Restoration of my 85 rz350rn putting her dress back on.

[ZedSledder]

rd350lc.net and the F1 parts catalog state the frame color is fire red. Not wanting to spend 5hrs driving to drop the frame off at a powder coater. As well as 5hrs to go pick it up, plus $80 gas each way, I ordered the colorite paint and 2 part urethane clear coat. This is turning into a %100 backyard build in true canadiana fashion

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[ZedSledder]

I've owned and maintained two stroke singles since high school. Often taking the engine out. The first one being a Suzuki TS. I grew up in Asia as a missionary kid where two strokes were very common. So much so that pre-mix was pumped at the gas stations. Those were some fun days. The police would usually look the other way rather than get the foreign affairs cops involved in petty street stunts. Someone might "lose face". How my mates and I survived those days, I don't know. There were designated motorcycle lanes and wheelies at green lights were common.

At any rate, once back in Canada in the early nineties there were still a lot of rz350's on the road. Wow, a two stroke twin. Two stroke smells like motorcycles, diesel smells like a Taipei bus, my arch nemesis. Sadly being young and stupid I am responsible for the destruction of too many of such. Thus my kharmic debt to restore and keep another one alive. I wanted one that needed everything done to it, to keep it a challenge. Also so that in the end I would know the bike inside out and know what had been done.The one that found me was just that. The bonus being that everything did work and it had active insurance.....Perfect. Now, a restoration, or a custom? The hardest part was finding a fairing in British Columbia. Or anywhere for that matter. I know fairings are cosmetic and I should only be worried about the mechanics at this point. But this was the stumper. If I could get the plastics everything else is doable. If I could crack that obsticle I could make it look like this.

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[ZedSledder]

Another brochure I use for reference. Looks like from a dealer in Windsor Ontario. What I find here is on the last line of the specs for 350rn it states Silky White as color. The Rz500 just says white and the red is Chappy red. But... a big but. In the parts catalog for the rz350rn, page 54 part 5 which is the cowling assembly it says, Stormy red, and silky white. rd350lc.net backed this info up. So, deduced from this, the 500 is trimmed out in Chappy and the 350 is Stormy red. Anyhow, the vision of what the final project will look like is starting to come together. Back to where I got my frame paint and yes they have it. It is what it is, and you can't powder ABS.

[silverstrom]

The microfiche for the 85 says Silky White and Stormy Red. That same 85 fiche has 2 frame colours depending on the market area. Fire Red and Yamaha Black.

The 1985 RZ500 fiche says Silky White and Stormy Red. The 1984 RZ500 fiche says the same.

I have an RZ500 upper and a 350 upper sitting in front of me. They look the same.

The 1987 TZR250 fiche says Clean White and Chappy Red. I have an 87 TZR and it is a different colour than my RZ500

I wouldn't put too much faith in what the brochure says.

You know this already, but it's worth seeing again. http://www.rd350lc.net/pageCOLORcode.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; No Chappy Red anywhere in the RZ lineup

[ZedSledder]

thanks John, yes, for sure little faith there. It's good to know what the 500 fiche says.The little brochure must be misprinted on the rz500 side.
For my rz350 I'm going with the Silky white/ Stormy red. Wasn't sure what white was on the 500 thanks for the clarification. I guess its base tone coat that makes the cost difference when attempting OEM match. I guess we'll see how it pans out
thanks and cheers.

[nokturnal]

chappy red is an RD400 colour i believe

[ZedSledder]

THIS IS NOT MY BIKE.... This is just the photo that swayed me to try and do a restoration instead of a naked custom. So many sweet custom builds on here, In the end I decided to master the original piece first. You guys in Ontario might recognize this one. It was on the Ottawa Kijiji site forever, for $2,500. Unbelievable price for the rest of the world.
The owner states those are original GP exit Microns, almost never seen outside the UK. As well as flawless bodywork. And of course the must have solo cowl is on it. Definitely knew I would be looking for one of those.
Ok no more reference photos .You can see where this going.

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[ZedSledder]

I basically searched for less than a week for a solo cowl, and found one right away. Its one of the cruz image ones that was a factory second. The blemish is behind the bum pad so you can't even see it. It came with Butt pad a brackets and the funny photo copy instructions in Japanese. Just need to find some $500 o-rings. It was less than $100 dollars sold by motorcyclepartsonline.com who just received some heckling on here for trying to sell a rusty crank for $295. Anyway those are the dudes who had it.

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[jzanutto]

wow thats a lot of work by hand

[ZedSledder]

wow thats a lot of work by hand

Hells ya its alot of work. Way more than I had planned. I get started on something and can't put it down. I reckon sooner or later I'll have to farm something out. The gas tank needs to be caustic stripped and refinished. It'll either take me forever or it'll be dropped it off in the city.

[ZedSledder]

Silverstrom selling me the hard to find fairing pieces dictated the final direction of this restoration. Now that I had all the pieces I could visualize the end product. This got me right into the restoration proces of sourcing parts and refurbishing what I had.
I will have to paint the lower half of the top main fairing silky white to achieve the original paint scheme. there is a decal that covers that paint seam.
It's a shame to paint it as it is a flawless example of an OEM piece. No holes or cracks at all. John was kind enoigh to include all the grommets bushes and clips so I could mock it up straight away.My only challenge may be matching the new paint on thne top fairing with the 29 year old mid panel fairings.

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[ZedSledder]

The Devils in the details. Of course the original main fairing stay is a rusted bent piece of garbage. so i needed one of those. Also needed all the doo hickies to hang the belly pan and mid fairings. These are impossible to find, and when you do they are way expensive, or the seller does not ship to canada. I also needed the clips that mount the glare visor to the top fairing. I saw one on ebay for $75 a couple months ago. It takes two.
Well I did get them. All from the same seller, right here in the great blanco Norte. Not sure if the one letting these go knew how hard it is to get them or not. But without them, i might as well abandon project "put the old cougars shit back on" you know dress up the old girl.
Maybe putting the plastics back on these old bikes has become redundant and obsolete? I guess thats the whole point of a restoration. If anyone is wondering what the factory full fairing hangs off of this is it.

Mid fairing brackets. Attach to frame tab

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pretty nice main fairing stay. attaches to mounting tab on frame neck

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Glare visor clips. hard to find the visor. little alone two of these in the same place.

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[ZedSledder]

Also needed the headlight gasket....NLA

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The PO butchered the clock frame to mount it to the 31K bikini fairing mount. needed one of those.

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[JonW]

That headlight gasket shows as NLA on some listings and not on others, which is weird as ive seen that occur before and I ordered and the parts turned up from those that said 'available'. Ok Ive never tried to order one of these but I 'believe' it is possible to get one, tho everyone says it isnt LOL funny old Yamaha... :D

[Zedixe13]

I bought one last year , they are the same used on the RZ500 , it's around $55.