My JD Dator/ oval clone

[liquidatorkid89]

i know what you mean there, if some1's gonna redo a sled and wants to restore or build the sled from the ground up then it is a good idea to take the whole sled appart clean, polish and paint what you want to paint keep it organized and assembly is one of my favorit parts becuase you get to see all the little pieces you worked on come together, i am gonna spend a little time today un bolting the bulk head off from the cyclone and plan on air craft stripping it using some steel wool and gettign it all cleaned up for paint,

heres a couple pics of the jdx that i bought off my uncle for $100 it had a carb vaccum locking problem if i remeber right it was in good shape other than the seat was tore up had a nice track ext.. wish i never got rid of it, ill have to see if by any chance the guy still has it it was a fun rider to bomb around the feilds behind my house in ny

[liquidatorkid89]

got the bulk head out today, and started degreasing and air craft stripping it

[JDT]

Did you find any cracked welds on the bulkhead?

[liquidatorkid89]

suprisingly i didn't find any cracks so far, i know i have seen them crack right @ the bottom of the support that runs off the crossmember that on the outter sides of the spindles where they bolt up to the sides of the belly pan

[JDT]

You nailed that one right on.
They seam to have a high stress area there and I have seem several cracked even when the pan was clean.

[liquidatorkid89]

i had a liquifire that had the support broken off and the weld where the spinldle does down trough the front cross member was cracked, heres one of my old liquifires that i parted out the tunnel was all chewed up in the back idk if it was rear ended by another sled or a couple cleats spit out the back, and the belly pan was dented up pretty good

[JDT]

I have seen damage like that before.
One cause is they got it stuck and hooked a chain onto the rear bumper and tried to yank it out.
The bumper rips right off the tunnel. Sled remains stuck.

[S_Kyle]

I have a 77 in my garage that has the same damage to the rear. The sled was part of a survey crew for the highways department in 78 and they hooked the sley to the bumper instead of the hitch. Some angle iron later there is kind of a bumper there I will have to mod for a closer to factory look.

[liquidatorkid89]

oh yeah, i figured it was probably a week spot back there for them, and usually alot of the snow flaps i have seen on them are all chewed u, i got a rear bumper when i bought my cyclone for this buld that 1 side is broken, but im gonna use it as a template this summer and my uncle and i can use his tubing bender to build a new one that a clone to the ones on the dators , or are they the same exact bumper just cut down shorter height wise?

[WinnipegStPaul9]

Holy Cow!! I made the "Wall of Motivation". I'm honored.

DA

[liquidatorkid89]

your very welcome, it is a cool looking photo, i wanted to have a picture of @least 1 340/s and 1 295/s and the dator pics i thought that were really cool, i was kinda leary about posting them up on the internet because i didnt want anyone to think i was stealing the pics , i just wanted to use them for getting idea's for the clone, so far i have prolly about 100+ pics of various shots and angles of different liquidators that should def. help with the details

heres what i have been working on for the last couple hours is the paint scheme for the dator, prettty much the same basic colors as a datyor with racing numbers, and race skis, lowered suspension ect... only thing i didnt put on it was sponsor stickers, it looked too busy when i copyied and pasted them on the sled

[liquidatorkid89]

another idea i drew up, making a foot rest outta aluminum for the top peice of aluminum that keeps your foot from slipping over the edge of the foot rest i could get small aluminum toobing cut a slit all the way down the entire length of it ( or i could bend it and cut it so the sides on ether side of the cut dont flair out when it is being bent to the top of the foot rest, then for all the wholes i can use a multi step bit.....just another idea

could i use wahl leaf spring style drag skis if beefed them up to prevent the skis from tilting from side to side as it was cornering? i have seen some vintage aval sleds @ boonville use wahl drag skis as oval skis

[liquidatorkid89]

thinking about getting some custom skis made that are heavy duty than the stock wahl drag skis, heres a list of the parts, and materails and the pricing for a build cost

[liquidatorkid89]

got some more work done today after i went to my girlfriends house and she helped me take some more parts of the cyclone chassis, we got the lower steering post bracket assembly out, and the rear motor mount parts, then degreased them, and i took a drill with a wire wheel on it and cleaned up the steering bracket i couldnt believe how much surface rust was on it but luckally there are some very light pits but with a fresh coat of black it will look good as new

[liquidatorkid89]

getting there , after about 45 mins of a wire wheel chain case looks better



also started on the rear suspension today as well