Making a mesh hood: 05 King Cat

well, my friend made one on the exact same sled. and he did an OK job, he didnt spen enough time shapping it, but it still works great and keeps his sled running COOL!

there are two ways to do this, one destroys the factory hood, you cut the stock hood up and uses it as a frame, most people dont wanna do it this way as it does destroy the factory hood

second way, my buddy took some 1/4" x 1/8" aluminum strap, and made a frame that went around the base of the hood at the belly pan, the shock tower areas are a little bit hard to follow the belly pan, but doable. then he took and bent peices to run up over the center. for the guages and headlights, he made a fiberglass housing, nothing special, but he still has lights and guages. and also keeps from burning up the ECU with it being a efi sled. the mesh he used is the same stuff most people use to make vents, its called pet proof screen door, you can find it at homedepot and lowes. mine was around $13 for a roll. and the roll will make an entire hood and have some left over. to attach it i think he just riveted the mesh to it somehow... i can call him and have him take some pictures and get em to me. the thing has been realy durable, as he rolls his sled quite a bit, and hits plenty off tree branches. only problem he had was he didnt put a brace over the area where the pipe and the can meet, so he melted a small chunk out, would have been easily fixed with a brace there.

it will work out good the more time you spent on it, he got lazy and sort of half a$$ed it, looks fine, but the finish is alright.. he did spend the time to make it hing up front and attached the limiting cable so he can just hang it open. and on the back, he just took the straps off the factory hood and riveted them to the mesh one, so he hasnt had a problem with it coming open.

one though i just had and descided to add, if you had acces to a tig welder, or even if you dont, i thing the ideal metal to make the bottom outer layer would be 1/4" aluminum rod. not flat stuff, that way you could bend it around the shock tower hump and it would end up fit better, just seemed like it would make it fit better for overall fit and finish... get some pics when its done!!

I'd like to see some pics of that ^ if you can get them. I've been thinking of the same thing myself but don't want to lose the headlight/cluster.

you could use a foglight for a light, but you still nead to mount your gauges... you could do a peice of plexiglass on the back, and mount that to the console, and have the hood drop down to it. wouldnt be hard at all. on wiring the lights, i dont know what the wires look like, as its not on my sled, if you get a picture of the wires going into the lights, im shure people could help you wire it, and then you could use stock buttons, to control it

if you could get it welded, and you shape it a little better than my buddies, it will turn out great,

i was stoked when you posted, as i had seen one made for the EXACT same sled

Aluminum strap and trampoline material with some zipties. Hinges, uses all stock OEM gauges and lights and trampoline material works wonders, no soaking, snow vibrates right off. weighs 4lbs.


http://www.snowest.com/forum/showthread.php?t=85513

Just have to get over the fact of cutting up your stocker OEM light pod if you go that route. Completely rebuildable and outside the hood pod costs about $100 to make and about 8-10 hours

i guess i never though of trampoline material, a little more expensive, but tighter weave, you know that stuff is SUPER strong and stretches a little so you can mold it really well.

Nate is showing you the idea i was talking about where you hack up the old hood to keep the gauge pod.

Try and find a wrecked hood that can be repaired. The wrecked hood I have had several cracks, but I was able to repair them with aluminum strap and rivets.
Strip everything off of it, and swiss cheese it, then cover it with pet screen secured with rivets. (Don't forget to hang your brand new takeoff hood up on the wall).
The one I made isn't the prettiest (I could have taken a little more time on it), but it's extemely functional. Has been in roll overs, and the hinge works.
Total cost was under $30.
I've got a couple of cans of AC green paint, so I might take it apart for paint and rescreen.

ndRMK700 said:

Nate, that looks pretty good, nice work man. So if I dont run the stock guage/headlight housing, I was thinking that out of some flat aluminum or somthing I could cut a hole for my tach, bend it at a 45 or so and mount it to or by the handlebars somehow, kind of like the way the digitron guages are, then I could run some fog lights or somthing. I'm guessing I just find the power wire and splice into it right, or no??? Another question is where should I mount the lights, I have seen down by the bellypan, right in front of the pipe and I have seen higher up by the top of the airbox, Im thinkin airbox would be better but does anybody have a suggestion?

Forgot to ask, Nate where do I get that trampoline matieral, is that better then the pet proof screen that Ski-Dooin' it mentioned??

Thanks alot guys for all your help
Trent

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outdoortextiles.com, comes in pretty much any color you want. Good stuff, you need a heat gun. The 1M hood shouldnt be near as hard as an M.

Id mount your lights on your handlebars. Call Diamond S they make a small hood pod for the Vectors and RX1's like this

http://www.diamond-smfg.com/TurnKeySleds.html

Top picture there the blue/black RX1. Call Scott at Diamond S and get ya one of those for your gauge. You should mount your EGT on your handlebars as well

I went to a tent and awning shop for screen material. I did my side vents and hood with the same stuff, it was about $16 a yard and is super strong.

definately get some pics as you go along..... to bad you cant rock out mesh hoods on rev chassis sleds... oh wll, have to come up with something

ndRMK700 said:

Thanks Nate, where do I go to find that matieral on the site you gave me?? I will have to give Scott a call on monday and check that out.
Thanks man
Trent

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Trent I had it saved on my favorites but I cant find it I know its on there because I had to call them and ask them and they emailed me the link.

the alum with mesh over it looks pretty cool IMO, but if you wanna spend some extra dough, the the p-coating would be pretty cool, its just hard to see, and if you use tramp material, you wont see it much at all.

I got 9 yards. See if you can get it 60" wide x 9 yards. That will give you boo boo material and extra if you burn a hole in it from an accident. Stuff is tough to tear, really tough, but flexes well with heat, and its disposable. If you run out of material, run around the neighberhood till you find someone with a trampoline and sneak into the back yard with a razor knife get some more

Material gonna run ya about $100 shipped