1978 440X Polaris RXL "Rocky The Flying Squirrel" UPDATED!

[Larry Preston]

I'll be putting the progress on the front page, but we can talk about it here.

So the progress report today is that the torsion bar is back in, welded up and painted. Thanks Jim Haug for the welding help! I started to assemble it, and have the sway bars on, the two magnesium radious rods, the steering and the chaincase in. I also got a look at the seat, but she needed a bit more work.

Here's the photos:
#1 Doc Dropping off the motor after he did a world record job on a fantastic rebuild.
#2 Bare naked Chassis
#3 Assembly Started
#3 Close up of the motor. Feel free to touch yourself.

[Larry Preston]

Here's the sled back in the day. Brad Hulings had a 440 sled and this 440X. This is one of the only pictures I've found of it so far!

Can anyone identify the decal on the front by the radiator???

[zoom]

quaker state ??????????????????????   oil sticker maybe

[clackinator]

I think Zoom is right.......it looks to me like it says Quaker State inside of a green or gold wreath and there is a red snowmobile facing the opposite direction.  Underneath the Snowmobile I think it might say "Snowmobile Oil."

[71TXman]

Actually I am all to firmiliar with that sticker......it shows a snowmobile on it and it says "To sell to 71TXman in 2006"..............hint..hint..that is after you are done with all the work ;)

[wkasten]

its the pabst man on ther cool blue oh maybe i just looked at my cold can of pabst lol ;D

[POLARTONE]

Actually I am all to firmiliar with that sticker......it shows a snowmobile on it and it says "To sell to 71TXman in 2006"..............hint..hint..that is after you are done with all the work ;)

I THOUGHT IT SAID POLARTONE ON IT...YEP I THINK YOU READ IT WRONG... ??? ???

[tseaberg]

first off I have to say that is one of the sweetest sleds ever made and would love to have one. I looked through my Best of snopro 1973-1978 book and found some more pictures of brad hulings 440x. The decals on the one in the book are in a different place than the ones on the picture you posted. on the one in the book the fornt decal is a quaker state decal but is totally different than the one on the posted picture. the picture in the book has the same placemant of stickers as the #3 440x right next the 440X pictured. Maybe he had to I don't know. Hopefully this helps but it probably won't so anyways nice sled and I hope to see finished picturres of it soon.

[Larry Preston]

tseaberg;

Each of the Polaris guys in 78 had two 440 sleds - the 440 and the 440X. I'm restoring the X sled, as pictured above. I looked through all the pictures in those books as well, but I'll I see is the regular 440. Not one shot of Hulings' 440X sled. The regular 440 can be spotted by the fact there is a hole on each side of the tunell, near the back. It looks like they were going to put outboard shocks on, but decided not to. The 440X does not have those holes.

Also I notice the 440 has Brad's name on the hood, the 440X sled does not.

More clues for anyone that may have more photos!

[AllenJ]

Larry,
Did you bead blast the chassis? It looks like a dull gray in the first photo.

[zoom]

It's just possible that Brad was saluting his home state of Pennsylvania,specificallly North Western PA,  the home of Quaker State Oil Company, in Oil City. Afterall Brad is from the Edinboro area , and he started his racing career with 1970 ? Skiroule's out of McKean Snowmobile.

[tseaberg]

Thanks for correcting me on that larry, I was told that the 440X sleds had triples and the regular 440 RXL's had twins. I will have to tell him that he was mistaken and tell him what they had for motors in them. I will check through my 1978 snowmobile magazines and hope to find a hulings 440X, I have a stack of magazines a foot high from 1978 that my dad and uncle saved.

[ghenry]

Awesome job so far Larry, I have my helmet at the ready!  I would agree that it is definately a Quaker State Decal with a red sled heading to the rear.  Keep up the good work.

[Larry Preston]

G henry - we had to blast the magnesium, it's really the only way to clean it off. Then a light touch up with steel wool brings it back to pretty close to what it looks like new, or with just a little time having past since it was new.

tseaberg: Your buddy was close... in 1977 they tried a 440 twin motor, the triples were better, so by the time they hit the ice for the first race in 1977 and all the way through 1978, the 440's were all triples... as far as I know. Never saw a picture of an ifs with a twin 440 in it. Thanks for looking through the mags for me! I also have a giant stack of snow weeks that I've been putting off going through -

Could be a quaker state decal - but it doesn't look like its shaped like any Quaker state decal I've seen(??) I was told the reason they ran any of those decals (quaker state, champion, ngk, wiseco) was if they won they got an extra $100 for having them on there.

[clackinator]

Larry, that is true about the $100 bonus.  One of my sleds has a "Union Carbide" oil sticker on it.....the original owner put it on there although he never used Union Carbide oil......but he did win a few races and he was given the $100 bonus by the company.