A Restoration in Honor of a Friend and Mentor
By Brian Lehr, Contributing Writer
This is my story about my very special 1966 Ski-doo Olympique. When I decided that I was going to restore a sled, I started looking for 1966 that needed to be redone. One day when I was talking to my friend Brian, he said that he had one in his garage. I asked him if he wanted to get rid of it and his reply was no, he really didn’t want to sell it. As time went on, I kept asking him about it and he finally said that he would like to see it restored and sold it to me. It was in rough shape, but I knew in time it would be redone and look great. It was missing a few things, and I knew it was going to be a search to find the parts as there aren’t many of these sleds out there anymore. I stored it for a while until I was able to find the missing parts for it that I would need.
I was telling my good buddy Chuck that I had a 1966 and he said he had one also that he wasn’t going to be restoring and told me that I could have it for parts. I had not been able to do anything with the sled for about a year. Then in May 2022, we lost our very dear friend Chuck, my best buddy, who everyone called Mr. Ski-doo. It was a devasting lose to me and I didn’t have any drive to work on sleds as he was my skidoo mentor.
In October of 2022, I went to a show in Houghton Lake, and was told that the upcoming show in February of 2023 was going to have a ride dedicated to Chuck and a trophy to the best Skidoo in Chuck’s name. Well, this sparked a thought in my mind. It was what I needed to get back into restoring sleds after the loss of my mentor.
I only had two months to get the job done. So out came the 1966 Olympique, which Chuck loved the sixties antique sleds. When I looked it over, I knew that it was going to need a lot of attention. I then went and got the sled that Chuck said I could have and brought it home so that I could put the two sleds together to make one great sled for this upcoming show. As I took them apart, I realized that the frames were bad on both. But as luck would have it, I was able to take the best frame and cut the bad spots out and weld new metal in that was cut out of the other frame to make one good frame. Then combined the rest of the parts from the two sleds.
I now had all I needed for my restoration. After the frame was welded and the welds were ground down and the frame was sanded and primed, it looked good. So, it was on to the hood which needed some fiberglass work and sanding to get it back in shape. As you know it takes a while to clean and paint the rest of the parts to get it ready for assembly. I was working every chance I could to get this done, even burning the midnight oil as they say. The time was running out as the show was getting closer. I just kept in mind that this was for Chuck, and I was going to get it done. Well, it was down to the last week, and I put the final touches on the sled on Thursday and went to the show on Saturday. I was doing this for Chuck, knowing that he would love this sled and be so happy that I was able to get it done.
I also took time to make a board with pictures of Chuck on it and I wrote a paragraph dedicated to him to be displayed with the sled along with a few other things I had from him. After setting up the display, my friend Brian came walking over and saw the display and sled. He asked whose sled that was, and I told him, some guy sold it to me a while ago and he then realized it was the sled I got from him. He was in shock and could not believe it was his sled and how good it looked.
Chuck was well loved in the snowmobile community. All that knew him were very happy and thrilled to see the completed sled. Not only did it look great, but it was also done in honor of Chuck.
This special sled won the trophy at the show. I was so proud and happy knowing that this sled was a part of Chuck, and the other part of this sled was of me. This sled will forever be special to me and dedicated to Mr. Ski-doo, my mentor, my best friend and buddy. •