it well on angle saw and fix it with screws and wood glue.

Step 4: Mounting Fixings to Side

When finished mount fixings to plywood. Use thin bit to make holes in plywood and some bigger to hide the screws head int it (so it will be flat). Then fix everything, turn it upside down and mount together. When You finish try to make the corners smooth using milling machine.

Step 5: Painting

For painting u can use whatever U want. Car varnish, acryl enamel, labels for decoration etc Keep in ming that some active paint still smells after painting these are not allowed to use here. Use tested one odorless paints. Now u can use base paint to reinforce the plywood. Before painting the final color use compatible putty - then sand it well. Any errors here will be seen at final stage. Use compatible base varnish (so called ground). and then final color. On the top use colorless finish varnish. Read a bit on instructables how to paint with air sprygun.

Step 6: Decorations

Every car needs to have windows, doors, lights etc. Here I used airbrush, stencils, labels etc. After this make 2 wheels (if not done in plywood) I made it from paper. Use elastic masking tape from Your paint shop to have desired shape.