RZ/RD 350 & Misc. 2-Stroke Tech BBS

Seems even the special low mileage survivor bike in Shannons sydney Auction at the end of this month has a non ign shroud dash... looks ok actually lol

Great job Jon!!! Oh, that's not yours.

haha, no its one that's for sale... my bike is still in bits. more updates to come on this one... watch this space next week! :)

The frame is in my to do pile.... exciting times...

How many bikes have you got, Jon? Frames or complete.

lol, 3 LCs and 2 RZs... and an XT. I think... The 'new LC project' will get a write up when i start it...

Yeah, I had to ask. Just so I know how many that I really need to keep.

haha, well I always thought 1 modded and 1 standard of the LC and RZ, but... well I also wanted to make a special LC with some tweaks, and thats what the last one will be, it will also use the 'not so pretty' parts so I dont have to sell or bin them, well thats the plan, but already stuff is being discarded, rebought and restored to the same level as my other bikes, hmm...

The past few weeks Ive been working on the fuel tank for this bike. The conditions for painting have been wonderful here this Spring, 20-25degC and very low humidity, so Ive done quite a few painting projects, and this tank was one of them.

I may not have mentioned it but the paint I did a few years back had a fault that came about after I redid the top coat when repairing the dent caused by the falling exhaust, yeah... remember that story? sigh, nightmare... What was happening was that the top coat appeared to be pulling away at points along the lower edge of the tank, a few mm up from the edge, causing a small crack in the paint that wasnt 'through' the paint. It was very strange. I sanded and repainted these areas to see if i could improve or 'fill' the cracks and wasnt making much progress. Something was very much amiss but I hoped by leaving it a while the paint would dry out and Id be able to redo it.

I dunno how long its been but it had to have been 12+ months and I was back on these... I started lightly sanding the bizarre 'cracks'. The paint was balling up on the paper, seeming like it was still wet. hmm... I played about a bit and tried some primer and it didnt look or feel any better. At this point in your heart-of-hearts you just know whats needed; a full strip back to at least the primer and new topcoat... Damn! :(

I ran a razor blade under the top coat and it easily lifted off. It left the primer layer like it wasnt adhered to it at all, even though it obviously was. Plainly the top coat was very unhappy with what was under it. I sanded that primer layer down to remove as much of it as possible and left it to dry out. Then repaired the marks made by the blade with stopper and respraying with a few layers of surfacer/primer and sanded back after a guide coat. One last primer layer and a more gentle sand through the grits and I was done. The surface was probably the best its ever been on this tank at this point, all the curves were nice and the flat parts were flat as could be.

I then reused my latest homemade tool for holding the tank from the rafters of my garage. This is a bit of threaded bar bent into a big question mark. I used this with some washers and nuts to clamp two plastic pipe end caps from the local hardware store to the headstock of my 421s frame when I painted it. The caps were the perfect fit in the headstock meaning it clamped between those bearing surfaces, providing the double tasks or masking the bearing area from paint and also providing a safe and solid hook for the front half of the frame, allowing it to be hung from the rafters for paint. The reuse in this instance was with my (soon to be patented lol) tank filler clamp, used when de-rusting tanks. This was made from the cap from an oil drum and a piece of threaded bar with a solid foot and a set of rubber washers to seal a tank and stop any 'juice' or fumes from escaping. Combining the two tools gave me a solidly clamped fuel cap that had an integral hook and perfectly masked the tanks innards too.

First up I sprayed a light coat that went well until my neighbour decided to blow his driveway. Idiot! I gently sanded any dust marks out the next day and two days later recoated it with a final coat. Im very much being careful to make sure the paint is dry between coats. Ok, I think there might be a single spec of dust in the whole finish this time round and even out of the can it was a lovely job. Im using cans as I want to maintain the colour with all the other panels that have already been done. One thing I did find was that a brand new can works much better than a part used can with this product. It seems the 2nd use of the nozzle isnt as good a spray and that I suspect comes about from the drying of the paint on the nozzle's surfaces even if you clear the nozzle after use. I will try dropping these nozzles in thinner and cleaning them up before doing any more painting to see if this is the issue. Its either that or the pressure reducing in the can, hmm...

The next job is to let this cure in my warm garage while I recuperate from the appendix op I just had. Then with a light sand on the not so wonderful areas where there was a little orange peel (only on one side actually) I'll apply the decals and then think about clearcoat. I planned to use the KBS Diamond Clear which is fuel resistant, but quite what thats like over this white is anyone guess and I need to prove it works before ruining where Im at right now and the decals etc. Ive been reading up and its said that this clear is more like a layer of superglue when you look at the formulas and while it says its good for motorcycle fuel tanks on the manufacturers site, I really dont want to ruin my decals or the paint so far with reactions etc. However if i can make it work it sounds like the perfect clear for the DIY painter and my feedback may well help others do home painting of bodywork with no fear that the final job will be ruined by fuel spills.

Sadly no pics, I'm not physically allowed to open the garage door by the docs yet, but hope to get in there later this week and will do some then.

Heal well Jon! Great write up. Keep 'em coming.

Oh, I bought myself an '07 SV650 about a month ago. I'm feeling a need to make a transplant engine fit. Might be a 2 stroke. A 350.

Thanks for the kind words Rory, excited to think of the SV350 taking shape!

I pulled the exhaust tonight and listed it for sale, and a friend has the engine sold for me. So I guess, it's under way. Heading out to school soon, so back burner.

Good work Rory, start a thread I really want to follow that build :)

Today I managed to collect up my next lot of zinc plating, this time from a new company - Elite Plating in Sydney. They barrel plate and suspend larger parts like axles and the hoops and its very bright indeed. Nice job.

This has a bunch of stuff for my projects in it, including this one, now I have almost all the parts ready... Its scheduled in after the 421...

I have found that when the zinc plating I had redone if left sitting starts to mark up.
I now wash everything in petrol and blow it clean when it come back from
the Platers, and that has had great results.
Maybe it wasn't washed properly at the Platers but this is now my standard practise.

Jon what did what was the cost for doing the zinc plating for the lot in the picture?

Rob