My rides

My 1982 IT465, right after I bought it.....
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The 465 after a bit of work, and just before I sold it last year.

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My 1980 XR250 the day I bought it this year



The 250 as it sits in my shop today, Dec 2010

i like the old stuff, my bro in law has a 81' XL250. its not in that good of shape.

wow clean!!!

Yep, the XR is clean...Everything works, and there's not even a rip in the seat.!
Gonna work on it thru the winter. Needs brakes front and back. Also needs a muffler. The original one on it has blown a hole through on the underside and is basically falling apart.
Gonna try and find a front tire for it too. The one on it at the moment is more street orientated and is pretty useless on grass / dirt. My selection is pretty limited though as it's 23" diameter.

[b]Great job on the old bikes. I used to have a 1984 XR250 but I dont have any pictures from back in the day! How did you get the plastics on the Yamaha in such good shape again?

As you can see from the first pic of the IT, the plastics were very weathered, and had actually oxidized. If you ran your fingernail across the plastic, stuff resembling baby powder flaked off.
I considered buying a whole plastic kit from DC plastics, but the plastic on the bike didn't have any cracks or breaks so I decided to have a go "restoring" it.

I sanded all the plastic with sandpaper, from rough to smooth and finished up with wire wool. The original color (Which I love) "almost came back. The plastics were very patchy. The oxidation was deep in places. So I decided on a respray.

I used rattle can Krylon Fusion in Patriot Blue (Walmart, Ace Hardware) .....I thought this blue looked "Yamaha" Pretty straight forward as the fusion paint is designed for plastic. After painting I did all the plastics with good old furniture polish to seal it.......

I also used the Krylon Fusion on the XR too, as all the plastic was weathered too, except the tank of course, which is metal.
I would highly recommened the paint to anyone that has plastic to paint.

It is fast to do.....In the pic of the XR (The day I bought it) It didn't look like that.! So I spent 2 hours roughing up the plastic and washing it, before hitting it with Krylon and furniture polish for that photo.
The yellow and black "striping" on the side panels is electrical tape.

All in all the fusion paint is excellent. As long as the plastic is roughed up and spotlessly clean. Also recommend getting the paint and plastic warm before doing it.
I was delightd with the final result on the IT.......If it weren't for the drum brakes it looked like a newer bike than an 82.......Recovered the seat myself and stuck on a new DG silencer from Dirtoverstock.com

Great job on restoring those plastics, and some great tips for doing it. Nice when you can do a budget DYI job and get some excellent results!

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
... I'm HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YOU GUYS ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FREE and clean, Ripp'n