My RZ250 that will be a 350....

Got a customizing or restoration project? Discuss it here

Moderator: rztom

Message
Author
User avatar
JonW
Posts: 10599
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2009 4:33 am
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: My RZ250 that will be a 350....

#766 Post by JonW » Sun Jul 09, 2017 9:39 am

Yeah it really sucks Dave, i'll need to find another hoster I guess, but for now I'll just update my 2smoked site and maybe host my own pics, ive not decided yet :(
80 XT500 Supermoto!
81 RD350LC Resto
82 RD421LC Hybrid
82 RD350LC decapitation project
82 RD250LC JDM '251LC' YPVS
83 RZ350 Resto
84 RZ500 Resto
85 RZ350 F1 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Hybrid

Like Watches? www.PloProf.com & www.DeskDivers.com

User avatar
JonW
Posts: 10599
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2009 4:33 am
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: My RZ250 that will be a 350....

#767 Post by JonW » Mon Mar 19, 2018 8:59 pm

Not much news to report on this project, its sat in the corner of my garage awaiting paint of course, Im hoping I'll find a painter I like when I do the LC. Im not paying over $3k (the quote was more) to paint this bike. Thats stupid.

Anyway, Ive mentioned how much I hate restoring monoshock linkages, the number of parts needed and the fact theyre always dirty, flogged out and then hard (and expensive) to buy. Running a close second are full fairings. These had many special bolts, clips and washers and often special grommets as well. With the most recent set of plating I finally got the green finish on the nut plates that I wanted, many of which were new from Yamaha and only now come in silver. I also went right through all my bolts and found a few useful special bolts, including a set that hold on the mirrors which are now NLA. Now theyre green and look like new of course.

I already had the edge strips, foam panels and other parts so with just a few more of the decorative special bolts for the mid and lower panels I should finally have all the parts for the fairing. More of a feat than you might think.

So, while this project hasnt moved as such, its at least moved on a little...
80 XT500 Supermoto!
81 RD350LC Resto
82 RD421LC Hybrid
82 RD350LC decapitation project
82 RD250LC JDM '251LC' YPVS
83 RZ350 Resto
84 RZ500 Resto
85 RZ350 F1 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Hybrid

Like Watches? www.PloProf.com & www.DeskDivers.com

User avatar
JonW
Posts: 10599
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2009 4:33 am
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: My RZ250 that will be a 350....

#768 Post by JonW » Wed Nov 28, 2018 10:41 pm

I finally got round to doing some work on this one...

- Ive been slowly updating this bike with rezinc'd fasters from my stash to improve the quality of the restoration, removing the stainless etc.

- Ive also been trying to go back to the standard CDI and PV controller, but that failed as my pv controller is stuffed, sigh. Anyone have an 85 PV controller they dont need?

- I also rebuilt the seat. In fact I did two while i was at it.

I fitted covers that I had bought ages back, one for this bike and one for the LC2 resto. I actually now have 3 nice seats for these two bikes as I have a nos seat as well.. hmm... I guess one day I'll sell one of these lol

So, seat totally stripped. Base cleaned fully in parts washer with Ozzy Juice, they come u almost like new. Best of my stacks of foams raided and then a new cover and rezinc'd latches and nuts fitted.
80 XT500 Supermoto!
81 RD350LC Resto
82 RD421LC Hybrid
82 RD350LC decapitation project
82 RD250LC JDM '251LC' YPVS
83 RZ350 Resto
84 RZ500 Resto
85 RZ350 F1 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Hybrid

Like Watches? www.PloProf.com & www.DeskDivers.com

User avatar
JonW
Posts: 10599
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2009 4:33 am
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: My RZ250 that will be a 350....

#769 Post by JonW » Wed Dec 12, 2018 4:38 am

Borrowed a spare YPVS controller from another bike, and yes my one is stuffed. Sigh... Still looking if anyone has one...

This week I dropped the oil and water and fitted a rezinc'd clutch arm. A lot of work for that arm, but this follows my rolling plan of upgrading parts as and when. I also fitted one of my stash of restored kick starters as well.

This is the controller I need if anyone has one?

Circuit board numbered 34x-85841

Image

Image

Image

Image
80 XT500 Supermoto!
81 RD350LC Resto
82 RD421LC Hybrid
82 RD350LC decapitation project
82 RD250LC JDM '251LC' YPVS
83 RZ350 Resto
84 RZ500 Resto
85 RZ350 F1 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Hybrid

Like Watches? www.PloProf.com & www.DeskDivers.com

User avatar
JonW
Posts: 10599
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2009 4:33 am
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: My RZ250 that will be a 350....

#770 Post by JonW » Wed May 15, 2019 9:59 pm

Website now updated with the forum posts into a more condensed and rewritten form:
http://2smoked.com/Yamaha_1985_RZ350_YPVS_F1_Home.html
80 XT500 Supermoto!
81 RD350LC Resto
82 RD421LC Hybrid
82 RD350LC decapitation project
82 RD250LC JDM '251LC' YPVS
83 RZ350 Resto
84 RZ500 Resto
85 RZ350 F1 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Hybrid

Like Watches? www.PloProf.com & www.DeskDivers.com

User avatar
JonW
Posts: 10599
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2009 4:33 am
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: My RZ250 that will be a 350....

#771 Post by JonW » Thu May 30, 2019 2:16 am

Ive been restoring a screen for my 500 and pulled out the other screens I had as there was the one I did ages back in the box for this build. I added the 57V and number stickers and gave them all a last polish, ready for when they're needed. It's great to have these finally fully done, you can sand a polish forever on these and while its therapeutic, its quite a bit of elbow grease.

Image

Image
80 XT500 Supermoto!
81 RD350LC Resto
82 RD421LC Hybrid
82 RD350LC decapitation project
82 RD250LC JDM '251LC' YPVS
83 RZ350 Resto
84 RZ500 Resto
85 RZ350 F1 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Hybrid

Like Watches? www.PloProf.com & www.DeskDivers.com

User avatar
L.B
Posts: 2008
Joined: Sat Aug 13, 2011 9:59 am
Location: Hunter Valley,Australia
Contact:

Re: My RZ250 that will be a 350....

#772 Post by L.B » Fri Jul 19, 2019 11:53 pm

Im finding this out right now lol.

User avatar
JonW
Posts: 10599
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2009 4:33 am
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: My RZ250 that will be a 350....

#773 Post by JonW » Thu Dec 19, 2019 1:20 am

I don't very often do any work to the F1 as its pretty much a complete bike now that just needs paint, recent upgrades have seem it return to being more stock and also Ive fitted some better bolts from my stash of zinc, but the bike is a sea of stainless fasteners if I'm honest and would take a lot of work and a lot of bolts to make that element more original.

Anyway, it's back on my lift!

Image

I decided to pressure test the engine as it's been built a while now and only run a bit a few years back, plus the pipes needed to come off to fit the NOS F2 shock I bought for it. This was fitted with a NOS shock top collar and completes the fully rebuilt rear suspension. Im sure the bike will handle a lot better with it fitted rather than the original shock. Sure I've lost the adjustment with the belt (if it even worked), but i've a brand new OEM shock. Cant complain about that.

FWIW I did pull an F1 shock apart to see if I could retrofit the adjuster mechanism (as I’ve restored the parts for this bike) but it’s just not possible as the F1 shock body had a ring welded around it that the F2 shock lacks. Ahh well, it was worth a look. Had I been able to simply strip and swap the adjuster parts I would have done so. Yes that would mean I’d have 5 adjustments on the bike and 7 on the shock so I’d have lost some perhaps, but it would have been more original looking. Perhaps it’s for the best that it isnt an easy swap after all. :)


Image

Im considering painting the bodywork like I did with the garage art projects as I have some decals here that are now quite old so I may as well give them a go. I'll have the tank colour matched to the paint I use which may well just be what I used on the garage art, which looks pretty nice and everyone comments on how good that job is when they see it. We'll see... I defo cant afford to have this painted by a pro, its just OTT what that would cost, ie around A$4k here. Mad.
Last edited by JonW on Tue Jan 14, 2020 9:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
80 XT500 Supermoto!
81 RD350LC Resto
82 RD421LC Hybrid
82 RD350LC decapitation project
82 RD250LC JDM '251LC' YPVS
83 RZ350 Resto
84 RZ500 Resto
85 RZ350 F1 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Hybrid

Like Watches? www.PloProf.com & www.DeskDivers.com

User avatar
JonW
Posts: 10599
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2009 4:33 am
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: My RZ250 that will be a 350....

#774 Post by JonW » Thu Dec 19, 2019 1:59 am

Been going through my locks now that all my plating is back, sorting out ‘keyed alike’ sets for my bikes.

I started with this lot (lots of plating and powder coated parts and cleaned up locks and tumblers, plus new stickers):

Image

This is the set for the F1 and includes a rekeyed brand new OEM fuel cap as the original offset unit was rekeyed for the resto LC so this was spare.

Image
80 XT500 Supermoto!
81 RD350LC Resto
82 RD421LC Hybrid
82 RD350LC decapitation project
82 RD250LC JDM '251LC' YPVS
83 RZ350 Resto
84 RZ500 Resto
85 RZ350 F1 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Hybrid

Like Watches? www.PloProf.com & www.DeskDivers.com

User avatar
JonW
Posts: 10599
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2009 4:33 am
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: My RZ250 that will be a 350....

#775 Post by JonW » Tue Jan 14, 2020 9:55 pm

The F1 has been back on my lift for some more rework. The plan was to sort out some of the stuff I did a bunch of years back and also continue to make it a bit more OEM and also more like the quality of resto I turn out these days, while still retaining some of the better upgrades etc.

I first refurbished and fitted an original coffin shaped front master cylinder.

I’m keeping the Triumph calipers of course, but felt the Aprilia radial master was; A, too much, and B, Id prefer to use it with it’s matching Brembos on the F2 if I decide to build that as a hybrid.

I started with a full strip including pulling out the dead plastic windows and a full clean up including dipping acid to clean up any alloy corrosion, and then honed the bore with my home made ‘hone’ :)

Image

(yes that really is a bit of an old weight from a cistern with some wire wool taped to it!)

A quick powdercoat and this is how we roll

Image

Image

Image

Image

I then built them both (the other will be a spare) with new OEM rebuild kits and ebay Chinese windows which are great value for money and the same parts that other sellers retail for a lot more money.

This also meant I needed to re-create the brake switch loom as I’d removed it when doing the Aprilia Brembo setup as it had its own mini loom. I’ve half done that and will finish it when I’ve got some of the right size connectors for the brake switch.


As I’ve said I’ve been working through replacing as many of the fixings as possible with OEM since this is more of an OEM bike now and my desire for stainless on my projects has waned somewhat since I can replate, especially the socket heads as they look bulky and nowadays I feel they look ‘wrong’ on these bikes etc. At the same time I’m fitting better or rezinc’d other parts from my stash as well like steering lock buts and covers. Of course my stash is not limitless and that means I’m running low so later bikes I build will probably be back to stainless bolts. Ahh well... Anyway, as I see fixings that I can replace I do so along the way and everyday I seem to spot more and more lol.


The bike also received some love from the NOS Gods... A new clutch cover disk going on. As NOS as nos can be lol

Image

Image


As time has gone on I am now also having to fix things that have broken or been proven to be rubbish since I did this build. That includes ditching the TSS (yeah, yeah, I know!) inlet manifolds... Bear in mind these have been on the bike for a few years but its been in a garage and under a cover. Pathetic. But what can you do, cheap rubber is just plain rubbish. Yambits and others take note, these cheap rubber parts are not the same as OEM and yours are just as bad.

Image

Image

Luckily I found some usable old OEMs in my stash and they went on with some rebuilt reed cages. I built these reeds up from cleaned up old dirty cages, rezinc'd stops and new banshee reeds.

Image

Image


I’ve also pulled a few parts off this bike to be re-zinc plated so the bike has sort of gone backwards a bit until that plating is taken in, that wont be for some months yet. There was quite a few of them and they included the headlight surround parts and the brake pedal. I bought that pedal a few years back from a forumer as it was nice and green, it’s now looking a bit past its best.... Ahh time, how you do ruin things :(

I had hoped to redo the front forks with the Mike’s XS valves but I’m still waiting for the last job to be done on one of the dampers by a mate. Once that’s back I’ll redo the legs. It’s not like the building of this bike is in any hurry lol!

I also got a copy key cut on a blank I had in my stash so it now has two keys to go with its better OEM locks.

Image


However, the biggest decision was that after what I found with the manifolds I decided that the TSS seals need to some out. They’ve been in there a few years now and its not been run more than 15mins but, well... As I said the TSS, ebay (and plenty of other brands) cheapo chinese rubber parts don’t fare well. Plus on the forums we always tell newbies not to run their recent purchase that’s been sat for 5years so why would I not heed my own advice here. So next job (when I do the forks in a few months) is to pull the crank seals out of the motor and fit a set of new OEMs. The parts are cheap but of course its a big job to pull an engine but worth it for peace of mind. :)
80 XT500 Supermoto!
81 RD350LC Resto
82 RD421LC Hybrid
82 RD350LC decapitation project
82 RD250LC JDM '251LC' YPVS
83 RZ350 Resto
84 RZ500 Resto
85 RZ350 F1 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Hybrid

Like Watches? www.PloProf.com & www.DeskDivers.com

User avatar
Whymee
Posts: 685
Joined: Sat Jul 11, 2009 5:01 am
Location: West Virginia, USA

Re: My RZ250 that will be a 350....

#776 Post by Whymee » Tue Jan 14, 2020 10:25 pm

Jon,
Do you have a primer for your process of yellow zinc plating floating around somewhere? Very nice looking, BTW.
2.5 RZ350's
2018 Grom
2017 KTM 390
2017 FZ-10
1973 RT3
1974 TY250
plus many others

User avatar
JonW
Posts: 10599
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2009 4:33 am
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: My RZ250 that will be a 350....

#777 Post by JonW » Wed Jan 15, 2020 12:43 am

Ahh, sadly i just take them to my plating guy. I deliver him 3 buckets of old crappy stuff and in return get one of green, one of silver and one of gold in return a week later. Doesnt hurt that hes a really good guy and not expensive either. I would defo recommend everyone find a tame plater if you want to do restos.
80 XT500 Supermoto!
81 RD350LC Resto
82 RD421LC Hybrid
82 RD350LC decapitation project
82 RD250LC JDM '251LC' YPVS
83 RZ350 Resto
84 RZ500 Resto
85 RZ350 F1 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Hybrid

Like Watches? www.PloProf.com & www.DeskDivers.com

critchlg
Posts: 16
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2015 11:10 pm

Re: My RZ250 that will be a 350....

#778 Post by critchlg » Wed Jan 15, 2020 7:20 am

I like the drab olive on that kickstart. Mine doesn’t look like that.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

User avatar
JonW
Posts: 10599
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2009 4:33 am
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: My RZ250 that will be a 350....

#779 Post by JonW » Wed Jan 15, 2020 8:01 am

get a bunch of plating together Gavin and I'll let you know where to take it.
80 XT500 Supermoto!
81 RD350LC Resto
82 RD421LC Hybrid
82 RD350LC decapitation project
82 RD250LC JDM '251LC' YPVS
83 RZ350 Resto
84 RZ500 Resto
85 RZ350 F1 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Hybrid

Like Watches? www.PloProf.com & www.DeskDivers.com

User avatar
JonW
Posts: 10599
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2009 4:33 am
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: My RZ250 that will be a 350....

#780 Post by JonW » Thu Nov 12, 2020 11:41 pm

Finally got round to painting the panels for this bike over the months since I last posted anything on here.

All the panels needed repairs with plastic welding, wurth replast and wurth plastic filler as you can imagine. I also struggled with paint reactions along the way as well and many panels had to go back to the base plastic as it was the lifting OEM paint that was the issue. Painting stuff yourself will save you money but needs to be a labour of love, otherwise it will rip out your soul lol

Once painted they were wet sanded and more layers applied, then clear, then compounded. You cant see it here as none of the panels were completed in the pics, but all the panel paint was flat and come out very shiny when finished even with just compound, polish comes after the decals... the full 'in the sun and shiny' pic will come later lol.

These are some of the (very many) pics from the journey:

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

This week I started adding the decals:

Image

Which reminded me that the red isnt the right shade on the panels, I will probably redo the red now Ive discovered that... sigh... the white on the other hand is almost perfect as the decal set has the white parts included and they are very close to the panel white indeed.

One thing to note I finally got round to using these decals. They are 9 years old! Gulp! Painters hate you giving them old decals for a reason (see my LC2 thread on norbos forum for how 6 year old decals worked on that, hmm). Anyway, these were great quality and worked really well, even being old. Phew!

And... I still need to paint the tank... Im part way through it, primer is on...!
80 XT500 Supermoto!
81 RD350LC Resto
82 RD421LC Hybrid
82 RD350LC decapitation project
82 RD250LC JDM '251LC' YPVS
83 RZ350 Resto
84 RZ500 Resto
85 RZ350 F1 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Hybrid

Like Watches? www.PloProf.com & www.DeskDivers.com

Post Reply