KawasakiTrax Community
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: sslater on December 10, 2015, 04:10:40 PM
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Has anyone ever re-upholstered a seat on a 81 drifter 440? That's the biggest eye sore on my sled and am looking for an inexpensive and quality way of fixing it. Just new foam to cut out/shape, then cover it in thick black vinyl from a fabric store? Also has anyone ever widened the skis on a sled like this? Is there a kit available or just machine my own?
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Welcome to this site! I'm pretty sure there are fitted, replcement seat covers on EBay for around a hundred bucks. My upholstery skills aren't very good...I would have a tough time trying to recover a seat with a sheet of vinyl...a flat seat would be one thing, but all of the curves on a Drifter seat would be a lot more difficult.
I am not a big fan of ski spreaders. Denniskirk.com still offers them (part # 10-20) for about 20 bucks....I assume they are the same as the ones I tried 35 years ago on a 39 HP SnoJet. They are 3/8 inch thick steel plates that extend each ski out about 2".....and they still bent over time, until the skis had a ridiculous splayed look.
If you decide to try this, I think you would have to make them out of 1/2 inch steel.
The other downside is the change in steering geometry. The skis are mounted dead center with the spindles. When you move them out with ski spreaders, the skis are then off-center with the spindle. Whenever a ski encounters an obstruction....a tree root, or one ski cuts down to the dirt...the ski now wants to twist the spindle, which is certainly felt in the handlebars. I think they could be great on a little 250 cc SkiDoo Elan, or something similar. They would certainly add some stability to your Drifter....but I just don't like the feeling in the handlebars when they get yanked one way or the other when one ski encounters some drag.
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In my opinion there is no inexpensive seat repair. The seat repair was the most expensive part of my restoration but worth while because I plan on riding the sled for years to come. I bought a cover on Ebay and had a local upholstery gal put it on for me. She had to do some minor repair to the foam but it turned out good. Around $100 for cover and $75 to put on.
The second one was a lot worse. Another $100 for the replacement cover and $125 to put it one. I took this one to another upholstery person. He had to do a lot more foam work.
Here are a couple links for covers if your interested in going that route:
http://www.eastcoastreproductions.com/kawasaki.html
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1979-1982-KAWASAKI-DRIFTER-SNOWMOBILE-SEAT-COVER-NEW-/151903174129?hash=item235e227df1:g:-H4AAOSwlV9WTRDm
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Very well done !