I blame Hydromike for this...

[amphibious drew]

5 HOURS OF CARNAGE

I've learned a lot today. a Bigfoot falling off jack stands makes a lot of noise. In many cases, if you don't have a nut and bolt, you can just use a sheetrock screw and small block of wood in it's place. If you don't have a lock nut, you can just get a bolt that's way too long and hammer the part that sticks through the nut over 90 degrees.

I'll try to remember all those tricks. LOL

[Model Citizen]

Brian, your dear diary stories are such a kick. Well, you wanted to be in a gang & it sounds like you might be going thru the initiation now.

Bridget

[lewis]

I think i will just stick to the Attex and Argo's.
I have a tendency to want to keep every thing I don't have any room in the shop after i cleaned it out. Even got rid of the frig....!

[6X6]

Swift, Mike, I don't think either of your emoticons are going to make it onto the site.

Brian, looks great. And nice to hear how ingenious the P.O.s were.
I swear I meant Previous OwnerS, and nothing else

[amphibious drew]

Who me? Haha, nah. Hey Drew, I think I should go grab that Hustler 950 near me and offer him a rediculously low price so you can join the Hustler club too.....c'mon you know you want to! You'd be surprised how many times that line has worked for me.

I already told you I wanted it. I feel left out of the club. I took a look at the pics last night and it looked good. I'm sure I could find an engine to shove in it. Its just a matter of distance and time. I got a business trip all week next week and no time to go check it out for a few weekends at best.

[racerone3]

today was a major day of cleaning. spent an hour with a putty knife scraping sludge out of the tub, then drug the frame and tub out in the pouring rain/ sleet (36 degrees) for some pressure washing fun. pressure washer crapped out about 20 minutes into the job (It will get a new fuel pump installed tomorrow). off to the car wash to make a huge mess. then another hour picking up tools and cleaning up after yesterdays destruction. spent the afternoon building a new winch mount for the 950 and getting it serviced and ready to sell... gotta fund this project somehow.

the frame is in pretty good shape. looks like someone has reinforced it at some point. it has a few nasty welds and cracks that need attention, but not near as much as I expected. I will also replace the front unistrut like I did in my 950 so that I can use the adjusters I made for the 950 (with a few revisions)

the lower tub (and one spot on the upper) is a wreck! I see a full day of plastic welding in my very near future.

sprocket tubes (and right rear sprocket) are toast. lots of work to be done there. one of the wheel flanges is also destroyed, but otherwise the axles look to be in good shape.

I haven't torn into the T-20 yet. My freshly rebuilt spare will go in the machine for now and then the one that came with the machine will get rebuilt down the road. the stripped mounting holes don't look too bad so hopefully I can helicoil them and save the case.

[JoeMeg]

Brian, congrats on the Bigfoot! The apples to "bigger" apples pic is indeed very humbling . I'm begining to re-think my Hustler prolect. Think I'll try building it back up kinda stock. Maybe look for the factory jet pump and install that so the little slug dosen't feel so "inadequate"

Joe.

[racerone3]

Got the frame cleaned up today. It is in remarkably good shape. only one crack that I've been able to find so far. Both the inner and outer frame rails are double thickness of what my 950 frame is. It looks like someone cut up another hustler frame to make the pieces to plate this one. the only really nasty spot is the LR crossmember. I can't even begin to figure out what someone was trying to accomplish with the "repair"

axles and sprocket got sandblasted. just need to weld up the slots in the sprocket tubes and add some thick washers.

hopefully over the weekend, I can get the frame finished and painted, and get enough of the plastic welding done on the tub to be able to put the frame back in. then I'll be waiting on bearings. still plenty of other work I can be doing while I wait though

[hydromike]

With the other maladies you've listed, I'm elated that you're frame is in relatively (to mine) good shape. I learned to expect the worst for my frame after reading the experiences of lots of other Hustler-owning members. If I hadn't torn the whole thing down to the last bolt, I never would have seen how beat up the frame really was. With my lower body being in quite decent shape, I was amazed how bad the frame was. I guess it doesn't take a direct hit to the tub to cause a lot of damage here and there on the frame. Lots of fatigue, lots of stress cracks.

With as BIG as the 980s are, they're not heavy machines. Not in the slightest. I don't have any quantitative data, but I'd love to weigh a stock Attex against a 980.... I'm going to go through the brochures section and see if I can get a decent estimate of what they may weigh.

Keep up the progress 'Race. We'll get all of these big pigs together soon enough...

~m

[racerone3]

So should I consider bringing my Hustler back to Busco for a Hustler convention? If I start soon I should have it properly PM'd. The "IV Max Pain" needs a few more weekends but should be ready for Busco.

YES! Bring it... That machine is what turned me on to Hustlers. I'm always disappointed when your trailer door swings down and I don't see the hustler.

Brian, congrats on the Bigfoot! The apples to "bigger" apples pic is indeed very humbling . I'm begining to re-think my Hustler prolect. Think I'll try building it back up kinda stock. Maybe look for the factory jet pump and install that so the little slug dosen't feel so "inadequate"

keep moving on it Joe. I was just looking back through your pics and what you have so far looks really good.



4 hours of cutting, grinding and welding last night has the frame ready to go. added upper mounts for the T-20, so hopefully it won't rip out of the frame like the last one did.

frame got paint today. 20 degrees too cold to be painting, but it should be dry before Busco

Borrowed McCoy's plastic welder again on Friday(THANK YOU McCOY!) I've really got to buy one of those. He was out of poly welding rod because some guy keeps borrowing it and used up all his stuff Made about a dozen calls looking for plastic supplies locally, and finally found a guy. problem was that he had surgery on Thursday and his shop was closed for the day Friday. Then he tells me he has to go by there today to get some paperwork, and that I could meet him there. not only did he show up on a Saturday to meet me, but he wouldn't charge me for the rods... he just made a customer for life!

got started on the body repairs today. 14 feet of plastic welding rod later, the outside of all the needed repairs on the lower tub are done. once it all cools, I will flip the tub over and do the inside. I really only need to get the lower hump done before I can set the frame in, but I still have welding rod and it will be a week or so before I have any parts to start assembly so I might as well get the body done. Just to add to the "Things I've Learned" from an earlier post, Bondo does not make a good repair material for poly... no matter how thick you lay it on there!

[LarryW]

Congrats on your purchase! Lucky dog!

[racerone3]

Congrats on your purchase! Lucky dog!

Thanks Larry, I'm pretty psyched about it! I usually enjoy the project/ build pahse, but for some reason I just want this one done.

made a lot of progress in the last few days.

The lower tub was so hammered, that I decided it needed a skid plate. that was an absolutly miserable process, but 12 hours later it's done.

today I got the frame back in the machine, T-20 bolted in, and new laterals made. also got all the sprocket tubes fixed. I'll be glad when bearings get here so the piles of parts can start getting smaller. One more day of fabrication to rebuild the engine mount, fix the rear rack and rear seat hinge, and build new floor boards and everything should be ready to assemble!

[hydromike]

This is looking just great. I know it's a huge pain to do the skid-plate process, but you'll love the protection it affords you. Looking at yours, I already feel better about trying to do the same to mine. Reading your progress reminds me of a lot of little things I still need to do. Floor pan, seat hinge, skid plate, winch....

It never ends....

Lookin' good. Thanks for bringing another one back.

~m

[Mike]

Nice work! That is a pretty slick way of forming the skid plate.

[jerseybigfoot]

Very nice there Brian. What thickness is the poly?