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Area51 Project - Burton's Stealth 503 Scandic:
Machine Specs:
1994 Bombardier Skandic 503 Rotax 503cc Fan Cooled Front: Internal Coil Springs/Shocks Steel Skis Rear: CK3 Skid 136"x15"x0.88" Track Stock Gearing, Mechanical Reverse Custom Partially Gutted Muffler Custom Paint & Body Work
When pushing the limits of man and machine, accidents are bound to happen. I’ve have had many close calls myself and have succeeded in turning every ATV and Skidoo I’ve owned upside down at least once! This has been the fate of many a snowmobiler who’s desire to push the limits is often confronted with an unexpected surprise. One of the Sled Sooley crew met a similar fate a couple seasons ago, not once, but twice!
For a little bit of background, Mr. Burton was the first member of the Sled Sooley Crew to experiment with a "drop", free falling from a noticeable height on snowmobile. This first drop was a slow speed decent from the roof of the old potato cellar at Sooley's cabin, a total drop of about 8 feet onto a hard flat landing. Having successfully survived this feat of bravery and excitement - on a Scandic, Mr. Burton wasn’t quite so lucky while doing donuts on a small gully later that season. The track unexpectedly hooked an obstacle on the ice and Maffer and the sled were tossed onto their sides in opposite directions. The rider landed with a thump and the machine landed with a resounding crack making a mess of the previous Summer’s fancy Yellow Tremclad paint job. His luck remained much the same later that same season as we were travelling across the bottom of Cochrane pond at speed in the dark. We met a series of large snow drifts and Mr. Burton quickly learned that speed does not get you out of trouble as the machine bobs up and like a wild Bronco on each drift! On the last drift, the machine took flight, shook itself free of its rider, rolled many times, and landed upside down a short distance later. Maffer, thrown like a rag doll landed head first in the snow and thought the impact made him blind! Once he realised that he was indeed not blind (that his helmet was just packed with snow), an inspection of the still running upside down sled revealed little damage short of a very broken bonnet. This rough riding season lead to a summer/fall transformation of the "Yellow Banana Scandic" to project "Stealth 503".
Fortunately this particular year and model ski-doo featured a fibreglass hood, which is fixable with the right tools, materials and knowledge.
First, the all the damaged areas were sanded down to bare fibreglass inside and out and the cracks cleaned out to promote good adhesion of the new chopped mat and resin. I prefer to use chopped mat and resin rather then fibreglass filler as it adheres better and closely matches the original product. The right side bore the brunt of the impact and there was a rather large hole in the bonnet. The outside of this area was covered in tinfoil and masking tape to create a mould for the repair. Pieces of chopped mat were cut to fill the gaps of missing bonnet with a total of 4 layers which approximately matched the thickness of the surrounding area. The affected area was soaked with resin from the inside, and the new pieces soaked and pressed in place eliminating air bubbles as we went. One final layer of chopped mat was cut to cover and overlap the entire area inside for additional support. Resin was applied with a stiff paint brush which was also used to dab out any lingering air bubbles. Other smaller cracks were simply filled with resin from the outside and a layer of chopped mat and resin applied to overlap the damaged area from the inside.Once the resin had fully cured, the outside mould was removed to reveal a successful filling of the hole. The rough edges were taken down with a coarse file in preparation for the next step. The hood hinges had also come loose in the accidents so we reattached them using pop rivets counter sunk in the outside of the hood. Next the repaired areas were coated in a thin coat of spot putty filler to level and blend to the surrounding areas. The filler was first knocked down with a coarse file and finished by block sanding to a nice even finished surface. Then the entire hood was prepped with 400 grit sand paper, thoroughly cleaned, then sprayed with three coats of grey high fill primer, lightly block sanding for dust and imperfections between coats.
Once the primer had cured, the colour coats were applied. The colour chosen was a metallic black which was applied in 5 light coats. After curing, 5 light coats of clear were applied to build a shine as well as provide protection from the elements and environment.
The rest of the machine also took a fair amount of abuse and had been painted yellow to match the previous paintjob. The entire tunnel, front suspension and rear rack were repainted gloss black to keep with the new stealth theme. The sled was reassembled and finished with a simple silver and red pinstripe that ended in a decorative flame at the rear of the tunnel. This once battered hood was successfully resurrected and looked better then ever.
This repair provided the owner another few years of service until he eventually upgraded to a Skidoo REV platform machine in 2007.
Cheers, MIKE
Copyright © 2011 Michael Smith
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