RZ350NC2 Resto Mod

[kpke]

11/20/21

I still have not heard back from Yambits. Fuckers. They have lots of specialty parts that I would like to order.

Front calipers are disassembled, all parts are cleaned and ready for reassembly except...I may spray bomb the cast parts. I have a feeling these calipers won’t stay on this bike so probably no powder coat for these parts.



The rear caliper has been disassembled. The finish on this unit was really good so I polished it up, installed new seals, and reassembled it. A part is done.







I started on the rear master cylinder.





The sun is supposed to come out today so I can spray bomb a few parts and cook them in the barbecue.

Friday I picked up these parts from PC.

[kpke]

11/22/21

Saturday I spray bombed the front calipers and rear master cylinder. I got a bit overanxious and put them in the barbecue to cure the paint. After about 30 minutes I went and looked at the product and the paint had blistered up. Lesson learned…Let the paint cure for a day or five before barbecuing. I walnut blasted the parts and repainted them Sunday.








Also Sunday I started on the rear brake master cylinder. I was unable to finish because I don’t have proper snap ring pliers. Or stated differently, I had broken the tips off of the proper one I had some time ago. I think removing a huge snap ring out of a silencer. I had to order new snap ring pliers and it should be here Tuesday.




Today I finally decided to order a few parts from Yambits even though the A holes haven’t been returning emails. I’ve never ordered from them before. The order went through PayPal so if things go south I’m hoping their “buyer protection” will be put into play.

Swing arm bearing 2
Fork Guide Bush Upper 2
Fork Dust Seals 2
Chain / Wheel Pulls 2
Steering Bearing Cover 1
Powervalve Cable Black 2
Side Stand Spring 1
Main Stand Spring 1
Blinkers 4
Dashboard Bracket Damper Kit 4
Footrest Rubbers Front 2
Footrest Rubbers Rear 2
Fork Slide Bush Kit Lower 2
Clutch Cable 1
Nitrogen Mono-Shock YSS 1
Big rubber center stand stop 1

11/27/21

Yambits order from UK arrived today. That was really quick.

[kpke]

11/28/21

Assembled front calipers today.




Assembled the rear MC some time last week.




I’ve been polishing the wheels off and on. As I feared this has turned into a career. The rear wheel I wet sanded with 600 grit and then took it to the new Craftsman 1.5 HP buffer. The buffer worked very well and I was OK with the finished product. I did the same to the front wheel which I thought would polish up easier. It didn’t. It has deeper tooling groves that didn’t sand out with 600 grit and the wheel won’t polish anything close to the rear. Next I took 240 grit and wet sanded some parts of the spokes. It takes forever. And it didn't turn out well. So why not get in deeper.




I got my electric DA sander out and took it to the machined grooves. It works but it’s too big and I’m going to do some damage to other parts of the wheel if I keep going. I wish the polishing dude would not have faded out. This is taking too long. But as I’ve preached to my kids for years, “anything worth doing is worth doing right”. After DA sanding.




So a little deeper we go. I’ve ordered a 3 inch air DA and a bunch of grits of discs. It’s supposed to be here Monday. I will basically be starting over now to make them look uniform in finish.


11/29/21

Assembled front MC today including replacing the sight glass window.






Mini DA sander and disc arrive today so I can get back to the joyful forever job of sanding and polishing wheels soon. I fired it up and it spins and sands wood.

[JonW]

wow, how cute is that mini DA!

[kpke]

Test

I keep getting this when I try to post my updates now. So it may be a while before you see anything.

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You don't have permission to access this resource.

[kpke]

Weird stuff. I can post some stuff (just posted on another thread) but can't post updates with imgur and/or YT links.

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access this resource.

[kpke]

Another test post

[kpke]

12/4/21 More wheel polishing, well, sanding today. On the front wheel only. I used the mini DA starting with 240 grit and it turns out my kit of 3 inch sanding discs I bought steps up to 600 from 240. Nothing in between. Weird. But it actually appears that this will work out. I tried buffing after the 600 and it works if I can get really hard pressure but when I get into the tricky curved areas if it gets stuck it will smooth out the sharp edge. So that’s not gonna work. I’m going to DA with 800, then 1000, then see if that will buff out without so much pressure. This is taking way too long.

12/5/21 It’s quite foggy out this morning so screw the wheel polishing task.

Today I brazed the fork cartridges. I think it came out pretty good. Especially for having never done it before. The careful filing took a bit of time.



One done, one to go.





Done. Except for making the emulators fit properly. Are you there Julian?

[kpke]

Brazing video

https://youtu.be/7-vm-vRPvM8

[kpke]

12/10/21 On the front wheel I DA sanded the spokes with 800 then 1000. Then wet sanded with 1000. Then the perimeter I wet sanded with 400, 600, 800, then 1000. I took the wheel to the buffer and the perimeter came out quite nice. The spoke areas just won’t polish the same. Then hand polished with some 35-year-old simichrome polish I happen to have. This is the end result and this is how it is going to stay.



12/11/21 Today I gave the rear wheel the DA sander treatment ending with manual sanding with 1000.It looks pretty good. Still needs to be buffed to match the front. And I’m noticing I need to do something to the center of the front wheel, probably walnut blast the six little spokes. No sanding and no buffing in this area. I still need to paint the wheels. Quite a project these wheels have been.

The DA sander treatment took about two hours.

Started when it was still in the 30s outside.



Rear wheel pre-buffing on the left and front on the right post buffing.




I met Julian at his shop and he machined the fork damping rods so that the emulators nest in them properly. Thank you Julian! What a guy. He did this for me and his next job was machining an aluminum spacer for Mean Dads RZ350 rear shock. Then he goes to work on his masterpiece of custom swing arms for his custom frames.

[kpke]

12/17/21 Finished wheel polishing sometime in the last week. The centers of the front wheels have been cleaned up using a stainless steel wire brush. Next clean the gold part of the wheels in preparation for paint. Then tape the polished areas and paint. Weather has turned wet and cold. Very unfavorable for painting.

12/24/21 Last week I sanded and polished up the fork lowers.




I began the final assembly of the fork legs. When I got to making my initial setting on the fork emulators just prior to installing them,I noticed a gap on one of them.



I thought they were a press fit so I did this and pressed it together in the vice to get rid of the gap.



Now look closely where the deep socket was pressing and you’ll see that I found the weak link and damaged the part. Whoopsie.



I sent an email to Mikes XS with photos explaining the situation. They responded on the Monday after Christmas weekend with the right answer. They are sending a replacement right away.

As a bit of a side note I was showing and explaining to my son what I did to screw up the part. Immediately I found that the parts are not pressed together, they are threaded together so could have just screwed it down.

12/30/21 Mikes XS sent replacement emulators. I only needed one, they sent two. Good on them for helping me out quickly. I set them at 1.5 turns. These emulators add about ¾ inch height as they sit on the cartridge and then the fork spring sits on the emulator. Once I get the forks assembled and installed on the bike will there be any fork sag all?

[kpke]

1/3/22 Would you like to see what is inside one of these emulators?



Both of the forks are now assembled and ready to install onto the motorcycle.



1/8/22 I installed new swingarm bearings, assembled the swingarm and installed it onto the frame.



Next installed the new YSS shock absorber after adjusting the height adjustment to equal the stock shock.



Then hooked up all of the swingarm linkage.




Everything went together quite well especially considering the powder coated frame. There was a teeny bit of overspray where the dog bones insert into the swingarm. About 30 seconds with a file took care of that.

[two-stroke-brit]

Liking the yss shock .

[kpke]

Yeah, I hope it works out. tacky1 says these things work well so I'm sure I will be satisfied with it.

I haven’t been doing a very good job updating my storybook so I am probably forgetting a few things.

1/9/22

Today I installed the triple clamps. Then installed the rebuilt forks. There was a little bit of “fixing” required on some of the powder coated components. Temporarily installed some old wheels so it would be a roller.





1/16/22


I have been grabbing components, bolts, screws and nuts, cleaning them and installing lots of miscellaneous parts.

Side stand/new spring, center stand/new spring, PV servo with new cables, tail light assembly, bodywork grommets and other rubber things, oil tank, coolant overflow tank, CDI/regulator assembly, spot faced the PC for coil ground, installed coil, removed PC on handlebar clamps, tail light assembly, etc.

Hmmm. It looks like I have not been taking many photographs. So you will have to take my word for it. But lots of videos that I post on my YouTube channel.

[tacky1]

Looking great there Ken, The wheels are a PITA to get right, they look good :)