The smallest drive-in theater ever created!

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[victor-eyd]

Sorry if sounds immodest but I had great time making this little project for my home theater..

Basically, the idea was spurned by a diorama my son had to make for his class last year. And ever since I've been remodeling my theater I wanted something on my coffee table that would both look cool and be fairly useful.

And to that I created the world's smallest drive-in theater. It had to be useful, which meant it will not only ingrate with the theater audio/video system but also be fully functional, ie I can actually watch movies/tv on it. So while in the process of posting in freecycle for a non-operational portable dvd player, someone actually responded , but in this case actually gave me a working unit but just some loose wiring, like that would ever stop me. 



I could have used matchbox or hot wheels but instead ebay had this collection of very small Cars collection for about $17 shipped. Initially, I thought upon reception they were too small but in the end, their small size actually made the image feel bigger, so it worked out after all.



Now moving on the the stage and setting. This is the outdoor screen. its actually a misshaped white picture frame I had to add a piece of wood to fill out when I insert the 7" portable screen. I also had some spare white wood which created the "stands" as it were.

[victor-eyd]

I added a fence for scale. Just small arts and crafts wood from Michaels which i trimmed down using a chop saw. The stage and back wall is 3/8 mdf you get at home depot for about $5.00

Front


Back- this is where all that extra wood pieces come into play


Here are the supporting characters- trees and lawn


The parts in total cost around $40 or so, once again another under $50 project

Put the two wood pieces together and voila!

[victor-eyd]

So close

[victor-eyd]

95% done- all I need is to glue the cars down and trim off the excess lawn.











Victor

[aleuni]

Wow that is looking good and strong.  It can actually support a Mercedes Benz on it (final picture in 2nd Post)

[victor-eyd]

Surprisingly, I find it pretty cool to watch a movie on the "small" screen (relatively speaking)





That's it for now...

Victor

[matt314159]

ROFL you are one of the most creative (along with frugal) members!  Kudos on the world's smallest drive in theater!

[rfisk]

HEY, what's going on back there in the micro bus?

Very cool project, Victor!!    Are some low-light photo's in the plan? 

And for those not familiar with freecycle.org, check it out.  One of our developers posted a used washer and dryer that his parents wanted to get rid of.  It was claimed within an hour and everyone was happy.  I should put my entire garage on freecycle.

Randy

[hiredpower]

Nicely done Victor!

[Sparge]

Victor,

That's pretty cool... nicely done!  Perhaps you could sell these things on eBay to train collectors and the like:

  http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=220225379696

I'd add little drive-in speaker poles for that retro look!   

-Sparge-

[victor-eyd]

Actually, someone already made one (found it while googling drive-in images)


I think this is more for a home theater setup as you can do all sorts of variations on the them. Looking through toys r us I found really well-designed scale model cars like this from dub city



All I need to do is create a functional diorama using a larger screen (since i'm using larger cars), most likely a 10" portable for scale.

Another idea that rattled through my little brain is creating a nascar or racing simulator diorama using one of these scale cars


The ideas are endless...

Victor

[WildeOscar]

Hmmmmmm.........this would make a fun contest.

[bobtom]

Wow! what a nice job. Being a ex trim man, I was wondering how you finished off the back.

Again, very nice job!!!!

[victor-eyd]

You mean this back



Nothing fancy, just some shelf brackets. My woodworking skills are VERY mediocre, so I was quite amazed I got this much to look this decent

[RoseRanch]

This is awesome, Victor!  You continue to inspire me.    Thanks for sharing.