You are currently browsing the archives for the Restorations category.
Amongst the dozens and dozens of photos sent in of the restoration of the Arctic Cat Boss Cat III, I thought this one was just kind of the coolest. It’s the best shot that shows how big it is, how cool the 4 motors are and how much work went into the original creation of the sled and the restoration of it.
More photos and the FULL story to come. BOSS CAT III will be at A-1 in Michigan tomorrow!
The alarm clock went off this morning at the usual time. What was unusual was that the first words I heard this morning were “It’s Alive!!” from the Oingo Boingo song Weird Science.
“How fitting” I thought, as my thirteen year old Cat squeaked out a little noise during her morning stretch. Why was it odd to wake up to that song? Because this was the day that I was to see if a four year old restoration project of mine would finally come to life.
In the first races of the 1977-1978 SnoPro season, each Polaris driver on the Midnight Blue Express (Jerry Bunke, Steve Thorsen and Brad Hulings) had a regular 440 – that is with an aluminum bulkhead. They also each had a 440X machine, as well as each having a 250 and a 340 RXL, which were pretty much the same machines as the independents had.
What I didn’t realize until lately was that there was in fact 3 more made just for Eagle River. Along with the magnesium bulkhead, these machines had lightweight brake disks, shafts, thinner tunnels – whatever they could do to shave a little more weight off the machines.
The first time they hit the ice was at Eagle River. Both Jerry and Steve qualified for the coveted "World’s Championship" but Brad crashed his machine, first corner, first heat race. Brad crashed and fell off, but that machine bounced out of the race track with the throttle stuck wide-open, and slammed into a parked ambulance.
"There was nothing left of it" Brad told me in a later interview. "Nothing?" I said. "Nothing." he repeated.
Jerry Bunke’s Eagle River machine is in the Snowmobile Hall of Fame in St. Germain Wisconsin. Steve Thorsen’s is owned by Rob McMillian, and we have chronicled that sled often here. Brad’s Eagle River sled was destroyed.
But all three 440X sleds survived the years – mostly. Having been a huge fan of the Polaris Midnight Blue Express as a kid, I never, ever in my wildest dreams thought I would own one of these machines.
But way back in 2004, I traded a very, very nice original condition superstock 340 RXL for a rolling chassis that was in Maine. At the time, I was not sure of what it was, other than it was another RXL, but with a magnesium bulkhead. I knew it had to have some kind of history with that.
It took a very long time to find all the missing parts – the hardest part being the not-so-common 440 Polaris triple RXL motor. Once I had that, I started working on the sled.
I was thinking that it would be a fairly quick job; after all, by the time I started in October of 2006, I had pretty much all the parts. I also decided to show the work off as it was being done, and I did so on a thread in the Bull Sessions.
That turned out to be a pretty clever move. I got help from all over the U.S. and Canada. Turns out a lot of people would like to see it done. As of this writing, the Rocky thread is one of the most popular on the Bull Sessions.
But then I started to run into some issues. The big one being time. I just wasn’t able to get out in the garage and get any quality time with the machine. I had no pipes for it, but I looked everywhere to see if I could find an original set. No such luck. If 440 RXL motors are rare, the pipes are just plain non-exist ant. Enter Dave Crumb, who volunteered to take the job on.
This was no easy task; Dave is in New York. The sled is in Minneapolis. So Dave borrowed a set from Jon Pardee who owns Bernat/Hulings 440 machine from 1977. He did a killer job! But the 78 440X chassis is different, and the pipes did not fit exactly right. So off to Willy Ewing they went for a fitting.
I found out a lot of very interesting things about the 440 RXL’s during a conversation with 1978 factory team mechanic Greg Hedlund; There was no standard pipe for these machines. They were all hand built. If one guy crashed, he could not borrow a pipe from another sled. They would not fit.
After getting the pipes on, the next problem was the hood. It just wouldn’t fit right, no matter how much I cut it. In fact I ruined two hoods before getting the third to fit, and it took one more pipe re-fitting to get it right. Hint: The factory team ran their hoods about 2" lower than everyone else.
On the way to get the pipes fitted to the correct hood fitting, we stopped in at Larry Rugland Motorsports and showed him the sled. In particular, we showed him the clutch guard where the phrase "Rocky The Flying Squirrel" is scrawled into the metal, and "Don’t Crash Me" on the handlebars.
Larry looked at the Rocky the Flying Squirrel and got a huge grin on his face. No question what this machine was after that.
"Brad was the lightest yet strongest race driver I ever knew. He was little, but he had barrels for arms. I just started calling him Rocky the Flying Squirrel after the cartoon. I’d always yell at him and say Rocky! Try this! And he’d reply Okay, Bullwinkle."
So this morning, I had some very small tasks to do before starting it. Adjust the track, test the job I did on bleeding the brakes the day before, and make sure it had to anti-freeze leaks. Then put some gas in it. 110 race fuel.
Then it was go time. I swear my heart had not pounded this hard since I could remember. I started to doubt myself. Was every bolt tight? What did I forget?
I ran through a check list in my brain about 20 times. Then I gently blew into the gas tank to get some fuel into the carbs.
The last time this machine ran was March of 1978. Would it indeed run after thirty one years and seven months?
On the 3rd pull it popped and sputtered. On the fifth, it idled for a bit then stopped. Thrilled, I grabbed the camera.
And here ladies and gentleman is pull number six:
Remember this baby? Terry Wilen sent in the story of how this 1955 "ice toboggan" was built by his grandfather while he was employed at Thunder Bay Canada’s Canada Car Company.
It was built originally to sassiest his grandfather in navigating across Dog Lake, north of Thunder Bay Ontario. He was trapping to augment his income, and some way to get across the snow would be a huge help.
The machine sat in storage for 47 years following the passing of the inventor in 1962. Terry pulled it out and discovered just how well it was constructed. Everything that needed grease had a grease nipple, and everyone of them had been filled with grease, keeping all the moving parts working perfect. The motor was still being used on a log-splitter.
Terry’s idea was to put the motor back in and just see how the old girl really worked.
Well that was way back many, many months ago. All kinds of issues cropped up to slow Terry down, but he finally got the old gal running this past spring. He went for a few miles of a ride and the machine worked just great! "It worked just as well as it did back in the 1950’s!" Terry said.
Thanks for sharing a great experience Terry and congrats on owning such a unique piece and getting it running!
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.
I’d like to introduce those of you who don’t know about it to Time Benders Vintage Garage, and owner Dale Neduzak.
Hardly a week goes by when I don’t get contacted by someone looking for RXL clone information. Well Dale has completed a new website to show the RXL clone parts and machines, as well as the new 81 Ski-Doo bird cages he can build for you. The website contains a complete parts and price list, as well as a story I contributed on the history of the Polaris RXL – complete with some never before seen photos.
My 340cc RXL that Mark Anderson and Jacob Goede raced last year started out at Time Benders Vintage. I have another one that I am slowly working on. I can’t tell you what a delight it is to work with new aluminum after restoring so many aluminum and magnesium machines.
Make no mistake, building a clone RXL from the ground up is not for the faint of heart. There are a lot of parts in one of these machines, and having someone like Dale around to make parts available is a very good thing.
So if your looking for a clone to build for show or for race, Dale can help with a 77, 78 or 79 model, as well as the 81 Ski-Doo chassis. He’s got copies of the original stuff as well as competition version of some parts. These are parts (like the trailing arms) that we have learned need a little extra support to survive modern racing conditions.
My thanks to Dale for all the help with my projects over the years, and the new site.
 |
|
“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.