New Custom Sled Project......

[Maize]

I was going to work on the sled today, but decided to go play golf instead. I will get it torn down the rest of the way this week. I will need to put in an order for more body parts. Once torn down, I can get the stuff finished up on the body and off to powder coating.

I decided to wait on the Tacoma project. There just isn't enough room in the garage to have 4 whole snowmobiles and a 5th in pieces AND tear apart the Tacoma. It really isn't a big deal, the stereo is OK, it just isn't loud enough.

I will need to rebuild all the shocks, the rear suspension and front suspension. The rear ski will get all new bushings, and the front will get Oilite bushings from Kurt at Goodwin's.

I did get some of the sled torn down before my buddy called to go play golf. I got the chaincase torn down, the engine out (from before), the oil tank out, the gas tank removed, the supports removed, the wiring harness removed and bunch of dents pounded out with the hammer and dolly.

The tunnel in oil canned on the rear. I think I am just going to drill out the rivets and put a new one in. The center piece is only about $38 my cost, so it isn't worth messing with.

I will post some pictures of the progress later tonight. Tonight is "Date Night" with the wife. So no working on the sleds tonight. LOL

[Maize]

Here are the shots of the sled in its current state:

[Maize]

I should have looked at the rear shock better, it is actually a triple adjust shock as well. SCORE!!!

I got the rear skid out of the sled last night, along with the chaincase, axle and track.

I used the body hammer and dolly to flatten the sheet metal back out on the back rear. Once that was done, I took a file and cleaned up the lower edge. Once I get the rest of the front end apart, I will start removing all the bad pieces and make the new chassis pieces.

Here is the current state and rear skid out. The axle front shock axle is bent in the skid, and the right side rail has a slight tweak to it on the top side. The bottom side is straight. I can straighten it with the shop press, no worries there.



Here is the completed body work. I will sand it out with a DA, and you won't even know it was creased in 3 different places.



Here is the rear skid. You can't see the tweak in the rail, but it is there.

[Maize]

Well. With all the OT I have been working at Toyota, I havn't had much time to work on it. I decided to not work OT last night or today.

I didn't have to go in until 10a this morning, and got off at 5:30p yesterday. I got some time in on this project.

I pretty much have it torn down, still a couple of things need to come off.

All the damage is exposed, I got the right massaged out and ready to weld.

I also got my parts list of wheat I need to fix everything, and the extra stuff I want to add. I can post that list tonight. It comes to about $200, my cost.

I didn't care what shape the chassis was in, as long it was fixable. It was coming down this far no matter what (for the powder coating) anyway.

The Snow Eliminators should be here this week. So hopefully I can get them mocked up and all the welding done up next week. We have to see how OT goes at work.

I also have sled shocks starting to trickle in for the upcoming season. So those get done up tonight.

Ahhhh......if I could just this kind of sled stuff all day and be independantly wealthy......SLAP!!!!! back to reality. LOL

This side is good, I just need to remove the footwell brace.



This side is wasted. I am getting both side steel braces new and the steel center supports from the 440X to add to this sled. Once the aluminum is welded, it will be as good as new.





Here you can see where the sheet metal is cracked.



Here are just some other cracks that need to be welded shut.







This I can't get to flatten out. It just 'oil-cans'. So I am replacing the whole center section.



The bracket to hold the oil tank is broken off. Rather than weld, I am just replacing the jack shaft protector.



I am making new ones of these from .080" and then flaring the holes to make them more rigid.



More to come tonight....

[Maize]

I got a ton of work done today, tomorrow is get shocks done.

I got the RPM Composites complete skidplate Friday. I went with the traditional carbon fiber. There can be too much pink on this thing. So I opted for the regular look.



I found a couple of more 'issues' today. I foun the L rear drop bracket almost broken off, and couple of cracked welds on the NUN. Nothing that can't be fixed.







I have the tunnel stripped down to where everything is off of it that I wanted off.







I should have the Snow Eliminators this week. I can cut the running boards out. I may get another set of the Van Amburg edges to go on this project.

So this week will be TIG'ing up the cracked and broken chassis after the Snow Eliminators are fit. Then it is off to powder coating.

[Maize]

I did a few sets of customer's shocks today. While I was bleeding them out, I worked on the exhaust.

I got the tins all pounded out and sanded down and then polished. There are a couple of flaws, but they turned out pretty nicely. Here is the finished exhaust:

[braindead1684]

That thing looks like it has had a fairly rough life.

[Maize]

That thing looks like it has had a fairly rough life.

It was a race sled. I knew it was going to need some work when I bought it.

I paid $3200 for the sled. All I cared about was the engine, clutches and chain case were OK. I also wanted to make sure it had a good rear suspension.

I has $2500 of Custom Axis, triple adjustable shocks (used prices), and $300 worth of titanium springs on it.

[Maize]

Not much done this weekend as still working OT at Toyota, and my sister & brother in law were here. I took to a few of our golf courses.

I did get the 440X upper A-Arms (one was tweaked but I got it straightened back out), the clear gas tank and the rest of the 440X bracing.

I also made the brackets to TIG to the lower arms to allow use of the end-link style sway bar. I am dumping the slide-style sway bar.

Here are the brackets getting evened up to look the same.



Here are the A-Arms. You can see where they were bent. I heated them and straightened them.



Here is the new tank. I have not cleaned it up yet. But it should clean up just fine.



And these are the new braces. I still have some others coming. They should be here this week.

[Maize]

Not much going on with the project right now. But I am hoping to get the chassis welded up this week, but we will see.

I took a load of stuff to be powdercoated this morning:



Here the chassis is loaded in the truck. I took it out to Cool Concepts today to see if it would fit in his oven. It fits, so we are good to go. I then stopped off at the car wash to hose off the crud so I could start to work this week.



I got the sled wrap from Casey this week. Here are some shots of that. The lighting makes it look more red, but it is a really cool day-glow pink.





Here is the VanAmburg edge rails.



I need to get the pieces made up to be welded down the footwells to extend the rear running boards. They will be about 1" wider in the back than stock with the VanAmburg rails, the 440X center supports, the front supports, 440X footwell supports and rear drop brackets. They should be plenty strong.

I want to beef these things up because I want to ride this thing. I want to get some frequent flyer miles with it, too. LOL