ACME Rocket Plane Sled Restoration (I tried riding it down a hill)

The Acme Rocket Plane – “the sled with eye appeal”. Measuring 58 inches in length and weighing over 20 lbs. (imagine lugging that up the hill as a kid!) the Rocket Plane was the eye candy of the snow sled lineup of the American Acme Company which included other sleds such as the “Royal Sky Plane”, “Sky Plane”, “The Monoplane”, and “The Speedplane”.

In 1927, the American Toy and Novelty Works merged with Acme Wagon Works Inc. and started doing business in Emigsville, PA as the American Acme Company. In 1927 alone the company sold over 150,000 sleds. They frequently produced and sold their sleds to larger department stores such as Sears. In the early 1960’s the company borrowed money to make sleds during the summer months in anticipation of the coming winter, but another company underbid them and suddenly American Acme Company had a warehouse full of sleds it couldn’t sell. It took years to undo that situation and by then plastic sleds had crept into the market and could ride atop even a tiny amount of snow where the heavy wooden and metal Acme sleds couldn’t. The company started moving away from sleds and focused on lawn furniture and butcher blocks and by the time of the company’s demise in the 1980’s they only sold butcher blocks.

This particular Rocket Plane sled was made sometime between the 1920’s and 1940’s based on when we know it came into the family and was most used. It had been sitting in a garage and hadn’t touched snow for several decades.

________Timestamps__________
0:00 – Overview
1:02 – Disassembly
3:59 – Metal parts electrolysis, cleaning, and painting
6:16 – Wood cross braces and rails sanding and sealing
7:35 – Front steering wood sanding, painting, sealing
8:31 – Outer slats sanding, painting, sealing
12:58 – Middle slat sanding, painting, sealing
14:10 – Rocket Plane lettering recreating
15:23 – Acme lettering recreating
16:07 – New Rope
16:12 – New small screw nails
16:20 – Repairing and cleaning large screw nails
16:33 – Making new flat head rivets
17:04 – Reassembly
21:23 – Before/After
22:03 – Prepping the rails for sledding
22:39 – Sledding time!


____________Tips for restoring your Rocket Plane (or similar) sled________
For the metal parts I used electrolysis to remove the rust. Check out my full electrolysis tutorial here to make your own setup for just $20:    • Infinite Rust Removal? DIY Electrolys...  . You can also use other rust removers like Evapo-Rust, although it is more expensive. After finishing with electrolysis, I wire wheeled everything with either a bench grinder, power drill, or Dremel wire wheels to get it down to bare metal. I then rinsed everything thoroughly with acetone (or similar degreaser) to prep for painting. For priming I use metal etching primer from Rustoleum. For colored paint, I use Rustoleum Stops Rust brand.
For the wood parts I sanded everything with 150 and 220 grit sandpaper via orbital sander. I filled in any old nail holes with dowel rod and wood glue and sanded smooth. For painting the wood parts I used a water based acrylic paint (hobby/crafting paint) for colored sections and then sealed all wood pieces with four coats of water based spar urethane to make it waterproof. It’s important that your acrylic and urethane use the same base (either oil or water) or they will not dry properly together.

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#sled #restoration #antique