This small wooden car is a simple first project. I'd not made any wooden cars since I was given a small block of pine with four nails and plastic wheels for pinewood derby back when I was a boy scout.

• This is the toy car that I'd had since I was a kid. I've no idea at what age I got it, although I vaguely remember it was my older brother's before it was mine. It's slightly wider than a 2x4 body, with two dowel axles and four hole-saw-made wheels. The wheels are just wood-glued onto the dowels.
  
• This is my first reproduction that I did 09/12/2011. It's a lot rougher than the one I already had, but part of that is that I did everything by hand (and with a regular drill - you'll see below the drill press makes a huge difference) - also I didn't use the router to round the edges, rather used a wheel sander.
  
• Here's showing the two together.
  
• This was a prototype that I made using some rail wheels that my wife's grandfather had in his shop. I didn't like it... but I'm still considering using the rail wheels for a truck or train style toy later.
  

• Now we get into the actual "How I Did It" section.

• Using my prototype to trace a general pattern to a 2x4 (you can see I avoided the knots)
  
• After cutting 4 body-shapes from a piece of 2x4 using the bandsaw on the ShopSmith - two back in their slots showing who you can reserve wood by overlapping the outlines.
  
• The ShopSmith in drill press mode cutting holes for where the dowel-axles will go. The fence and clamped piece of wood to provide the correct setting of each axle, the board underneath the car body to avoid blowing out as I push-through. I cut the rear axles at the same set-depths as I did the front. Rear bumper to axle is the same as front bumper to axle. You can see the bandsaw attachment in the lower corner, since it needed to be removed while flipping the machine up.
  
• Skipped a photo of creating the windows - same idea as for the axles, only using a larger bit. It was then rounded (also on the drill press) using some stone-like dremel tool. It's essentially like having it set to be countersunk for each side of the window. This photo shows the 8 bodies I made today in about a half-hour or so.
  
• Also used the drill press (here showing just a scrap piece of wood) with a hole saw to create the wheels. The hole saw gives a perfectly round wheel with the true center already set nicely.
  
• This was my progress in about an hour and a half today (including machine setup/cleanup afterwards). I got eight car bodies made and eight wheels done. The wheels were taking the longest, since I'd have to spin down the ShopSmith to turn it off, then pop the wheel out of the hole saw with a driver, then fire the whole thing back up to cut the next.
  
• Used the router to curve/soften the edges of the bodies.
  
• This shows the curve achieved on my prototype/trash body. It will need to be sanded a little beyond this still.
  
• Also had to start using this hole saw after the other was giving me trouble getting the wheels out. This older one was a lot easier because I can use a screwdriver (as pictured) to pop the wheel out more easily.
  
• This shows a curved body vs the flats.
  
  
• Sanded the wheels and bodies by the disk sander.
• Insert dowels and add wheels.
• Done:
  
  

Following these same directions (with only minor changes), I created these also: