Hey guys,

Posted some of these pics in the Blizzard pics thread, but figured I start a thread on my rebuild/resto. Just drug it home yesterday and started the tear down tonite. I need to replace the bellypan due to rot (badly). Have another pan but it looks like she felt her way thru the woods if you know what I mean. Gonna try to get it looking as best I can, it's just a backyard beater. Well here is the pics. If anyone has a clean pan that they're willing to part with shoot me a PM---I've got 2 kids so funds are low but possibly available. I'll try to update when I have some extra time. Any hints from some of you veteran Blizzard guys on what to look out for. I think I'm going to remove the sheetmetal from this pan and swap it with my other pan that went thru the ringer. The take the whole assembly off and mabey(mabey) have it blasted.

Thanks in advance.


Sniffing out the mice!

Let the tear down begin



Ready to hoist the motor out (I have an overhead hoist, keeps the my Back in like new shape!)



Motor is out!!!!!!

I tell ya whatever you do try to save that pad on the handlebars and the grips as well I cannot find them anywhere that color!

The belly pan on my 81 Everest was pretty rotten so I cut out the large flat area under the motor and added new steel . There is still some cancer in the front where those ribs are , and rather than try to reproduce that panel , I think I'm going to tape over the holes inside and cover the entire belly with fiberglass , it should last much longer and strengthen the pan .

SKiGPS,

I know what you mean about the pad, mine is shot but the grips are good. I'm think of putting ATV bars and grips on it, I really like the feel of my Pro-Taper bars on my three wheeler. I put my old bent ones on the SS to see what they would look like. May have to go with a different bend for the sled.

Going to pick up the exact same sled this weekend. It was my wifes sled & sold it to a bud 15yrs ago & its been sitting in his garage & not ridden for last 10. Don't know if your interested but there is a guy in Canada that made a mold & is producing those pans in fiberglass. All the drag guys around here are jumping on that for a wgt reduction. The reduced wgt & the fact that the sled has a jack shaft for mod motors & qualifies as vintage, is why. Other wise there are plenty of Blizzard 5500, 7500, 9500"s that use the same pan, just need to paint it blue. Have seen alot of 5500's for cheap you can use for donor sled.

Do you have contact info for the fiberglass pan ? There have been a lot of people looking for them .

you know you can just lift those engines out you dont need a hoist

nice SS i had a 80 it was a blast good runner too

What a great looking sled, I think I know what my next one is going be

58kafer
Take it from me, Im sitting at home with a bad back. Save your back keep using the hoist. Using your back the bolt in the support might snag, and b4 you know it you cant even pick up a pecil from the floor. On a side note I cant wai to see the completion of that sled

^ gotcha

yeah its in nice shape i had a 80 SS with the diffrent style hood it was clean

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the replies, I'm super stoked about this thing. I really messed up, when I bought it from my Brother in law, I parked it out side uncovered (throw punches here) His father was the original owner and it still currently only has 972 ORIGINAL miles!!! Boy did I F-up, well now I'm paying for it, hind sight is 20/20! I really want to mod it like DR.G's , Chevyguns, or Slayerfish (I think). I'll never sell it they are my favorite body style of sled. My dad has two 55's that are clean, I used to get rides on them when I was a kid and want to rekindle those time with my own kids now. Snow is far and few between where I'm at but I still like to have cool toys in the Shop (Drool Factor). I'm resdtoring alll my old toys from when I was growing up (My 1986 Honda 250SX trike).



I tried for about 3 seconds to lift it out and the remembered that I have an eletric hoist in a sliding track mounted on my shop celing When I built my shop a few years ago, I am rying to set it up for when I get alittle olderand "can't/don't want to" lift stuff. I'm only 35 but trying to preserve my back for the rest of my life! I lifted the 787 Rotax out of my boat with my hands the first time---that is what prompted me to get the hoist--the second time was a breeze with the hoist.






I think they're BADA$$, thanks by the way.




Thanks SkiGPS,

Can't stop thinking about it and what to doo with it! Spent about 3 hours driving for work today and rolling the later model 121 track and DSA arms on it. Just don't thinkk it is in the cards. I found some low prices 99 formula skid assemblies but just don't know if they are a good set up or not??? I know any thing is better than the technology that is in there. Trying to go see another chassis this weekend that supposedly has a good pan on it. Really want to get crackin on it. I'll try to update as much as possible.

Also where do you guys get you parts, I buy all my seadoo stuff online--typicall cheaper and easier than my local dealer. I need to buy some gaskets and such for the motor(exhaust). Even part numbers will help. Does anyone have a parts manual in PDF form, don't care if it costs a few bucks or better if it's a free download.

Anyone who has any good info on what skids will fit please post of PM me. The price of SC-10 stuff is all over the map.I'm new to all the late model sleds and what can convert over. I'm not afraid of modifications, I have a milling machine in my shop, mig welder, plasma cutter and full access to my father in laws machine shop. Have a buddy that I help build cars with here and there so tubing benders and tig welders are also at my disposal.

Thanks again guys!!!!!!!

Dude with all that machining equipment Im totaly envious. I live in canada, and for all my parts I go to Royal distributing. They do ship to the U.S. their about 2hrs from the Buffalo border. Check them out they have a website

Thanks GPS, their online catalog is cool---tons of stuff!

As far as the machinery goes---I like to have enough tools to survive with out asking for help. I have acrued the tools over several years and it is an addiction. I'm into way too many things and am too cheap to pay anyone to do something for me. I recently got into powder coating as well so I do that for myself in my shop. Anything that fits into my "powder" oven gets done. So if I don't upgrade the suspension now I'll bead blast it and powder it up. I'll have to get some dark blue and orange!

Fresh baked goodies , hot out of the oven. I bead blasted a few parts the other night and just powder coated the today. I want to paint the engine as close to the Moto-Ski blue as I can get and do the head orange. I ordered some Chrysler Orange (Hemi) powder, and some Cadillac Blue powder both of which are suprisingly close to the original colors. I did the pull start, and silencer spring and flange. I took off the back tunnel support that mounts the mudflap which I'll do in orange to make the back of the sled "POP". Still undecided on what to do with my pan, I though I may have had a good clean one from a 7500+ but there are too many differences I think but it would still work in a pinch I believe. I also found a guy possibly getting a 5500 soon to part it out.

Blasted

Powdered

Cured-Hot Out-O-The oven




Blue Powdered-before curing



After Curing- Almost the same as factory

58kafer I have the color codes for your sled eh!

That orange is great , I just sent the suspension arms and idler wheel grease caps from my Skandic for "safety orange" powder coating but I think yours is closer to the correct color !

SkiGPS,

If you don't mind shoot me a PM with the codes or post it in the thread here, I think I saw it somewhere on the web before and wrote it down. But that's as far as I remember, I don't remember where I put it! When I paint the hood and pan I'd like to shoot it in a Base/Clear for maximum

Tommc56,

I do all my own powder coating in my garage. I buy my stuff thru www.eastwood.com There are several other places to buy powder and equipment from but Eastwood is only an hour from me. I have a few customers "near" them and usually roll thru on the way home to get some goodies. Powdering @ home is "So easy a caveman can do it". If you already have an air compressor(even a pancake compressor would do it), all you would need is the gun, powders, and an old electric oven and a blast cabinet (you can get a cheap one from harborfreight) I use my father in laws industrail cabinet. You can sometimes get a free range on Craiglist, or do what I did and went to a local applicance shop and asked for a used one. The guy said "take what you need" and if it breaks down in a few months bring it back and have another. So all I really have invested is about $140 (this kit includes some powder to get you rolling) http://www.eastwood.com/hotcoat-powder-coa...r-coat-kit.html
I like the fact that I can have my parts immediately after they're out of the oven and put them into service.


Here is the orange :
http://www.eastwood.com/hotcoat-powder-coa...ler-orange.html

And here is the blue:
http://www.eastwood.com/hotcoat-powder-coa...illac-blue.html

Both of which are almost spot on, the orange matches the orange on my clutch almost dead on. The best part is the clean up, blow out the gun (2-3 minutes tops), then sweep up the floor. It's GRAVY! With paints you have to worry about disposal of thinners, reducers, activators etc, etc,etc.

58skafer
The color codes for the 79 gps are midnight blue ppg/dcc 17876,basf rm85003. moto ski orange ppg 69920,basf 569229.
Hope this helps

I just hit pay dirt today. I scored a mint chassis. I'm only using the bellypan off of it, I wish I had a reg for the chassis but I don't so If I need to get Registration for it I can't so I'll swap the pans. The guy also had a super clean exhaust for it, so I grabbed that and also the whole brake assy(lever, cable, caliper, and almost brand new pads). The donor is a 7500+, the down side is the pan is a bit different. When Bombardier changed the the front bumper to include the hood hinges to have 2 Heavy Duty hinges rather than the flimsy center hinge they left the flange where the gasket goes un bent. So I need to bend the flange down 90 degrees inward about 1/2 inch then back up 90 deg so the hood gasket can attach to it. Not that big of a deal but still a pain in the rear. Not too big of a fan of the aluminum front bumper so I'll go thru all the fabrication to make it work with the original bumper. The later pans don't have the center support that runs up to the hood hinge so I think I'll fab up a mount off or the 2 lateral bars that run back fron the PLUS bumper and try to come up with a better hinge than factory. This piece was what I need to keep me going. The drill and rivet gun are going to be my best friends soon. Guy said he had mint ski's off of it but sold them prior to me finding him, also the best part is the guy is only about 20-30 minutes from my house, go figure!

The "DONOR"


The rust is only light surface rust came from a 632 original mile sled!




Now for the pipes--these are MINT! Bead blasted and freshly painted. Even got all the springs with it!

thats a lot of work, but hey its a project right!

i have a cab just like that,wonder what the sled look like,now i know ...

Momories there. That was my very first "Brand New" snowmobile, bought and paid for with my own $$$ at 15 years old. I paid $1300 for it as a left over. Good luck with the restoration, and please, keep us updated.

Got the Bulkhead/Bellypan seperated took just over an hour, drilled out all the rivets. Was a cake job and she slid right in two. Started to clean up the tunnel, took off all the supports for the skid, I'll bead blast them and powder coat them up. Going to pick up a used 7500 skid for it,, my front arm is badly cracked and the saftey strap tube is broken off. The guy I got the 7500 from has the skid still, so I'm picking that up hopefully this week. Just been cleaning up alot of the little odds and ends (water lines, air box, steering arms, etc.). It's amazing how little hardware(nuts and bolts) are on this thing, it all rivets! Now I need to seperate the other sled in half. I guess it's alot of work, but I want to be able to register this thing, and the donor has no paperwork, it was never registered. Still polishing, until the next update!







The air conditioned bellypan

what did you use to clean the chassis?

I used a multitude of stuff(AKA what ever is laying around in the shop) but for this I started with Eagle one Never Dull(use it on my chrome bumpers), and just kept going back and forth, doesn't do to much but it does clean it. The I went with Mothers Mag and Aluminum polish. I started out with a paper towel(for some reason it worked better than a rag????? Turned black faster) and the buffed the black tarnish off with a microfibre towel Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat until you get the desired polished look you want. For the part under where the seat is I used Four 0 (0000) grade steel wool with some mothers(not going for the polished look there) and then buffed it off with a microfibre towel. Ideally I want to get a 3" pnuematic buffer/sander and do it with that(LAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZY way of doing it, but faster!) I always try to work linear with the length of the tunnel rather than in circles. Only took about two nights in the shop and 1/2 case of your finest cold beverage!

Nice sleds superdupersonic, way to make me jealous! Not only is your SS MINT but so is your 68? That 68' was my first sled that my father let me drive, i parked that thing into so many drifts it was unreal We still have the 68' also a 72' T'NT 400, and an old Yamaha GP433, and two 5500's plus my SS.

That old 68's velocity stack on the carb pointing at your nuts always scared me when I was a kid, I was probably around 9-10 years old when I was riding that thing bring back the memories. Hard to believe that the 68' was already 17 years old when I was riding it---it was vintage then, let alone now! Wow just did the math and that thing is 41 years old, I can see another project or five on the horizon!

***EDIT*** Sorry guys, it's not a 72 T'NT it's a 70 Nordic 399 and a 71 Yamaha SS433.

Seperation Anxiety!

well, I bent the flange for the hood gasket, went fairly smooth. Now I just need to weld up the slits I made around the curve to have it bend smoother. I had to bend the original sheetmetal 90 deg then step back 3/4" and bend back up 90 deg. One step closer. I can smell the color!



Original flange



What it needs to be



What it is!

Just a little update on the old SS. I finally welded and ground the bellypan where I made the slits for bending the hood gasket flange. I didn't get any photos of it but I already started doing the body filler where I welded up the pan. I also made the footwells on the pan removable and I'll bolt them back in. I chose to make them removable so that hopefully in the future(summertime) I can mabe mod this for the IFS off a later DSA or ADSA sled, and upgrade to an SC-10 skid. I powdercoated some parts (Drive axle bearing housing, footwell supports, coolant tank support, seat hold down, and torsion springs for the rear skid). The silver parts are actually the same silver that's on most wheels for cars and trucks today. The torsion springs where white and blue when I removed them. They were on the skid from the parts machine 7500. I'm assuming the color denotes some type of spring weight??? Anyone know? Still have more parts to blast and powder.





Removable footwells





Powdered parts





Slowly getting closer, really want to get this thing back to one piece!

l restored one a little newer then your some years back , it's lots of work and l can see your dooing a very nice job , Keep up the great work , MIKE

Thanks Rotax Max,

I was going to originally paint the head on my 340 Orange (Moto Ski Orange), but have since decided on a better paint scheme for it. I can't wait to paint it up, but I am still in the cleanup process of the engine. As always, I'll post some pics when I doo it up.

I am bringing a 1980 Blizzard 9500 back to life and here is HOW STUPID I AM!!!!! I was replacing the grips on the handle bars and put on the first one I grabbed out of my parts box. After gluing it on, I thought, that thing is blue and I need a black one, what the heck. Since I glued it on, I had to cut it off. It was for a Moto-Ski!!! UUGGGGG!! I feel like I just bent a Peter Rose rookie card or something. I looked, I don't have any more either!!!! I just want to appologise to someone!!

That's like money down the toilet---Blue grips are like hens teeth! Sorry about your loss. Should have dipped it in hot water may have softened the grip enough to twist it off.

Thanks.............I feel even better now!!!

Back in the day, that SuperSonic was quite the machine...I had an 81 7500 which was basically the same. Keep posting those awesome pics, and can't wait to see the final product...!

try a blow dryer next time and expand/ loosen with heat

Your sled is lookin great thanks for the snow flap!

Thanks man, I wish it were done we just got about 13 inches on saturday, and possibly more on Tues/ Wednesday. I think I'm gonna dig out one of the 5500's tomorrow and try to get one going, want to go ride so bad, almost too deep for my trike.

Hey not bad, that flap looks good on there! Glad you asked for one, I'd rather give it away than throw it away! She was a few days away from the trash! I have realized I can keep EVERYTHING.