It was a 72 800cc Starfire that got me into this whole "vintage" thing. Even though I grew up with and loved snowmobiles as a kid, by late in 1999 I was in such a different world that snowmobiles never ever crossed my mind. That is until I went to the Waconia show and got the privilege of riding Doc Jim’s 72 800 Starfire.

I was so thrilled with that I just started doing this website for the fun of it… and I haven’t ever stopped, and I don’t plan to.

At this years VSCA National show, Gregg Holland’s 72 800cc Starfire stuck out to me from across the room. To say this is a sweet restoration would be a severe understatement. This thing is stunning.

Last summer Greg was walking through a scrap yard, when a sled with an ill-fitting 74 TX hood caught his eye. Right off he noticed the chaincase being offset, and that the bumpers were worn from pipes (that were missing) smacking them. This was no 74 TX! It was a 72 Starfire, and it clearly was on of the big triples. What was pretty funny to Greg at the time was that he knew several Polaris collectors had walked right by this sled and didn’t catch what it really was. Whoops.

By August Greg started working on the project. He enlisted a lot of people to help out. Rob Simonich had a motor for him. Don (Dr. Mario) Soukup had some parts for him, as did Tim Hill and Gary Bright. Conrad Van Batavia did the seat, and Justin Fredrickson was of great assistance in researching the parts and pieces. Jesse Anderson did the awesome paint work on the sled, and Justin Clack and Doug Monson had a hand it as well. He took the sled all the way down, even removing the belly pan (not a task for the faint of heart), smashing that all back into shape and re-attaching it.

Multiple projects going at one time keep Greg enthused. “I used to do cars. But with snowmobiles, you can work on and own a bunch of them at the same time. The projects don’t take so long – its just a lot more fun.” He doesn’t do the body work, opting to have professionals help out in that arena. So once the sled is out for body work or paint, he can work on motors, suspensions – whatever else needs to be cleaned up to be re-installed.

Greg got a real head start into restoring Polaris sleds when he got to know Burt Buzick, who has become a good friend. Burt had huge bunch of New Old Stock (NOS) parts and decided they needed a new home with Greg. “Use what you can, use some to trade for what you need, and if you sell any of it, give me the money!” was all Burt said when he gave Greg the parts. Because of Burt and the others who helped, the sled is restored with 80% NOS parts. The rest of the parts that Greg got? “Not for sale. But I will consider trades for parts I need for other projects.” Greg said.

The sled was finished in March. “The best part of any restoration is starting it up for the first time.” Greg said it runs beautiful, and he cannot wait to drive it next winter. This will be no trailer queen – he’s going to have some fun on it. He just wanted to show it once at the big VSCA show before he rides it.

Greg says he finds the best part of this whole vintage deal to be the "old timers" who come out to see the sleds. “I want to get them as close as I can to how those guys remember seeing them. I love the look on their face when they see the sleds looking like new, and I always look forward to the stories and shooting the breeze with them.”

Well said Greg. I couldn’t agree more. Looking at this 72 brought back great memories of riding the 72 at Waconia, and of seeing them race back in the day. Memories on top of memories. Gotta love it.

“Ddubs” Metalflake work.

DDub is a new user of the Bull Sessions. He signed on, introduced himself, and put up a picture of his very unique 1970 Scorpion. It was won at a raffle in 1969 from the Crosby Minnesota Fire Department.

He’s got a great story about how the sled came to be. You can read it on the Bull Sessions. Basically it involves left over parts, two cows and a Scorpion reunion.

But the readers on the Bull Sessions got focused on one aspect of the story: The restored metal flake hood. Ddub was asked for details, and he provided them in all their glorious detail. Check out his website which has all kinds of “how to” tips for paint and body work.

You just can’t get enough metal flake can you?

440X sleds gets many steps closer to completion…

I had some QUality Garage Time in the past few days and was able to make good progress on Hulings 78 440X machine. Read about it in the Bull Sessions.

Tonight I was working on the 78 RXL 440-X sled that I am restoring. The bulkhead is magnesium. I had sent it off to be stripped of the black paint that had been put on it over the years, and the cracks that needed welding. I got it back yesterday. It’s starting to look awesome.

While painting the handlebars, I found the phrase “Don’t Crash me” on the top of them. I was amused by that, but had no idea if it was done originally, or if it had been added over the years. I left it, just in case it was original. You can still read it throught the new paint.

I was trying to decide if I should just clean and clear coat the magnesium bulkhead, or sand it just a bit to try to make it look like it did when it came off the race track in 1978.

Thankfully, my instincts got the best of me and I decided to lightly sand it off. I started on the clutch guard as that would be the easiest. As I was sanding, I noticed someone had written the word “Rocky” in the magnesium clutch guard.

Intrigued, I sanded ever so lightly some more. Slowly, the word “Squirrel” came into view. Now I was starting to feel like I really found something interesting. I continued to clean, then I caught the whole phrase. “Rocky the Flying Squirrel”. The handwriting was the same as the ” Don’t Crash Me” on the handlebars.

So there I sat in my shop, thinking “What the ???????” What does a cartoon character from the 1960’s have to do with a 1978 440-X RXL? I scrunched my brow. I paced. I twisted my head and looked at the phrase over and over again. I felt like an archeologist. A confused archeologist, but an archeologist who had a mystery to solve, none the less.

As I may have mentioned, I’m writing a book about the Polaris race efforts in the 1960’s and 1970’s. I have already interviewed many of the players, including Sir Larry Rugland. In that interview, I remembered he mentioned “Rocky the Flying Squirrel”. I raced into my office to look up the notes from that interview.

Brad Hulings in 1978 was light, aggressive, and very fast. So much so that Larry nick named him ” Rocky the Flying Squirrel”. Every time Larry called him “Rocky”, Brad would respond “Okay Bullwinkel”.

When I read the notes back, I laughed out loud. I danced a strange little geek dance. I ran around in circles a bit.

I had suspected the sled was Hulings 1978 440-X sled. Jerry Bunke’s is in the Snowmobile Hall of Fame in St. Germain Wisconsin. Steve Throsen’s 1978 World Championship sled is in Canada in the good care of my friend. The handlebars on my 440-X matched Brad’s, as did the gas tank and the foot loop mounting holes. But I didn’t feel that was good enough verification. But seeing the phrase “Rocky the Flying Squirrel” on the clutch guard brought it all together.

I had to run right out and party with the Vman and his crazy neighbors.

I’d show you a picture, but the writing was so small that I could not get a good photo. But if you come see the sled, I’ll show it to you. It’s there.

Life is good.

Keith Warning sent in these photos of the 250 Starfire he put together to go do a little grass draggin’. Dig the 74/75 SnoPro hood mounted on the original belly pan, with the 75 decals. That looks sweet! We’ll have to wait until Monday to see how she performed. I know it has some trick clutch parts in it. {{cough, cough}}.

A few minutes ago there was a problem with the connection to vintagesleds.com. The problem has been resolved – we apologize for any inconvenience.

I get asked that a lot lately – usually followed by “Why don’t you update your site more often!!”. So here’s the scoop. I’m pretty busy at work. Fortunately, I love what I do, so that’s not an issue. I’m also knee-deep in way too many projects. Here they are, in order of what will get done first:

Brad Hulings’ 1978 440-X Polaris RXL Restoration
Photo of the sled back in the day, courtesy of Retrosno.com Bob Rankin. Photo was taken at Scarborough Downs , Maine in 1978. On the right is how it looked the day I started to go to work on it. The sled was found on the East Coast, it was being drag raced with an 800cc Polaris free air motor in it. It has a magnesium bulkhead, and a serial number that clearly makes it one of the 78 440-X sleds. How do I know it is Hulings? Well, Steve Thorsen’s 78 440-X is owned by Rob McMillian in Canada. Rob and I spent hours on the phone looking at every hole, cut, weld, mark, dent, mounting and piece of dirt on both sleds, and came to the conclusion his has to be Thorsen’s (too many things matched the original photos to be coincidence) and since Jerry Bunke’s is in the Snowmobile Hall of Fame – that leaves this one to be Hulings. As a bonus, the handlebars, gas tank fittings and the footloop all match how Brad had his. The serial numbers are strange for a 78 RXL, and they are one number off from each other! Currently the sled is stripped to the bone; The motor is being gone through, parts are being cleaned, the track needs many new cleats, the seat is being repaired. I expect to have her done around the 1st of November.

My 2007 Rider:

It’s not in the garage yet, but I’m getting ready for this one. This will be my rider sled this winter: A 1972 Polaris ATX 500 triple.

THE RACE SLEDS:
In getting ready to do a little more racing this winter, I’m doing a little upgrade work on last years 250cc leaf spring SnoPro. Nothing major, just some small improvements to the track, chassis and pipes. The other one is a clone 340cc RXL. Since this one is being built from scratch, well, you can imagine how much work is going into this one. Fortunately, I have some really, really smart people helping me with the tricky parts on this one. I’ve owned and driven a lot of RXL’s in the past several years, but this is the first one I’ll be able to really race. I can’t wait. Both are expected to be done before we get ice. I’m also helping Jim Haug get is 340cc leafer ready as well has his new sled, which if I told you about it, I’d have to kill you.

THE BOOK:

As a few of you know, I’ve been working on a book about the Polaris race team for some time. I’ve interviewed Leroy Lindblad, Larry Rugland, Don Omdahl, David Johnson and many more, but I still have many, many interviews to go. Recently I got to go to Rushford Minnesota and visit with Vern Bunke, brother of the late great Jerry Bunke. While I was there, I visited Jerry for a bit. I plan on having the book ready this spring. I cannot wait to tell the full story about David Johnson’s race career, all the way to Jerry Bunke and all the others that were, and dreamed of being on that team.

So I’ve been getting to the updates as much as I can… but they might be a little slower then I like. In the meantime, enjoy the Bull Sessions – thats 500 people adding new stuff to the web site 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year! Thanks for all the great feedback, comments and support!

Grey Rolland got a motorcycle as a college graduation present. Needless to say, the bike was a big hit with Grey, who became obsessed with the color. So when it came time to build a sled, of course it would be a Yamaha (with an SSR 3 stage engine), but what to do about the color?

No problem. Just match your beloved bike, sit back and wait for the questions to start!

You know the summer show season is getting close when the inbox get all kinds of photos of newly restored sleds in it. Here’s a great example. Cat guy Tom Ische wrote to tell me the site needs more Cat stuff – so he sent me new photos of this 1978 Cat SnoPro he has just finished in time for the summer shows. Tom will have this Cat at the Thief River Falls show this coming weekend. I’m hoping he’ll bring it to St. Germain the following weekend.

The 78 Cat was affectionately called the “Mailbox” for its rather square-ish styling. This one is a 250cc machine that Tom recently bought from Mike Meagher. It had a Wahl front end on it, but Tom pulled that part and let Mike keep it. At first Tom was not sure if it was a 78 or 79, so he did a bunch of research on it. Combining information from Al Enno and Steve Olson, it was determined to be a 78 chassis. Tom found a correct top and for the motor, and he’s been restoring it since about January 1st, non stop until now.

Tom’s next project is an 81 Cat SnoPro he picked up over 2 years ago. Nice work Tom!