Bolens Diablo Rouge and Hus Ski Discussion Forums

Hi Barrie, nice job on the restoration. Backing up a bit here, any suggestions, anyone, on how to remove a front axle on these without ruining the bearing caps? And or a source for replacement bearing caps?

Found a little more time so I replaced the bumper on the 600 double track. You can see the old one in the background where someone must have hit a tree causing a severe bend in the bumper. To make the bumper, I actually made two identical halves, then welded them together. With the hudraulic bender I use, the pipe gets in the way of itself and the bender, preventing a correct bend. The original pipe was thin walled but I used thick walled 3/4" pipe since it is supposed to be easier to bend. The up side to the thicker pipe is I can hit a larger tree without less damage......maybe even ready for Roy's suicide hill !!!???

By looking in the previous photo, you can see the two angled braces for the jack shaft housing support are pitted and rusted through in places. I have now cut them out and made a new pair. I also cut out and replaced the two rear handlebar fastening brackets. They also were badly pitted.

The fibreglass hood repair has been a sticking point for me with no prior fibreglass experience. I had a friend of mine come to instruct me and it really is easy. Fibreglass hoods are made in a mold where by a gel coat of the diesired color is applied to the inside of the mold. Then fibreglass fibres are applied to the gel coat with either a spary gun or fibreglass cloth. When dry it is hard and rigid. The problem is that the gel coat contracts in cold at a different rate than the fibreglass resulting in spider cracks. Most fibreglass hood have this problem and HUS-SKI hoods are no different. I used an angle grinder to remove the spider cracks. You have to be gentle to remove only the gelcoat and not go throught the fibreglass. My thought is that a crack is a crack is a crack and will always show no matter how much paint is applied so I did grooves where the spider cracks were, leaving a high area to gauge my sanding of the body filler. On one corner I did go through but I honestly believe it was very thin to begine with!!! To repair this first cover the outside with tape to contain the resin. Then, working on the fibreglass side, clean the area with a wire brush and smear resin on the damaged area. Overlap is necessary. Apply the fibreglass cloth and saturate it with more resin being sure to remove all air bubbbles. The application of the resin is done with a very cheap, bristle brush to be thrown away .Apply more cloth and more resin.Thst's all, wait for it to dry.

The surprise about this small hole was that it had a crack which showed up ony when the resin was applied. (see photo #2)

On this hood , both hinge areas were broken away and missing. There was also two 5" long cracks on either side of the front grill. All this area had to be built up and reinforced. First I covered the outside with tape then clamped a board against the outside surface. Without the tape, the board would be fixed to the hood with the resin. This would provide an interesting conversation piece but not even effective as a bumper so don't forget the tape.

By adding many layers of fibreglass cloth, the missing pieces are repaired. At the same time the long cracks are fixed. Once the resin is hard it is trimmed off with an angle grinder and a straight edge clamped to the body. Rest the cut off disc on the straight edge and cut off the excess. I actually removed 1/8" below the original edge so that the remaining edge was sound. This stuff is dusty and best done outside wearing a respirator.

The curved back edge of the hood had to be reinforced or repaired on all three hoods. They then had to be trimmed back. To do this I made a template of the desired curve and clamped it to the hood. The excess can be ground or sanded down to the template. I used a router with a template following bit to get this done. Using a template ensures that both edges are identical.

This photo shows how the spider cracks were removed. These shallow trenches will then be filled with body filler and sanded smooth.

When you say body filler do you mean just regular body filler? Or is it a specific product for fiberglass Barrie. Me myself I have not done much with fiberglass.