Every inventor runs into challenges, and this week, I found out exactly how Mr. Potts must have felt when his inventions didn’t work the first time! After finishing the seats and windscreen, which went together pretty easily, we thought we were ready to attach the body to the chassis. But that’s when we ran into trouble—big trouble.
When the pieces are all cut out, they can be really fiddly to assemble. Sometimes, no matter how careful you are, things just don’t fit perfectly. The card we used might be slightly thicker or thinner than the card used by the people who first created the cut template, and if, when you are assembling parts, you’re even a tiny bit off, it throws everything else out of place. We tried different types of glue to get the little tabs to stick, but they just wouldn’t hold! The body wouldn’t attach to the chassis, and the more we tried, the worse it got.
We lined everything up carefully and tried again. But as you can see in the photo below, there were gaps where light was coming through, showing that the body wasn’t sitting right on the chassis.
The next photo gives an even better view from the side—see how it just won’t stay in place? We kept pressing and adjusting, but the more we worked on it, the more frustrating it got.
Then came the worst part. The glue had made the tabs too wet, and they just wouldn’t stay stuck. The more we tried, the more they slid around. We knew we had to pause and come back next week with fresh eyes (and maybe a fresh approach).
Even though this was really frustrating, I’m not giving up! Mr. Potts wouldn’t stop just because something didn’t work the first time, and I won’t either. We’ll try again next week, maybe with a different glue or technique. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang WILL come together—just not today! Stay tuned for our next attempt!