I'm having a blast reading all your comments and THANK YOU AGAIN!
Ed and Don ..... you guys crack me up ....
The LED headlight is kick ass and very bright. Making the bracket for it and figuring how to mount it was a big job in itself.
(see temp bracket and laser formed)
Tasky Good eye and you are correct on the vents. They are stainless with stainless cap screws. The hood is actually a NOS 1982
Trailfire hood (primer only) pulled from the paint line for a small crack. I wanted all the air I could get moved out of the tight
quarters. It has two top vents and the two sides were added.
I would love to see some shots of your 583 in that sled. I'm guessing he used the JD jack shaft location?
Topped it off with a NOS short windshield
Last edited by Horicon Joe on Thu Oct 12, 2017 12:36 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Hey Joe I don't know how old you are but if you would have worked at john Deere in product devolpment I bet JD would still b number one sled on the market today by a long shot with as nice as you have made this one I can't stop looking at the progress pics wow what a beauty
74-jdx4 special my first jd i got when i was 10
2-76 cyclones
1-77 cyclone
2-78 cross country
1-78 440 liquifire
1-79 spitfire
2-79 trailfires
3-80 spitfires
4-80 liquifires
83 trailfire lx
2-83 liquifires
Thanks guys and well said Roger. Exactly the reason I included their pictures.
The decals turned out great in my view. I made simple 2d drawings of them and had a local decal guy (Premier Signs) do the rest.
He is very good!
I was a freshman when they went out and they had plenty of good engineers working there including my Dad.
No one person would have made that difference but thanks for the thought.
Matt told me I should call it Night Rider ....
Joe
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The triangle area that was empty you had asked about earlier. I thought a simple flap and snaps would do the trick and it did.
It comes on and off without tools. Just remove a wing nut in rear compartment and lift up and pull back.
Joe
Last edited by Horicon Joe on Thu Oct 12, 2017 12:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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74-jdx4 special my first jd i got when i was 10
2-76 cyclones
1-77 cyclone
2-78 cross country
1-78 440 liquifire
1-79 spitfire
2-79 trailfires
3-80 spitfires
4-80 liquifires
83 trailfire lx
2-83 liquifires
So I'm looking at the finished project photos today, and I was very impressed! I think you nailed the aesthetics. The black tunnel and the understated graphics give the sled a long, lean, and mean appearance. I'm not a big fan of the Kawi powered sleds, but what you did here is working for me.
It's easy to start a project like this, much harder to see it through and finish it, kudos to Joe for getting it done!
It seems unlikely that anyone can top this effort. Now, not to take anything away from this sled, but as I was looking at the photos, it occurred to me that the sled was lacking just one thing: the prototype IFS setup. If it could be fabricated and installed, you would have the absolute ultimate 1985 Deere concept sled, and how would anyone top that? Not a criticism by any means, just an observation, to me, the sled seems to be begging for IFS in the photos.
'09 Vintage Challenge Survivor, and I wasn't late for supper!
'10, '11, '12, '13,'14,'15,'16,'17, '18, 19, 20, 21, 22 Vintage Challenge Survivor !
72 400 restored, Father bought new in '71
73 X8 restored
'74 340 green machine
'74 X8 9 time VC finisher
'78 Spitfire in progress
2 '75 340S 1 running, one on deck
'78 LF 440 future CC clone
'73 Skiroule RTX 440, 500 mi.
I'll have someone take a video this weekend ...... maybe.
Brian you must have been digging through my notes. Actually when I started this project I fully intended on widening the front end
by 4 inches. The only way to make it look right was to reproduce the TPRs with a wider bumped out spindle area. That alone would
have set me back another 3 months and I was running out of steam. I have been collecting IFS drawings for some time and this was
to be my next project. Either a fresh start of modifying this sled might be the easiest. Brian you might already have this done on
one of your X8s ..... if so let me steal some of your ideas
Joe
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