RZV500 Restoration

[D6lc]

I stripped the forks a few years back and had the stansions replaced and cleaned up the lowers, scotch brite does a good job of refinishing the castings back to the OE polishing marks. Degreased and ready for a few coats of lacquer and a new KYB sticker

[D6lc]

Glad to finish the crappy part of restorations, the cleaning, masking and painting of the chassis parts (Unfortunately still have the engine to go!)

Lined up and ready for paint, this was the 2nd batch


Rattle can spray booth setup, at least it limits the mess


Finished parts

[D6lc]

Tackled another time consuming job of cleaning up the harness and wiring connectors, there were dirty with a little corrosion




Submerge each connector in an ultrasonic cleaner with a mix of simple green and water, 5 minute per connector and then come up like new, a blast with an airline and a spray of WD40 and they are ready to go

[Nightshifter]

Hi . I might have the opportunity to purchase an 84 RZ500 in unknown condition. Are parts easy to come by for the restoration . Would there be people to assist in the restoration in Sydney Australia.

[D6lc]

Hi . I might have the opportunity to purchase an 84 RZ500 in unknown condition. Are parts easy to come by for the restoration . Would there be people to assist in the restoration in Sydney Australia.

I can't comment on every part, my bike was pretty complete. So far the parts I need have been available to rebuild it, if the bike your looking at has missing parts then I'd do a few searches before buying as I expect used parts are the only option.

[D6lc]

Chassis is rebuilt mostly and its rolling which helps making some space for the engine

[D6lc]

Moving onto the engine, as you can see its been sitting on the bench for quite a while!




Followed the manual and stripped the engine

[D6lc]

As expected all the seals were hardened and it looks like transmission fluid was entering the rear crank seal. It's on .25 pistons. Going to go with a rebore as it will last my ownership and a crank rebuild, belt and braces whilst it's stripped down. All new seals and O-rings ordered and bolts off to be replated.

[2manyprjx]

Good to see another project bike on here as it's been really slow for quite awhile. Thanks for posting.