Cardboard Truck: Basic Structure

In this post I'll show you exactly how I cut up my box and created the basic structure for my truck.

Materials-

big cardboard box

utility knife

pencil and or crayons

tape (any sturdy tape- masking, box, duct. If you plan on spray painting I think masking tape would probably take the paint the best. I used box tape.)

hot glue gun and glue sticks

2 aluminum foil rolls - the cardboard that is left when the foil is gone. These are stronger than a paper towel roll.

measuring tape

I used this great multi-tool of my husbands to cut my box. The serrated knife worked great. I think any utility knife would work fine.

Here's the box I had to work with.

1- Draw out your design so you know where to cut. I started out drawing in pencil, flipping the box different directions to figure out which idea I liked best. Eventually I switched to crayon because my pencil lines were getting confusing. It was harder to cover the crayon with spray paint. Colored pencils probably would have been a better option. Make sure when planning your shape that the windshield will be at the correct height for the child to see out of it.

2- Cut the basic shape. Here is my truck. In the back it is just a flat cut where the bed of the truck will be, then it curves up in the front for the windshield. Another option at this point which would greatly simplify the whole project would be to cut off the whole box even all the way around to make a convertible. I really wanted a top so that Little Man would feel like he was going into his own little space.

 3- Cut the door. To make a door you need to cut one side and the bottom of your door. To keep the box strong, cut the bottom of the door about 3 or 4 inches above the bottom of the box. After the side and bottom are cut the door should fold open pretty easily.

4- Cut out the windshield. The bottom of my windshield starts on the box and continues up onto the top flap of the box. I made it rounded rectangle shape.

5- Cut the side flaps. I cut an angle on the side flaps at the top so that when I attached the front to it, there would be a bend on the front of the vehicle.

 After cutting one side I used the cut off from the first side as a template to cut the other side.

6- Tape the side and front pieces together so that the flaps stand up.

 7- Put in the truck bed divider. I didn't take a separate picture of this step, but you can see it below. I used a scrap piece of cardboard and simply taped it in to divide the front and back sections of the truck.

8- Add the roof and back posts. The roof is made of 2 of my scrap pieced taped together and the posts are the aluminum foil rolls. In the front the roof is taped on. The posts are hot glued at the top and bottom and then taped on for reinforcement.

So that is the basic structure. Next post I'll be showing you a few more details that I made to put in the truck.