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

Hi guys,

I stripped down my 85 RZ350 NC2 to the frame and spent a good 4 hours degreasing it. That stuff was sure baked on!

I plan to have it powdercoated red since the paint is flaking off in many spots. But I have a couple questions about the prep.

-What's the best way to preserve the VIN stamping, VIN sticker (need to save in California?), and emissions sticker (need to save in California?). Obviously I'd like to just remove them all to get the best paint coverage, but laws are laws...
-Is there anything I should check, reinforce, straighten, etc. before painting that I might wish I did before hand? Known weak spots on this bike?
-I saw recommended that "signal red" was a darn close match to the stock 85 NC2 red color. That accurate? I'd like to get pretty close but a 100% match is not needed.
-Should I remove the steering head bearing races?
-Is there an easy way to check if everything is straight? Or something that gets damaged in a tip-over that I can visually inspect? The previous owner says it was tipped over twice but never crashed while moving. The scratched in the fairings support this.

Thank you

Yes the races have to come out.

Unfortunately the degrease was not necessary. The whole thing has to be sand blasted to get the old paint off.

It would be near impossible to preserve the frame stickers. Get replicas made.

You would need a jig to check for straightness. These are hardy frames. Often tossed down the track without much damage. Check major welds for any cracks and inspect or major rust.

Gotcha. My powdercoater stated that he will charge more if it's super nasty and greasy. I figure he will sandblast but would still need to degrease first or risk contaminating the blast media.

The frame looks good. All the welds are solid. Some sloppy factory welds though.. I gotta say. The only rust is minor surface "patina" and it's overall very nice. Thanks for the input.

Where are you getting it coated in the Bay Area, I got all mine coated at West Coast powder coating, Great guys to deal with.

You can get a replica frame decal and all the other frame decals. That way you dont have to try and preserve them..

This is mine after coating..

Oh wow, nice! What color did they use? Did they have to do anything special to preserve the VIN that is stamped into the metal? Also, source on the replica decals? Sorry for all the questions. This is one of the most important parts of the project so I don't want to screw up.

I'm still trying to find a place to get it done. I got a couple quotes for $200 and $300 to sandblast and paint in Santa Cruz and Santa Clara.

With the Vin stamped into the stock, all you have to do is before it gets powder coated is cover the stamping with some high temperature masking tape "cut to size" so it looks neat

Once powder coated spray on some clear paint onto the area, that way the numbers are still legible

I sand blasted my own frame, using a 10 gallon sand blaster and a decent hobby type air compressor, it does take a while to do, but will probably save you money in the end, I used Staurolite as the blasting media which you can recycle about 5 times, in my language it was $16 AUD for 25kg

You have to remember not to touch the sand blasted frame with your bare hands, you will leave a hand print on it that in years to come will come up through the powder, so wear non oily gloves

You can then zinc the frame to help keep rust at bay before the coating

You can then use the sandblaster to do other bits, using different media, to do other parts eg rims, yokes swing arm etc

For small bits I use a hand held blaster and do it inside a small cheap tent so I can sweep up the media and reuse it

Having said that $2 - 300 isn't too bad for what is required

HTH

Leave the bearing cups in, replace them after it has been blasted and painted. I make plugs for the swing arm.
Cover/mask the stickers with masking tape (not that green "painters" tape. It just blows off), then duct tape. They'll survive. i do it all the time.
You HAD to degrease it, otherwise the blast media just embeds itself in the soft grease and it takes forever to get it clean, and if you don't get it PERFECTLY clean it will ruin the powder coat.
Ask the guy that is going to blast the frame to go over it with a fine, hard media to finish, something like glass bead, for a nicer finish. You may have to pay extra for that.
...and as mentioned DO NOT TOUCH the frame, use gloves. The oils on your hands gets on the new rough surface and you'll get "fish eye" in the paint.
I don't know where you are but where I am I can take a paint sample to the store and they scan the sample and make paint that colour, in a rattle can... but I usually use Tremclad anyway. Get the paint BEFORE you blast the frame, that way you can test the colour.

Go over the frame BEFORE you blast it. Look for cracked paint at the welds and corners. If it's bent the paint cracks off at the bend... which is why I will never powder coat a frame, the frame can crack under the powder coat and you'll never see it.

bitzz wrote:Leave the bearing cups in, replace them after it has been blasted and painted. I make plugs for the swing arm.
Cover/mask the stickers with masking tape (not that green "painters" tape. It just blows off), then duct tape. They'll survive. i do it all the time.
You HAD to degrease it, otherwise the blast media just embeds itself in the soft grease and it takes forever to get it clean, and if you don't get it PERFECTLY clean it will ruin the powder coat.
Ask the guy that is going to blast the frame to go over it with a fine, hard media to finish, something like glass bead, for a nicer finish. You may have to pay extra for that.
...and as mentioned DO NOT TOUCH the frame, use gloves. The oils on your hands gets on the new rough surface and you'll get "fish eye" in the paint.
I don't know where you are but where I am I can take a paint sample to the store and they scan the sample and make paint that colour, in a rattle can... but I usually use Tremclad anyway. Get the paint BEFORE you blast the frame, that way you can test the colour.

Go over the frame BEFORE you blast it. Look for cracked paint at the welds and corners. If it's bent the paint cracks off at the bend... which is why I will never powder coat a frame, the frame can crack under the powder coat and you'll never see it.

The blaster may charge more for the cleaning (totally get that) but for the interest of accurate information here, you don't have to degrease anything! I've personally done piles of frames. When you have a fire hose of compressed sand it takes a couple seconds longer to remove a bunch of grease but not any meaningful amount of time. If you are using a small blast booth the reason for a degrease is so the sand can be re-used. Greasy sand gets thrown out as it clumps. A proper blasting facility is using sand towers and not a tiny blast booth. A frame takes 5-10 mins. Fake info being spread here.

Regarding any cracks - I don't think I'd be able to tell based on flaking paint because the stock paint is flaking off in many areas. I am going to do a thorough inspection anyway.

I actually wanted to get this painted, so that I could more easily match the color when having the tank and side panels painted. However my local painter said that powdercoat was the way to go and he can pretty closely match his paint mixture to the powder anyway.

I do like the idea of zinc coating the frame to get inside where the paint won't touch. I was surprised to find the inside of the subframe tubes look great still. It appears that most of the rest of the frame is sealed so no water could get in.

tacky1, I contacted west coast and the guy sounds very knowledgeable. He said he has done many many motorcycle frames and remembered yours in particular. Quoted me $250.

Hes a great guy, He does fantastic work, I have probably done roughly 9/10 bike frames and parts with him and never a prob, AJ is his name, Hes a bit of a bike nut :)