Tips on Restoring a Sled

Look for the following:

1. Frozen or free engine.
2. Condition of the track.
3. How new of a sled is it?
4. Missing metal and fiberglass parts that
cannot be made and are hard to find.
5. How rusty is the metal?
6. How many parts are frozen with rust and
unable to be moved.
7. Condition of decals, name plates and such
8. Is the asking price in line with the age,
conditon and so forth?

Once you have decided on what sled you wanted and made the purchase. Your on your way to the next step depending on if you plan on restoring it. First you must decide on how far you want the restoration to go. It could be from just sanding any rust and repainting to a complete down to the frame one.

Here's a few tips:

1. Take pictures before you start. The more the better
2. When disassembling the sled, work on only one part of the sled at a time.
Jumping around from one thing to another might cause you problems later on.
3. Put all small items in a ziploc bag and label it.
Write down any broken, missing, or any parts wore do to normal use you go along.
This will save you time later on as you know what you need and won't forget anything.
4. Once completely apart, the first stop should be the car wash for a bath for the chassis and any other parts needing cleaning.
5. Matching the paint can some times be a hassle, there's a tip.
Try finding a protected part of the sled where a washer or peice of metal was attached to the sled.
The color of the paint in these areas are usually in good shape, and a better match if possible.
Try to get the paint matched before you start sandblasting.
6. Sandblasting any parts that needs to be repainted is the next step in the process.
Afterwards they are primed with a good primer paint or powdercoated and then painted back to the original color.
7. Once everything is ready to start to be put back together.
Work assemblying once thing at a time.
8. Make sure you check the aignments, tensions, clearances and other items.
9. All Completed? If so see if its ready to run.