The restoration of a John Deere legend COMPLETED

[80spitfire]

Well guys I decided that it was time to test out this new restoration page. Now most of you probably already know the story on this sled but just in case, here it goes. I found the Dator on the classified section of this website and gave the number a call. To my surprise, the sled was located only 30 miles east of my house so I grabbed some cash hopped in the truck and went to go pick up my new friend. I don't know too much about the history of the sled any earlier than the 80s, but what I do know is that it was definitely raced and I believe that it was raced as #87 by a guy named Dave Ellingson. I haven't for sure locked it down that it was because I haven't been able to talk to him very much. If it is indeed his sled then it ran the I-500 in 76 and 77 and made it to Thief River Falls both years only to succumb to a blown track on the final leg. I don't know too much of what happened to it for the next 5-10 years but I do know how it ended up in Southern Minnesota. When I bought the sled, the guy I bought it from had only owned it for one day and he had traded for it even apparently. The guy that he bought it from lived in Windom MN and had owned it since the 80s. I gave him a call one day and he told me the whole story of how it got the way it is. He was a mechanic at the Martin County Implement in Truman MN and he bought the sled when the got it in trade. When he bought the sled it had a blown motor and he rebuilt it right away going as far as even rebuilding the crank. He could do all this pretty easy because they still had all the parts on the shelf back then. After he got it running again, him and a friend went on a snowmobile trip up to Bemidji MN. When they were up there his friend was driving the sled and there was an accident and the sled was driven into a tree wrecking the original tunnel and busting up the hood pretty bad as well. After the trip they proceeded to rebuild the sled again. They replaced the tunnel with a NOS 77 unstamped Cyclone tunnel. At this time they also replaced the seat with a 78 Cyclone/Liquifire one. After the sled was rebuilt they drove it for a while and the motor spun a ring and blew up again, but this time for good. The sled sat in a barn for the next 20 years just waiting to be found and be restored to it's former glory. Here's some pictures of how the sled looked the day that I brought it home.

Here's a number of cool race mods that I found while disassembling it, most notably the bracket for remounting the coils and CDI and also a homemade chain tesnioner.


This sled had a few things special done to it in 77 during the Up-Dator update and one of the cool thing done to it was it received a Dator-Lite suspension. The suspension was also beefed up a quite a bit and all the mods done to it were done just as the Liquidator Racing Tips book said to do. Here's some pictures of the mods and before and after restoring it.

On to the drivetrain. Here's a few pictures of the clutches before and after. I have the secondary done, but the primary isn't done quite yet.



Now on to the most interesting part of any Dator, the motor. When I bought the motor, it had been sitting disassembled with the connecting rods hanging out for around 20 years. The motor is now all cleaned up, machined, repainted and ready to be rebuilt. As many of you know the connecting rod on the crank was broken in the mail due to careless postal workers, but that is now rebuilt and ready to go back in. Here's a few pictures of how it looks now. The motor is hopefully going to be going together very very soon.



I have decided that since this is a race sled, I want to try to reuse every part that is on if I can. If that part is junk I get a new one but, if it can be sandblasted and repainted to look like new though, I'd rather do that and keep the original as raced parts on it. Here's an example of that with the gas tank. I cleaned it all up and repainted it with some adhesion promoter and plastic paint. I think it turned out pretty sweet

Unfortunately, the Dator was missing a quite a few common parts so I had to buy a sacrificial lamb to get it put back together. Here's the 76 Liquifire that came all the way from Michigan for me.

Here's some pictures of some miscellaneous parts that I've been working on lately. I think I may be addicted to my sandblaster, I started noticing that when I was blasting the bearing flanges and repainting them lol



I also sandblasted the skis and repainted them and even used an old racing trick on the bottom of the skis.



For the most part this is the progress so far. the sled isn't completely disassembled because I enjoy doing it in stages and I like to see what parts I'm missing. Here's how the sled looks today.



I hope you guys enjoyed reading this and have fun watching the restoration process take place. Let me know if you guys have any questions.

-Brian

[skoalmint]

NICE!!!!!! Keep the pics coming.Brock

[WinnipegStPaul9]

Great job, can't wait to see the end result!! As Brock said, keep the pictures coming.

DA

[80spitfire]

Sorry it took me forever to post pictures because I've been having computer troubles but here's the Dator motor all put back together! Sorry about all the finger prints on the pictures btw lol

Thanks,
Brian

[cledussnow77]

Super job Brian , Can't wait to see the sled when it is done . That will be a show winner for sure.

[80spitfire]

Thanks Cledussnow77 I appreciate the kind words Show winning is definitely what I'm going for!

Thanks,
Brian

[80spitfire]

I decided that it's finally time to update this thread again now that class starts up again tomorrow. I got a fair bit accomplished while on break, I would've loved to get more done but oh well I still got time. I worked on a quite a few things lately and one of the main things was the track and what a task that was. I wound up replacing 24 out of 48 cleats since so many were either bent, cracked, or rusted through. Luckily our very own Matt was able to supply me with almost everything I needed to recleat the track. In the pictures you'll notice that the track was studded and I didn't replace them and the reason why I did that was because my local trail is asphalt and you're not allowed to ride with studs on it. I figured it was more important to be able to ride it then have studs on jut to have studs. After all riding it is what it's all about! Here's some pictures of before and after.

Here's what most of the cleats looked like.



The next big thing I did was fix up the radiator. Unfortunately it got pretty smashed up from the crash that wrecked the tunnel but by disassembling the covers on it to bend them out and spending a quite a bit of time with a radiator rake, it cleaned up pretty good. I also had to have a new nipple put on for the overflow. The cap on it most likely won't get used because I have a NOS Dator cap ordered but I got this just in case. Here's some before and afters.



I also redid the chaincase. I took it to a friends shop and beadblasted the whole thing and then I hit it up with some steel wool to give it that fresh cast look. Then of course I taped it off and painted it.



This is pic of some of the miscellaneous stuff I've been working on. Notice the axle and drivers as well. That's kind of a cool story because it's the original Dator axle but the guy who raced it put on some drivers that fit it but also drive a LF track. The racer did that because it ran a LF track two different years in the Winnipeg.


That's pretty much what I got for now but I'll keep you guys updated. This thread should get really interesting when I get my Dator tunnel from Cooter!

Thanks,
Brian

[jeffreyrempel]

Keep it up, your making good progress and your hard work is showing.

[JDMIKE8100]

Enjoying watching this Liquidator restoration.
Looks like your half way there.

[palepainter]

That engine is looking most excellent!!!

[cledussnow77]

This thing is gonna look awsome when its done.

[80spitfire]

Thanks guys for all the kind words! I'm pretty dang excited to get this thing on the snow again. It still has a quite a bit left to do, but it's getting there and it's looking good. This sled is ending up costing me wayyy more than I originally wanted it too but it'll be worth it because I know it will be one of the nicest Dators out there when it's done.

[80spitfire]

Alright fellas, I realized that it's been way too long since I've updated this thread so I decided it's time to fill you guys in a bit on what's all been going on with the Dator. Many of you know that shortly before Waconia a real Dator chassis came up for sale and with the support of many of you I was able to snatch it up for my project. That honestly was the best part that's happened in this whole restoration. It really means a lot to me to put the sled back on the right chassis and make it a "real" Dator once again. The tunnel that I got from Cooter was in pretty tough shape but it's been getting continually better everyday since I've gotten it. The belly pan was pretty much shot and the tunnel had somewhere around 40 extra holes drilled where the snap flap goes; why I have no idea. With the help of my good friend Jesse Babler, Deerememorabilia, I was able to trade for a new belly pan and also he was cool enough to spend the weekend skinning it with me; what a great weekend that was working on the Dator and swapping stories and looking at his incredible collection! We did only the skinning since neither of us can weld aluminum so I brought the chassis over to my fab buddy and he welded her all up for me. Now the chassis is in one piece and just about ready to go in for the rest of the body work after I drill a few more holes in the chassis. Here's a few pictures of the belly pan job and the extra snap holes I had filled.

The doner 76 Cyclone.



Jesse skinning the original pan.



We also replaced the old close of panel which was pretty much junk because of thrown studs.



Heres some pictures of the chassis after welding and light sandblasting.



That's pretty much all I have for progress on the sled itself, but in the time since Waconia I've come across some pretty incredible Dator parts through great friends, horse trading, and a little bit of cash as well. Many of you may know that my plan with this sled was since I don't really know the race history on the sled I wanted to keep every race mod on it that I know it for sure had when it raced and I also wanted to try to acquire every CC race part that you could buy from Deere in 76. Amazingly, I was able to come across every part that I wanted! Here's a picture of most of the CC parts I've found.



With these parts and some more that aren't in the picture the sled will have all the CC parts; these parts include, CC bars, toeholds, juice brakes, a twist grip, a tunnel reinforcement kit, and most importantly, a rear gas tank. I never thought I'd find them all but due to some great friends I did! I think it's going to be pretty cool to have all the CC parts on it and also have it be fully updated with all the aluminum parts on it. I had all the update parts except the clutch ducting which you probably saw in the picture as well. I'm guessing mine got banged up in the big crash in Bemidji.

I also came across some other pretty cool parts as well since Waconia. I finally located a beautiful set of stingers with a matching can and I also traded for a NOS Dator track, remember mine had only a LF track on it, and last but not least I also found a NOS Dator-lite hood.



That's pretty much all I have so far but I'll continue to keep you guys updated on the progress. Thank you to everybody who has helped supply me the parts to build my dream sled. You guys know who you are and I appreciate your help sooo much. I could never have gotten this far without you boys.

Thanks,
Brian

[AJWolfe]

one question i have is where did you get the new set of tracks so in the future when i restore my liquifire i can replace it cause its a little beat up.

[80spitfire]

The NOS Dator track came from a board member here but the cleats that I used on the Liquifire track came form our very own New Breed Parts.

-Brian