Seeing a wonderful shade of Red!!!!

[Go Go Diablo]

Pulled out the Idler Sprockets and associated parts tonight. For this Diablo, it will get two NOS Idler Sprockets, two NOS aluminum spacers, NOS sprocket bearings and NOS rectangle suspension spring mounting plates with NOS bolts.

Time to start putting this Diablo together. I have to keep up with Barrie so I'm working two nights to his one.

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[devil dog]

Wow, NOS sprockets! Nice! There never seems to be much discussion about the tracks for the Diablos; as long as the rubber is good mabe straighten or replace a cleat or two? At the risk of being the Diablo's Advocate, I am going to say Bruce's resto's are going to surge ahead while Barrie has to build two new Hus-Ski tracks.

[Go Go Diablo]

Onward with the assembly.

This Diablo will get mostly new Stainless Steel Hardware. Typically I would install standard hardware, but stainless is not much more. For what is in the picture, it's only about $25.

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Assembled the NOS Idler Sprockets and pieces today and installed them. They look great.

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The gearbox went on the chassis. Also, I pulled the pair of NOS tracks off the shelf. I rarely find a pair of NOS Tracks, so I'm going to be sorry to see these go. By the way, these NOS tracks measure 106 13/16" end to end of the rubber. Most tracks I find are shorter than that, so that makes me think over time, tracks shrink a bit.

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The last thing I worked on today was the muffler. If you see the post under "Diablo Questions" about "503 Mufflers" you will see what I had to do to this muffler to get it ready for a motor with expected new life coming it's way.

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Tomorrow: continued assembly of bogies, tracks and front bumper between watching football plays on TV. Packers vs Bears on Monday this week, so Sunday is all about everyone else. Go Packers!

[Go Go Diablo]

This Sunday was about putting the bottom end together. How nice it is to install a gearbox, fresh bogie assemblies, and other fresh parts. The new tracks were really something. I'm not sure there is much prettier than a brand new pair of matched NOS Diablo tracks

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That my friends is a Wonderful Shade of Red!

[Go Go Diablo]

I've been working on fuel tanks all week. For this Diablo, only a NOS tank will do.

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However, even an NOS tank is susceptible to rust once you start putting gas in it. Is seems these tanks no matter what you do will rust. Filling them up to the top does not help because the inside top of the tanks still have an air gap in them because of the design of the filler neck. The air gap allows rust. Emptying them seems to let them corrode too.

So even though we have an NOS tank, it still gets a liner installed. With the lining material inside and out, the metal never sees air again and they remain rust free and solid.

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And like all parts of the restoration, if you are going to do one, you might as well do 10. These tanks have all been sandblasted, washed with strong detergents, sloshed rocks and chains through them till the rust was gone, finished off any remaining rust with Rust Blast and then dried in an oven to remove all moisture. The liner comes next.

[Go Go Diablo]

The liners is a pourable product from KBS Coatings (kbs-coatings.com). You pour it in and roll the tank around. Drain out as much as you possibly can. Then I coat the outside of the tank with the same liner. It dries in less than two hours.

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The kit for an automotive tank will do 5 Diablo tanks. In total on this batch, I restored 10 tanks.

The next day, I sand the outside of the liner to scuff it up a bit and paint them black. After a week, they are ready for fuel.

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[Go Go Diablo]

A new pad under the tank and a freshly lined and painted NOS tank mounted in place. Also a new Snow Flap riveted to the back side.

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At this time, it's a good idea to add a new rubber snow shield around the gearbox.

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[Go Go Diablo]

Time to add on to the drive train.

A NOS Secondary Clutch is the part for this restoration.

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The NOS clutches are put together a little differently than the originals. The spring side belt plate is held to the aluminum hub with rivets and the three guides that hold the opposite side belt plate in place are shouldered bolts with guide tubes on them. A much better design than the original.

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Can't wait to see how this clutch takes off!

[Go Go Diablo]

Put motor mounts on today. I had four NOS motor mounts.

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Also put the handles and cables on today. These are re-chromed handles with original cables (the thick ones).

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[Go Go Diablo]

Time to give this Diablo an identity. The Serial Number for this Diablo will be 30173. That assures us that the date of original manufacturing in 1968. These are the first of the decals to be installed.

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Next, a very sweet looking NOS dash. This dash originally for a 502, so it had four holes in it (key switch, light switch, choke and recoil). I plugged the holes and will install the two needed for the 503 (key switch and choke).

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Now that is cool!

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Next, a special Christmas Present for this Diablo.

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