Work this week was shaping the nose. It must be finished first because its position on the sled is fixed and the hood's position can be adjusted to some degree to the nose to achieve a flush fit. I didn't realize how big the nose piece would be-its 32" wide.

The scoop opening is tall enough to accept the projector heads light I will sell. I am going to carry the side bumper forward into the nose where it will gradually taper away.

The bottom of the nose is level with the lowest portion of the front Indy belly pan so you are going to have to pick your trails carefully-stay pretty much to groomed trails. Raw tundra bashing will likely have you calling me for a replacement nose.

In a meeting yesterday with my advisors, the Sayen family, I decided that I will make a replacement right side lower dash panel. It will have holes for; ignition, choke, accessory switch plus odo and tach. That way none of the electrics will be attached to the hood. Next time-more nose.

Well, I am back on the case. Over the last 2 weeks I have spent 3 full days on the RXL but don't have much to show. I finished roughing out the nose and am working on the dash--visually unexciting work.

As I make the dash, I will make a space for the tach but not the speedo/odo. Since the hood will detach completely with four bungees, it wouldn't make sense to include speedo because of the long cable. You'd be out on the lake working on the sled with the hood off, tripping all over the cable. That they could see from across the lake... "What's wrong with that guy? Is he drunk?"

Other photos are the beginnings of my seat base.

Over the last unit of time I have spent goodly hours on the RXL. Most of that time has been on the left front corner and blending the nose with the deck. You can now see how I intend to blend in the side bumper into the nose-one of you asked how I was going to do that.

I will make a space on the dash for the tach for those of you that want that hassle but it won't be noticeable. I will be making a bar mounted headlight bracket and I think I can include a tach mount in it.

I show you continuing photos of seat mock up. When I got this far I realized the hump was too tall and I'm going to lower it by 1 ½" (see line on wood). At this point in time I am not sure whether I will be offering RXL seats.

There are several Indy gas tanks and that makes it hard to make as many matching seats. I may make a fiberglass hump so you can remake your seat. The decision on this will come my 44 advisors (guys who are on my list) whether they would want to spend somewhere around a $100- $125 for the hump then spend more on re-upholstery.

~ Phil

Work is almost done on right top and sideThis hood will be longer than a real RXL which I think will be very good lookingAs you can see by these poor quality photos, hood work progresses. The left (right actual) of the hood top is roughed in. I am about 50% done with the right (actual) side of the hood. So the top and sides are almost done. Next I have to make the raised edge around the hood top which you can see clearly in the Mini 120 photos.

For those of you expecting enough room in the "grill" opening to mount a light-that may not be possible. I learned from our completed Polaris Mini 120 RXL hood that it is hard to get gelcoat and fiberglass into the protruding lips of the nose. I'm going to have to increase the angle of the lower inside grill lip to attempt to fix the problem-it's almost flat now. A reduced grill opening may prevent mounting a light in there.

Big RXL gap between tank and dashThe experience from the Mini also prevented us from using Midnight Blue gelcoat because bubbles needing repair may occur in the nose parts. Minis will be made in white. This may apply to the big RXL as well. I don't know yet. I also attached photos of the Mini 120 RXL hood final pattern for kicks. This will be released in March.

Real RXLs did not have dash boards. Ours has to because a big open backside would be tacky. I have to design something pleasing back there and I am not quite sure what I am going to do. You'll see what develops later.

When you see photos of the big RXL looking like this, it will almost be ready to make the mold. Here you can see mold edge all around top The new Mini RXL hood for Polaris 120s. This is the pre-mold patternI have a bit of a survey for those of you willing to respond. Notice the gap between the dash board and tank. That's the 7.5 gallon Polaris tank I'm going to use because it is more race-like. The larger 12 gallon tank is taller and fills that gap. My thinking now is that I will add a removable filler piece that can be removed if you are using the 12 gallon tank (a thankful suggestion from an RXL watcher at Waconia 2013). So the question I'd like you to answer is:

• Are you going to use 12 gallon tank? or
• Are you going to use the 7.5 gallon tank?

Email me and let me know.