building a red cat

Dear AmSnow,

I thought you guys would be interested in this. It's not everyday that you see a sled like this one. As a matter of fact, you will never see snowmobiles that look like mine.

I took step-by-step pictures of the building process from start to finish. I enjoy your magazine and Web site, I have been a longtime reader, fan and subscriber.

I started building this one-of-a-kind sled in April 2006. I can't believe I finally got it done! The sled was actually a test sled from Black Magic. It was bought by a friend in 2003 who rode it for 3 years until a stud tore a gash in one of the tunnel coolers and burned up the stock engine. He didn't want it anymore, so I took it off his hands and gave it a "tune up."

The sled was an early release 2002 ZR 500 LE (made in January of '01, the very first Cat ZR to have the high handlebars and the wide running boards). I converted it into a 2002 ZR 500 Cross Country long-track with a ZR 900 engine, D&D single pipe and can.

The funny thing about the whole sled project is that I bought the sled to part it out. One week to the day after I picked up the 500, I ran across a wrecked '03 ZR 900. Then a lot of gears started turning in my head. So, I sold my old 2003 ZR 900 on Ebay in late March, bought the wrecked sled and started making one heck of a sled out of the two.

I completely disassembled the entire snowmobile and sandblasted every metal chassis part. Everything on the sled has been powder coated, including the chassis with the exception of the hood, which I painted in automotive paint.

After I put the tunnel extension on it, the running board edge trim came up short, so I got a piece of edge trim and bent it to fit so it "mated" with the rear bumper like it did before the extension. I then welded the seam and metal finished it and cut the notches in the top of it to look like it was made that way.

The engine also was completely torn apart. It now has a trued and welded crank, ported cylinders, Swain Tech ceramic-coated drilled Wiseco pistons, V-force 3 reeds, Tempaflow, a Boss Noss kit and a Boss seat.

I put a Tracks USA 136-inch long-track kit on the sled. It comes with tunnel extension, rail extensions with hardware and a 136-inch Predator 1.25 new track (very nice kit).

O yeah, I can't forget about the C&A Pro Outlaw Skis.

-Mike Miller
Monroe, Mich.

Editor's note: Thanks for sharing the results of your hard work. Good-looking sled and sounds like you had a blast getting there too.