snowmobile builds/ and future projects

not sure if everyone will want to hear me babble about old snowmobiles or not. I know most folks in the south have probably never laid a hand on one but I figured I would show what I got anyways. right now I think I have 5 at one point last year I think I had a total of 10 or 12 one from each brand almost back in the seventies there was more than 250, now there is Polaris, arctic cat, ski-doo I think that's it. anyways I thought if anybody from the north here has any stories about old snowmachines you can post them here I would like to hear them! now here are some of my bueats.
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Watching from here. I’ve had a couple of old machines, never rode one except to test the engine out on the road in front of the house. 
I have always thought that the drive train would make a GREAT drive unit for something like a mud machine or whatever.

ya I have seen a lot of rear engine buggy/go-carts made by using the motors/ drive shafts , me and my dad actully attempted to build a 600cc artic cat powerd 318 pulling tractor but the hydro turned out to be shot and the motor needed complete rebuild .

I did a little work on my 75 Polaris colt resto-mod today built a custom front bumper out of the old front and rear bumpers I also added a brace to the grill to keep it from breaking and falling apart, a little backstory on the machine is a year and a half ago I found the colt sitting in a guys yard he told me it had been sitting for 28 years or more, anyways I ended bringing it home and got it running and had a blast riding it around last year so this year I decided to make the old girl better I had to find a replacement chassis because the one that had been sitting for 28 years was rotted with more holes than swiss cheese. the new one is almost immaculate with almost zero rot. the fun part of the build comes in when I decided I wanted to spare my back from the zero suspension she originally had so I found a late 80s Polaris ultra 10 indy suspension to slam in fast-forward to wright now I am getting the new chassis ready for paint and testing track fitment and such It should turn out as a very fun sled to ride when I am done!

also got a new used but new to me lincoln stick welder now I should be able to do a little bigger stuff than my little Cambell house field:). the new to me lincion
my cambel housenfield

That Lincoln is a forever welder. Congrats on that!

thanks, I am super excited to use it I have to get a new end for it but other than that it should work great for building stuff. like the garden tractor pulling sled I would like to build to test my pulling tractor.

Well I did a little more work to the colt today. I got the grill and track mounted in the machine for mockup next up is teardown for paint .

okay, another update I got the driveshaft back. I had to have it machined to have a piece of the shaft with spines fit it then the guy machining it tig welded it up. pretty happy with how it came out next more mockupurl=https://servimg.com/view/20374883/31][/url]

It should work, but a part of me wonders if it will be a brittle point due to the heat? Nice welder dude though!

sorry I guess I should have said it, I had to have it welded I really wish I had tig also on it being weak I will have to see with some testing this winter

well, I neglected to update this thread. progress has continued on the colt including sending it off to paint the artic cat I showed in my first post needs carb boots/carb flanges. the ski doo I showed also runs and is registered as a trail machine for this year. anyhoo going back to the colt I am hoping to have it done before next week hopefully fingers crossed! more updates coming soon!

got some more progress she's back! and in shiny metallic ford blue paint.  the assembly has started hopefully it will be back together by the end of the weekend!

Looks good!

well, more progress has been made! the machine is back together running and I think driving not sure I didn't get to test it because there are no wear rods on the skis next up is extreme testing once we get some cold weather and snow .

Good stuff, that machine looks awesome! What year is it? I'd guess late 70s but am no snowmobile expert

thanks, it's a 75 Polaris colt hood on a 73 chassis with 85 Polaris indy suspension its sorta a johnny cash one piece at a time machine with parts from 4 different sleds and Polaris parts from almost every year.

A frankNsled eh? Love it!

yep pretty much lol! last year it was a fraken rat sled that was completely rotted out I revived it and decided it couldn't die so I gave it new life with a new to me chassis. the old one was held together by duct tape zip ties multiple ratchet staps and license plates.

okay finally got some snow here! not enough to really rip in but enough to have some fun with. she performed flawlessly still extremely tipsy with the skis in the stock position but that's fine I think some custom ski wideners may get built for her.

Right on man that's awesome! It's great to finally enjoy projects!

On another note, a trick I've used when sentences split above and below pictures is to bump up against the first [, hit delete until you've deleted the last 2 characters of your sentance, write them back in, hit SPACE twice then ENTER once and it fixes that issue!

welllllll in Minnesota land we received a good 14 in of snow so that meant more testing no big issues other than premix being a little bit strong and fouling out some plugs. I also managed to find the correct hood bumper and rear grab handle all installed added about 25 hps to the original 34 horsepower lol.

after some heavy riding


i also found out that the updated suspension swap was a saver to my back lol!