84 Liquifire Basket Case Restoration

[JoeRainville]

Back around 2008 I purchased a complete, running 84 Liquifire. It was in good shape and had been gone through reciently.



I brought her to St. Germain where she completed the Vintage Challenge twice, once in 2010 with Stan Hays as a driver, and again in 2012 with me driving.

[JoeRainville]

Another nice part about the Liqufire purchase was that it also came with a second 84, a semi-complete basket case that was stripped to the bare chassis. The owner was going to scrap the second frame, until one of the guys told him that 84 Liquifires are kind of rare (420 built), and sought after by the Deere collectors.





While most of the parts were included with the second sled, it was missing a few things like a track and skid, and the motor was only semi-complete.

[JoeRainville]

After it came down to TX last year, I separated the bulkhead from the tunnel and put her on a shelf. After the I-500 in Feb, I started sandblasting and powercoating parts to finish some of the details on the 80 Liquifire I-500 racer and an 83 Custom I am still working in. Well, it didn't take long to start tossing in 84 parts along with everything else...

[JoeRainville]

After sending the bulkhead and several piles of small parts out for powder coating, I figure I might as well start the re-assembly work.



While I have been going through the NOS and used parts inventory, it turned out I had a lot of things this sled needed. The 82 doner sled I stripped to rebuild my 80 racer with had a great track, a complete rear skid, a pretty complete motor, etc. For NOS parts, I have a new hood, TPR side panels, fuel tank, dash, guages, radiator, coolant hoses, snow flap, suspension rails, clutch parts, motor parts etc. I figured it time to start using up some of this stuff that I have been hoarding.

[sledhead16]

That powder coat turned out nice!!! I like the progress pics!!

[fairmountvewe]

Man! You sure do nice work. Makes a fellow envious - and a little jealous

[JoeRainville]

Thanks guys. I have most of underhood brackets and such already coated. The nice folks at Longhorn Powder Coating really do a nice job making these 30 year old parts look like new. More pic's to come soon...

-Joe

[69camaro]

Looks great Joe.

[JoeRainville]

Thanks Duane...

The rear suspension for this project is being assembled from as many NOS parts as I can spare. All the parts shown on the table were NOS, but had surface rust or shelf wear scratches, so all parts were sand blasted and powder coated.



Assembly is started but I found a few more parts need to be refinished, and I need to select a rear arm for this resto. Seems that all of mine are either bent, or have seised cross shafts.



Another dissapointment was finding out that Dennis Kirk no longer carries the correct Deere looking PPD rear ider wheel, so I may have to refirbish used ones. Luckily Matt carries new idler wheels for the upper arm, as the orginal Capital Stamping units are near impossible to find NOS. I donated the only set I ever had to the Sportfire project a few years ago.

[sledhead16]

That will be a dandy suspension though Joe!!

[chriszildjian17]

JOE, use this process to get your seazed shaft free. then you can sandblast and finish. works great. may take a day or 2 depending on the corrision. they will slide right out when done. hope this helps.
Chris.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54ADeB6V1rQ

[JoeRainville]

Thanks for the link to the electrolysis demo. Going to try it before before resorting drilling out the aluminum shafts. Tried heating two of them before to no avail...

While waiting to finish up suspension parts, I took a little time to assemble the dash. All NOS parts used so far. Having to decide between using the one good original temp gauge I have for the 84, or use a reproduction unit that would last longer if I actually ran the sled.



I was able to find some stainless steel screws that matched the orginals almost perfectly to attach the bracket and rev limiter.

[JoeRainville]

After gathering all the NOS suspension parts I could spare for this project, I needed several other pieces to complete the skid, so I dug out the rear suspension from the 82 Liquifire parts sled I dragged home from Colorado in the spring of 2013.



Much like the rest of that 82 doner, the suspension came apart with hand tools and a platic mallet. While the shock and the lower shock cross shaft mounting holes were damaged, the rest of the skid looked really good, and the rear arm was straight and useable. There was even black paint on the sides of the white plastic slides, so this must have been a low milage sled. All 6 of the cross shafts slid out with only mild effort.

[JoeRainville]

I selected the needed parts from the 82 skid to sand blast, including the rear arm, rear springs, lower shock cross shaft, rubber bumper pins and spacers for the front and top rear idlers. While I was at it, I tossed in a set of handle bars, the jackshaft and a few other misc pieces.



These parts should be done by Friday, so I hope to spend some time this weekend assembling the rear suspension.

-JDJR

[JoeRainville]

I picked up my latest batch of parts from Longhorn on Friday afternoon, and once again they helped turn old rusty junk into new looking parts.



At this point its hard to tell the NOS from the used parts, as they all look pretty nice. Most of the black parts of the sled have now been powder coated, except the ski's, tank support and a few small pieces.



I was having a hard time finding exactly the right size new bolts and washers, so I checked with http://www.jdparts.com. I knew the 13.5" long, 3/8" diameter center bolt was available (also the front axle bolt on the AMT 600), but much to my surprise, the thick washers that hold on the large ider wheels are still availble, as are several of the long cross bolts. I ordered about 6 different PN's from Deere. Once the parts actually arrive, I will post the PN's. It was a pleasent surprise to find that some of these odd sized thick washers show up to 139 current applications.