vintage snowmobiles
Saturday, May 19, 2012

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YamahaET250ArtLook, I'm no genius and have no crystal ball that says aftermarket hoods for the ET 250 and 300 Enticers will sell like popcorn. In fact, I don't expect great sales numbers. But I've got to tell you that 1) There is no better woods sled that the ET. You stud them up and hang long carbides on the skis and I flat guarantee there nothing is faster through the trees. Of course on the trails it'll pound your kidneys but it's the tree thing. A few of you know what I'm talking about. And 2) Most ET hoods after 36 years are beat to crap because the kids were allowed to ride 'em. They all cracked in the front near the fresh air slot.

Now if you want a cool little sled with a sexy hood for racing, rallies or the woods-this maybe your answer. I'm only going to sell them in white. I will develop red racing stripe stickers but you'll have to paint the deck black.

$300

"Windshield… you don't need no stinking windshield" to borrow a line from the Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Come on now this is SnoPro styling. Just wear an extra layer and slip on a No-Fog mask. Where's the headlight you ask? I'm going to build a big fresh air scoop on the right side. The back side of the scoop will, hopefully, be the headlight mount. My goal is a flat hood deck. Oh and I'm going to fill out the steering pocks all the way up to the deck line.

The price…oh something like my other hoods-about 300 bucks. When I start to build this hood, I'm going to send out progress photos. If you want to be on the email list to see them, just write me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and you can follow my work. I will be starting this project in August 2011.


Okay work has begun on the ET250/300/340 Sno Pro hood. What you see in photos 1, 2 and 3 is the result on one day's work. Based on work to date, I think this project will be swifter than I thought.

ET250-1Here's the raw hood.


ET250-2I've cut the deck off the old hood.


ET250-3Note the stringers above the hood. I am now in the process of building the support for the new deck. See the plywood I added along the dash board? I found that if I raised the dash board up 2" that the line of my stringers (and new deck) will clear the engine and gas tank. I won't be able to clear the vertical exhaust port but I'll build a low rearward facing scoop for clearance. This exhaust scoop will match the dimensions and placement of the air intake scoop on the right side of the hood.


ET250-4Third and center deck stinger secured.


ET250-5Single semi-flexible layer of fiberglass made on a big piece of glass is draped over stringers and glued into place.


ET250-6Fiberglass layer was backed up from under side with urethane foam for strength.


ET250-7Bondo is used to begin defining exact hood shape. I'll be at this step for a couple of weeks because it's all important the deck be perfectly symmetrical and level before I move on to making scoops, enlarging steering arm pockets and the slight flip at the back edge


ET250-3-001Now here in week 3 I have the deck fairly squared away. I've added an aggressive steering pocket to the left side so far. It may be a bit hard to see in this photo because everything is just a giant blob of bondo. The pockets will make the sled look wider and more racey. The anemic pockets of the OEM hood were a design failure.


ET250-3-003Here is another shot of the pocket.


ET250-3-005I'm going to mold-in the left back side vent. It was plastic and by now most of the original parts are broken or missing. Work to complete includes right steering pocket, rear deck flip, left side front intake slots, left side rear hot air exhaust vent and


ET250-4-001Okay the date of these new ET-SnoPro hood photos is 10/24/11. You can now see that the hood has progressed beyond a shapeless lump of Bondo. Both steering pockets are complete. The flip at the rear of the deck is finished. The rearward facing hot air exhaust is roughed in.


ET250-4-005Those black shapes forward of the exhaust vent are the intended positions of the exhaust pipe cooling vents. Over on the right side is the beginning of the engine cool air intake scoop.


ET250-4-007My best guess is that I am about three weeks away from applying the finish coat which will be sanded and polished to a mirror-like finish. I'll show you more photos before I get to that point.


ET250-8aOkay, here we are in the middle of November 2011. As you can see the hood shape has been roughed out and I have begun coating it with a super-duper Dura primer. This stuff is hard and builds up thick.

After I have applied a number of coats, I will begin sanding from 220 wet/dry all the way up to 2000 w/d. Once it’s smooth, I’ll polish it and give it 8 coats of release wax then it goes off to the fiberglass shop. They will make the mold and begin pulling parts.

I was going to include a headlight in the hood but found a nifty light that will bolt to the steering column. For those of you who aren’t going racing, you’ll have a light that points where you steer. Next photo will be a polished hood.

ET250-8b ET250-8c ET250-8d


It is finished! The pattern has been sanded to 2000 wet/dry, and polished and waxed eight times. Tonight (27 December) it goes to my fiberglass guy so he can make the mold. I'll get the mold back and remove any imperfections, then it'll be ready to make parts.

Took longer than I thought, but then big projects always do.

ET250Last-002 ET250Last-004