Standard RZ - '83 no longer modified with RGV, Brembo, Zeel & other parts

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JonW
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Re: Modifed RZ - '83 with RGV, Brembo, Zeel & other parts

#511 Post by JonW » Fri Jun 05, 2015 1:16 am

yeah, well I wish! I do love these bikes :)
Thats always the problem when you get excited to build something and then get newer parts later, its one of the reasons my builds are so slow as i try to change as much as possible the first time round, tho its not always easy or affordable to do it. If you read the F1 build thread, very little of that bike is the original :/

LOL, well its wont be allwight, alright? LOL. only when it snows... which it wont here. There will be colour on the decals :) Tho I did fancy doing a black and white version to be different, in the end sense ruled that out of course...
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

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Re: Modifed RZ - '83 with RGV, Brembo, Zeel & other parts

#512 Post by JonW » Fri Dec 18, 2015 3:27 am

For a more readable version of my progress on this build, click here to view it on the 2smoked.com website :

http://2smoked.com/Yamaha_RZ350_RD350_Y ... inued.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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

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Re: Modifed RZ - '83 with RGV, Brembo, Zeel & other parts

#513 Post by JonW » Wed Aug 03, 2016 11:10 pm

I dont post much about this bike as Ive been concentrating on the other projects for a bit, but I got the cylinders back for the reborer yesterday and he said he was happy with the quality of the Cruzin Image pistons, said they seemed good for the price. Sure they arent Woser/Wiseco or anything like that but compared to ProX and the like they seem pretty 'on par' to me.

Cleaned up the threads, scraped and pulled the last of the exhaust/inlet gaskets and dressed the inlets flat, including the raised thread ends pulled by some previous oaf; anything to get a good seal in this area - will vac/pressure test this motor anyway of course.
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

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Re: Modifed RZ - '83 with RGV, Brembo, Zeel & other parts

#514 Post by JonW » Mon Feb 27, 2017 9:20 pm

Since this project is one thats firmly set in the future, things can change a bit over time... time and time again... so Ive always been keeping my options open.

One of the things thats always been an option on this bike is the dash. One plan was to use the R1 dash, another was to use a TDM dash and another was an N model dash which is like the TZR unit.

Its the last of those options I've been working on more recently as I had access to powdercoating equipment with a nice semi wrinkle satin finish which for what I wanted was perfect for this dash as it was a resto-mod project in its own right with trashed paint, no printed legends and was twisted. This was fitted with new decals from Simon5 of course, I don't think that anyone else does them. The plastic rear cover had broken mounts which I remade by plastic welding in new washer shaped pieces and tidying up. The clocks were chosen from the best of what I had in my spares and refurbished as required, including cleaning the dials and glasses, then repainting the tacho needle. These were fitted to the dash plate with some NOS cushions I found a few years back, they were hard to find then, now that would be just impossible of course...

So, yes this little project has been on the back burner for a while LOL! I just need to find the 4 top hat rubber grommets for the back nuts and this is done... will I use it? Dunno, but I have it now so I can if i want! :)

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

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Re: Modifed RZ - '83 with RGV, Brembo, Zeel & other parts

#515 Post by hondaror » Tue Feb 28, 2017 5:43 am

Nice work Jon.
Rory
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Re: Modifed RZ - '83 with RGV, Brembo, Zeel & other parts

#516 Post by JonW » Tue Feb 28, 2017 8:36 am

Thanks m8
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

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Re: Modifed RZ - '83 with RGV, Brembo, Zeel & other parts

#517 Post by 75RD350rider » Tue Feb 28, 2017 11:58 am

Very nice work!!!
I love the smell of Blue Marble in the morning!
Tim Steele in Front Royal, VA

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Re: Modifed RZ - '83 with RGV, Brembo, Zeel & other parts

#518 Post by JonW » Tue Feb 28, 2017 8:11 pm

Thanks, its very enjoyable to complete little projects like this and then squirrel them away for later :)
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

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Re: Modifed RZ - '83 with RGV, Brembo, Zeel & other parts

#519 Post by JonW » Wed Jun 07, 2017 10:32 pm

The indecision about this project continues...

I realised the other day that this could well be my most ready to ride bike... {noise of needle hastily removed from record!} "What?!" you ask... and you're right...

With the bodywork mostly painted even tho this bike has a rusty looking frame and engine in pieces and its basically living in boxes, I could in a day or so build it into a runner, not least as it has good tyres, suspension and rebuilt brakes, dash(es!) etc etc... Ok it would take longer as Id have to paint/powder the frame and other parts, but you get my drift...

The problem is that I would be better registering it standard bike under the new historic registration system as its much cheaper than the normal rego here, but I cant do that with the RGV front and rear mods. They only accept 'in the day' mods. hmm... So with that in mind Ive been looking at fitting OEM forks, wheels, swinger, brakes etc etc. I had a bit of a score this week when I bought what was sold as a front end for an 83, only it turned out to be LC not 83. Tho the wheel and brakes were right, so it wasn't wasted and I'll sell on the forks. Ok, I do have a set of 83 forks, but they need to be re-chromed, I can do that like I did to the LC forks, but Id rather not if i could find a good set as thats the cheaper way. hmm...

The next task was to pull out the rear suspension parts and I found that the smaller H-arm collar is now NLA (see seperate thread in the wanted section for more on that). Other parts are NLA as well, but by buying from norbo and yamaha I would be able to make that work... so as long as I find a solution to the H-arm collar and refurb some dogbones (LB and I have been 'working' - term used very very loosely - on that problem for years) i could get that working. Id still need to sort a shock of course, and I realised the other day that I dont have a rear brake for an 83, I did have one but sold it to a local guy who needed one. damn.

I also dont have an early dash... but the chances of finding one of those is very very slim I know now. :/

So... My excitement that i could have a working bike quickly to ride this summer may have been tempered by the mounting cost of refurbishing and sourcing missing parts... damn. :(
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

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Re: Modifed RZ - '83 with RGV, Brembo, Zeel & other parts

#520 Post by JonW » Fri Jul 07, 2017 1:05 am

PLEASE NOTE:

And then in July 2017 Photobucket came and fucked it all up for everyone...

This build started off with Imageshack hosting the photos, they got greedy and while they continued to host the photos for a while I moved to Photobucket and all was great with the world until they decided we needed to pay $399/yr to post our pics across the net.

So, Thanks photobucket, you trashed this thread and thousands (more like millions!) of other around the world.

IF YOU WANT TO READ THIS THREAD WITH THE PHOTOS AND MY REHASHED TEXTS (BUT NOT THE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON THE THREAD), HAVE A LOOK AT MY WEBSITE, 2SMOKED.COM.

-------
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

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Re: Modifed RZ - '83 with RGV, Brembo, Zeel & other parts

#521 Post by JonW » Mon Aug 07, 2017 2:23 am

Ok, with the photobucket thing killing my desire to post about my projects I've been somewhat quiet, like a lot of people I think we felt betrayed by Photobucket, like our hard work had been lost by a program crash or something. But just like horses, surviving the internet means getting back up into the saddle and I've been getting a few PMs asking whats going on as I've been offline. Thanks guys thats very kind of you and has given me a bit of a kick to get back on the horse...

So, as it seems a hardcore bunch of readers are still interested in what im up to with my projects I should do some updates, the internet is for sharing for free in my eyes and those who are interested shouldn't suffer just cos of Photobucket's greed of course. So here ya go... pics hosted on my own site, FU Pb!

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Well... I said Id never build a set of these clocks, but... I’ve said a lot of things like that as my mates tend to remind me of, yeah... never say ‘never’...

Really I just don’t like these brittle very ‘of their era’ clocks, but I’d decided that my first iteration of this lil’ bike will be “OEM’ish” and these clocks rarely come up for sale in Aus, especially locally, so I grabbed ‘em... Were they perfect? well no... Of course not! They are missing the ignition surround and the reset button obviously, but less obvious to me as I don’t know these units, was the missing bracket tho I did notice the faded dial on the speedo. Still at the price and location I couldnt say no :)

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It was dirty, but I can clean.... And of course no reset button... Yet still available new from Yamaha bizarrely... Tho very expensive for a small bit of plastic :smt012

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And its missing the ignition surround, ok, its not so bad cos its been cleanly removed, surgically actually, but it would be nice to find one from a trashed top cover to cut out and weld in, or at least make a mold from and create a new one. Anyone got one?

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I started by locating a bracket.... in Slovenia! gotta love the modern world.

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Next I scored a button more locally just 1000km away in Melbourne and proceeded to think all I needed to do was give them a good clean and they would be done. But I immediately hit a snag, on closer inspection the clocks themselves just didn’t sit level as the inner white part of the plastic has been badly repaired and was out of whack. With the top off it was obvious that the speedo was from a different bike as its much worse condition than the tacho and temp gauges. I reckon the bike got dropped, smashed the clocks, writing off the top middle and bottom plastics and taking out the speedometer in the process. They replaced the top and bottom cases with better ones and plastic welded up the inner part, then put in a spare speedo. Ok, it’s not terrible, and probably would be ok in normal use as you’d perhaps not notice the gentle tilt to the speedo as you don’t look that closely at the instruments within the housing, but, well... It’s not right...

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When the bracket turned up I went to fit it and ran into a problem, one of the posts that hold that bracket was missing! This wasn’t immediately obvious as the DPO had plastic welded over the gap where it had been torn out so I didn’t realise it was gone. It seems these inners are made of a brittle/hard plastic and in a crash the studs are ripped from the plastic. Wow!

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I started searching for a better white inner. A few weeks went on with no luck and the I scored one from a local mate, thanks Jason! While this one didn’t have the DPOs awful wonky repair it did have both of the studs ripped out, but without the poor repairs this was a much better place to start for sure. My mate thought I was mad, he was about to put it in the trash as it was broken without the studs and the attendant starburst cracks from the effort required to forcibly remove the studs. A happy save on both our parts I think, he got rid and I got an arguably better inner.

As an aside, this beauty is what a NOS one looks like, a man can dream LOL!
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Obviously im not buying one like that, I’ve no budget for it... I will repair mine. Luckily Yamaha and its part suppliers doesn’t stray too far from the parts bin when they create new products so I found that the LC has the same size and shape of studs on it’s clocks so spares were cut from the bottom of an old damaged tacho body, cleaned up and plastic welded in using the bracket and the actual damaged hole as locating ‘jigs’ with strips cut from the other dash inner to ensure the same type and colour plastic was used. Interestingly the plastic on the LC parts is different, so not useful for filler rod.

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And cleaned up:
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Last bit of the plastic puzzle was to fix the broken off posts on the top cover. As delivered only 2 of the 4 screws have anything to screw into and one of those just spins. A closer look revealed why:

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One of these was glued back together with Wurth’s Replast as these parts are black so I can use the kit I have, the other was rebuilt with a rod I had that I think came in some shoes my wife bought, haha.

Next up I started to get picky. I decided that will all this work I should tidy up the speedometer. This dial and needle were faded compared to the rest of the instruments, obviously when the bike was crashed the speedo was comprehensively trashed (the damage to the plastic dash inner tells the story!) and they sourced another from another more heavily used bike hence the black paint fading/chalking.

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While chatting to another mate in the UK about these instrument clusters he offered me a better dial from his stock of European clocks that was converting to miles and selling. Perfect! It landed and really it’s mint, wow! Thanks Steve, your help is truly appreciated.

Taking his advice I popped the needle off with a couple of spoons after marking the place on the dial here the needle rests below the stop and redid the orange line on the back. The lines are painted from the back and fade in the sun, leaving just the white basecoat, which is why they look silvery-white when old as you’re looking at the basecoat through the clear plastic needle. This is a fiddly job and not for the feint of heart. Removing the needles is scary and the painting is very detailed and meticulous. The initial orange was very bright so I toned it down with some black behind it, this is the opposite to the usual thing with fluro colours where you basecoat in white to make the colour ‘pop’ better. This had the desired effect and while none of these needles match eachother exactly, they are at least now all orange retaining more of the OEM look. A quick repaint of the screws finished the aesthetics.

Sadly with the dial off I could see that the replacement speedo hadn’t escaped the bodger PO... Sigh. Obviously he had reset the kilometers and during that process he’d bent the cage that holds the rollers and left the locating ‘tangs’ (like forks) above the steel edge, not either side, and also broken one off. Idiot. These were gently put back into place, and while the numbers don’t line up as well as I’d like this is much better than they were.

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A final clean up and assembly and its back together.

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So with all the repairs done this has been a labour of love. Its taken parts and lots of effort, but I think having it done is a reward in itself. In fact I’m quite proud of it. I wish I had an ignition surround, but all my attempts were foiled to fine one from a smashed top sadly, if anyone does have one and wants to part with it Id love to hear from you :)
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

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Re: Modifed RZ - '83 with RGV, Brembo, Zeel & other parts

#522 Post by kpke » Mon Aug 07, 2017 12:04 pm

Wow! Great work Jon as usual and nice write up. That is a lot of effort going into that assembly. You are really good at this stuff. :smt023

I am still suffering mentally from the photobucket debacle and don't necessarily want to start up with a new host. I wonder if, when you have a few moments, you could outline the process of posting pics from your own site.

I still think the answer to all of this photo posting/hosting business is to have and own your own damn website like you do. And post/host photos there…forever. :smt045

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Re: Modifed RZ - '83 with RGV, Brembo, Zeel & other parts

#523 Post by JonW » Mon Aug 07, 2017 11:53 pm

Thanks m8!

Well I just uploaded them to a folder I made named Photos and then you just link them, for me the link is 2smoked.com/photos/{name of photo}.jpg and when copied into an post I have to add the start [] and finish [/] IMG tags on either side of that. its more work but im not reliant on any one other than myself now.
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

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Re: Modifed RZ - '83 with RGV, Brembo, Zeel & other parts

#524 Post by South_Oz » Tue Aug 08, 2017 7:39 am

Fantastic work as usual Jon. Ive got some gauge bits in the shed, ill have a look whats there next time I venture out there.

Dave
RZ 250 85 (Waiting)
RZ 250 85 (Parts)
RGV VJ21 250, Australian Speed Record Holder, MPS/G 250, 140.5 MPH
BMW R1100S 99 (Its Red)
BMW R1200GS (Its BIG)


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JonW
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Re: Modifed RZ - '83 with RGV, Brembo, Zeel & other parts

#525 Post by JonW » Tue Aug 08, 2017 9:09 am

Thanks for the kind words Dave and also for looking in the shed.
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

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