Color Me Awesome

I'm pretty fond of painting my stuff. I've painted my last two ski helmets, even though I'm pretty sure that voids the warranty. So I guess I have some kind of experience in this kind of thing, not that it ever comes out the way I want to though. Anyways, I decided that The Sled Baron needed a sled fitting of his title. Not that the Rocket isn't the dopest sled ever made, it just could use some color. Also, if you'd like tips on how to paint your own sled (if I have any readers who own bitching sleds like this) this might help.

Alright, Step One. First take out all the bolts and stuff, unless you want to paint them, watch out for gunking up the threads though. You should at least take the strap off though. Next comes the pads, try not to rip them up too bad. If you have a new pair you're putting in it's not that much of a problem, but if you're trying to reuse them you should try to be gentle. I used a chisel to take them out, make sure you don't dig into the plastic with the blade, you just want to separate the pad from the glue. Use a medium/wide chisel for the main part of the pad and a small chisel or even a screwdriver for parts that fit into the narrow grooves on the sides. Lift up on the pad as you get more off the sled, it helps to see how much more you have left to go and how close you are to damaging the pads or the sled. Once you get the pads up make sure the sled is clean. You probably won't be able to get all the residual glue off the sled but if you have any stickers on the sled you might want to get them off. Scrubbing them with steel wool or something coarse like that will help get the rest of the adhesive off. Try not to scratch the sled though. Tape off where you'd like to put the new (or old) pads and maybe the MRR logo too. I like to rep the Rocket so I taped it up, its up to you though. Also, if you thought you'd take a shortcut and just try to cover up the pads instead of taking them off, bad call. If you're spray painting this, the paints will probably eat your pads, no matter how well you mask them I bet some paint will get in. I kind of forgot about the whole "Step One... Step Two" format but whatevs.

Once you get the prep and masking done you can put your base coat down. Rockets are black so pretty much any color you'll be putting on it will be lighter and therefore will need a base coat so it shows up. A flat white or any kind of spray primer will work fine. Do the standard three or four even coats, don't cheap out of getting paint, it kind of sucks when you have a weak coat or a real fragile one. Also, if you buy paint from Wal-Mart, don't make jokes about huffing. Chances are your cashier has at one point and will take you seriously. After your base coat you might want to think about putting a layer of clear coat down on top, I didn't and I ended up pulling paint off with my tape. I wasn't happy. This might be kind of obvious, but don't paint the bottom of your sled. One, its bound to get scratched off, and two, it'll probably act weird on snow.

Ok, so after your base coat you can start doing whatever you like to your sled. Remember to keep the mask on where the pads go though. I just went with a simple two color design to be reminiscent of the Red Baron's plane, and because I'm lazy. If it's your first project like this simple is probably better, if your hopes are too high for this kind of thing it probably won't turn out the way you want, and look like shit at that. Not that I did this, but you should put a layer of clear coat on after each new section of paint/design. It's important to be patient with spray paint, let it dry for the full time. Get hasty with it and you'll probably fuck something up. That's pretty annoying.

Alright, so the paints all done, you've done what ever detail work you wanted, and you put that final layer of clear coat down, now you need to glue the pads on. When you take the masks off you should have an area of virgin sled that shows where the pads used to go. If you're tall like I am you might want to move them up a little bit, not too much though, you'll make it ride funny if you're too far up on it. There might be some black showing on the sled after you glue them back down. I don't have a big problem with it but if it really bothers you, hand paint it. I'm not guaranteeing it'll stick to the sled though, you might just have to deal with it. Anyways, back to gluing down the pads. You need glue. I'm a big fan of Gorilla Glue. That shit's dope. Follow the directions, moisten the surfaces (as much as you can, plastic and foam aren't the most permeable substances) and apply the glue. Not too much or else it'll look sloppy (like mine), but definitely put a generous amount down. I'd prefer a little sloppiness to having my pads fly off mid-run any day, but that's just me. Now you need to clamp the surfaces. You can't really do that with a sled, but you can put weight on the pads to keep them down. Don't use anything with sharp, hard edges. They'll rough up your pads. Bags of water work well. Water can be pretty heavy and as long as you make sure the bags don't touch the glue and get stuck to the sled you'll be set. Let these sit for the 4 or 5 hours it says on the directions. Screw the strap back on and the put the other bolts on you're good to go. Finding snow is another matter entirely though...

Good Luck!

The Sled Baron

PS: Mine's a little sloppy, especially the detail work but I think it came out alright. Hopefully I'll be able to get some shots of it in action soon. Fuck global warming. Fuck El Nino too, no one asked him to come back.