Admitting defeat - looking for an enthusiastic mechanic

[Gavin]

As some of you know, I have 3 RZ bikes, 250, 350, and 500, none of which are running or getting any use, and it’s looking unlikely to change anytime soon unless I get creative.

My proposal is this:
I’m looking for someone to come and finish the 250 and 500 for me. Preferably someone from the forum, although I’ll look further afield if no takers. I’d like to get both bikes blue slip and registration worthy. In return I am offering the RZ350 as is (worth an estimated $2k - $3k)

For clarification
I’ll pay for all the parts needed. I’m looking to hire your labour / skills
The 250 and 500 should be running and road worthy.
The job includes removing rust from a useable fuel tank.
The job doesn’t require any body work repairs, decals, or paint. I’ll cover that.
The 350 was a 1GA RZ250 in a former life. The previous owner converted it to a 350 for track use.

If you are interested we can talk details over a coffee one weekend.
PM me and we’ll take it from there.

This might be a challenge or money for jam. Just thought I’d put it out there.
I simply don’t have anymore time left for this and I’d much rather lose a bike and have the other 2 running. Bird in the hand…

Cheers
Gavin

[Greasemeup]

Better put a location on g...


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[hybrid]

Do you have any pics in their current state?

[Gavin]

Pics to follow. Bikes are in a well equipped workshop in Marrickville, but can be moved if it's a deal breaker. The 500 engine has been restored and is complete. The 250 engine in stripped down with split cases, recon crank, and ready for rebuild with all new seals and gaskets.

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[BRG1200]

Good on you for putting it out there.
One in the hand is worth two in a tight blouse

[JonW]

Sorry to hear youve run out of time Gavin. Its always a problem with doing projects, you either have time or money, never both together... and doing more than one project always makes things worse by a factor 10 for each project it seems.

Looking for an enthusiast is a good idea, they should know more about what theyre doing with said model and cost less than a pro shop, but that also means no insurance or warranty and I guess things need to be well tied down in some form of contract as well. hence the coffee chat I guess. fair call. Youd also want to see the work of the supplier as well, and set a time frame, just saying

As everyone here knows, getting a broken down old bike ready for rego is never easy and almost everything will need doing, doing a full restoration is the best way, but that means a lot of parts (many are supplied in this case of course) and a vast amount of hours as well, on top of those find the other parts needed and then waiting for the parts to arrive. Im interested to see how this works out for this deal, I have at times considered setting up a small restoration shop but the hourly rate vs the hours spent is always the killer with any resto, its why so many places love to do service work, you get paid the same day. I did some work with a mate who runs a car place recently, I was shocked at how many hours you often give for free on jobs due to problems as you go along, the big shops have the same issues we smaller restorers do it seems. Thats probably ok on small tasks but they add up on big jobs. That said, if you get stuck Gavin I know of a place that might take on some piece work (ie smaller jobs) for an hourly rate to get you past some of the hard stuff and feel like youre making progress. Not me before you all grumble, ive been told over the years that im too expensive, but I did recently work 5 hours for free for one of my very good mates at his local shop to fit some aftermarket RGV bodywork and it was a total nightmare cos of the poor parts and the thing just looked awful when done and needed another 5 -10 hours work to make it fit properly, I told the shop not to charge for the job and to leave my name out of it, never again LOL

Ok, Ive rambled a bit but my advice would be to focus on one bike and get that done, then take some time with the other one. Sell the 350 that you dont want to pay for the first bikes work. My suggestion is to get the 250 done, is an easy bike to complete from where you are now and plenty of guys here might help you rebuild the motor into a single piece for a case of beer one evening if youve all the parts ready to go. That or fund someones time for a day to do that and give you chapter an verse on the rest of the 250 so you know what you need to do to move forward, a few of us know these bikes inside and out and will spot most of whats missing or trashed of you lay it out and may even know where to locate better parts or have them fixed. Grab a whiteboard and a note pad and be inspired. Ive done this a few times with a few of my mates and its helped them focus and move forward I think. some of them sold their bikes after, but i dont think was my fault lol... im joking, of course but a reality check sometimes isnt always gentle sadly. Anyway some of that advice is in this post, focus is the key...

Anyway, keen to see how this works Gavin, hope you get back on the road soon.

[hybrid]

I helped "Blue" get his nice air cooled running and never heard from him again. I reckon he might have sold it

[Gavin]

Thanks for the responses guys. Feel free to pass the offer on to anyone else you know. See where it leads...

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[L.B.]

Ah the white board does help to keep things on track.
Id be tempted to do the 250,been a long time last time i worked on 500 tho.
But then again i got a fricken fonda to finish first,then the rzr & one of the lc's......

[JonW]

Rang a mate who might have done some/all of the work for you Gavin but he is a pro and suggested it was a surefire way to an expensive rebuild; he asked me how many hours I had into my F1, what it cost in parts/services/postage/etc and what it was worth when completed... then said he rested his case. I remember someone offering me $12k for my LC421 and $15k for my XT. The hourly rate would not have been pleasant at what seems to many to be quite a lot of money for those bikes, but they are modded which takes forever as anyone whos done that knows, but that’s also with scouring the world for parts deals rather than just buying everything from my local dealer etc, something only an enthusiast would do as no shop can charge hours for surfing ebay/google/talking to suppliers and contacts for parts. He said that when these RZs are worth $20-25k (the 500 isnt far off, but the 250 takes the same amount of time and effort to build of course) you (he meant me I think LOL) can start a resto business doing them... So long as one can find enough people who have the cash and love them, until then he thinks people would just buy modern bikes or DIY rebuild as many of us do.

Anyway, sadly I’ve failed to help with the contacts I have, but like I said I reckon you can get this done like any good project... youre an IT guy I think Gavin, like a few of us on here, and a bike is like a good elephant[1], you eat them a bite at a time. If you want to farm out bigger bites for cash Im sure you can get takers, however my feeling is that a whole project (especially 2 of them) is daunting for 99% of amateur restorers, not many have the knowledge, capacity or time... And if they do they would be basically pros too and many of them want to be paid in cash as the time taken will not be slight, just sayin. All that said, on the Facebook pages there are a bunch of guys who seem to restore bike fast and they still looked well done, weve even had a few post here, and you might seek those guys out perhaps by searching the forums.

Now what might make it more interesting is if you offered the 500 as the payment to have the 250 built with an option to mod the 350 later depending on how the 250 build went. I reckon you might get a few more takers then

In the meantime, stick up some pics Gavin so people can see what your dealing with...

[1] Cue project guys sagely nodding heads

[hybrid]

Yes I have been thinking about this a bit.
It also depends on the standard you want it.
Just getting it road register-able is completely different to the perfect machines that some guys build that I would end up being too scared to ride in case they got dirty!

[JonW]

Too true Jeff, eg to restore an RZ wheel for me takes a full day to remove the nicks and scratches, polish the rim, remove the old paint, mask up and repaint, then fit new bearings and rebuild. Getting tyres fitted is a few more hours of traffic and messing about. You wouldnt want someone to charge you $50-100/hr and then spend 2 days on your wheels LOL But... Anyone who says they can do it quicker is kidding themselves, even if youre doing other tasks on the same build the old paint needs to come off which takes ages with modern strippers, new paint needs to dry and you can only mask and unmask so fast and sanding/polishing thru the grits takes a lot of time to do properly plus its knackering even with the right tools. There was a guy who would polish a rim for $80, but I think hes dead now, still he must have had some great mechanical polishers and not taken all the imperfections out first and you still needed to do the painting. But, ignore the paint and polish and fitting new bearings and seals is 30mins work if it all comes apart as you want... Tho ive just spent 30mins getting the cush drive bearing out of an LC350 wheel, should have been a 2min job, but has been in a while lol. now ive got to wait for it cool down lol.

Anyway Jeff Ive seen your Mustang, not a spec of dirt on it....

[Gavin]

Some pics which I may have already posted in other threads but are here for easy access.
The 250:


and how it should look



The 350:


and the 500 rolling frame with engine mounted and new loom

[L.B.]

Not to mention money......will take alot of it to finish both bikes.
Im lucky with the Honda build,whenever I need money for parts he's there the next day with ponies in pocket which makes things so much easier.
But Jon is right & anyone thats done any sort of restore work ( I hate rims lol) will know what he means.....hows your fingers going Jon lol.

[Gavin]

Over in the restoration thread I've got the engine back in and will fill up the fluids on Monday. All electrical tested ok. Now looking for someone who does fairings and tanks.

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