Some cool old cars

[Chevynut73]

Heck yeah 

[jeremy.farlow]

Spotted this well-kept C/30 in Prescott, Arizona:


The paint was in AWESOME shape, the whole truck was quite nice.




Be safe


Jeremy

[Mr Diesel]

Very nice truck. I'm a sucker for duallys.

[jeremy.farlow]

It's not a car, but I'm finishing this project up this week:








I was two when this motorcycle was released. I bought this one particular one in 2011... for $1k.

It's a lot better than any RZ 350 that ever came out of the Yamaha factory, but with the exception of the Toomey expansion chambers and a few custom pieces I added, it is 100% Yamaha... just not RZ 350 Yamaha.

The entire front end, minus top triple-clamp is FJ 600. Rear wheel is FJ 600. Swingarm is FZ 600. Top triple clamp came from a Yamaha XJ 650. Rear shock is a (then) late model (2000's) YZ item.

My dad was working for the company when this model released. When I was a kid Yamaha seemed the best employer possible. Dad could buy anything the company produced... AT COST!!! We had the most great stereos possible... dad had a succession of literally every model Yamaha he cared to in the early 80's. And he had access to the warehouse. My RZ pays homage to what I grew up with... the motorcycles Yamaha **COULD** have built out of their own parts catalogue.

The EPA mandated street-going two-cycles away in 1985, but Yamaha could have built this bike in 1987 or 1988. Had the government complied.

It's going on the block soon.




Be Safe



Jeremy

[zieg85]

I can attest to the Yamaha audio.  My first higher end gear was harmon Kardon.  When the controls and switches when bad I switched to Yamaha.  I have had many receivers and luckily I found them used and never lost any money on them to get where I am now.  I just wish they offered a high end RX-V unit that did both analog with HDMI. 

[JohnnyPopper]

That's a really cool story Jeremy. I got into the A/V industry in the 80's, Yamaha was not my go-to but held a formidable place in the industry.

I always wondered why the gubmit quashed the 2 stroke down to 50 cc's, must have been all that fragrant blue smoke...

I wonder how many peeps understand the science behind the expansion chambers...?

I've recently seen older Saab inline 3 cylinder 2 strokes on auction, wondering how much more bad they could have been with expansion chambered exhaust.

I guess the space requirement/engineering was the real challenge.

[jeremy.farlow]

Look at a modern, high-performance snowmobile some time... works of art!!

I am far from a two-stroke guru, much as I like the idea of building myself a set of expansion chambers, I know well enough that I *MIGHT* be able to pull off the execution given someone else's patterns... building a proper-functioning expansion chamber system tuned for the engine is FAR beyond my capabilities. The cutting, fitting and welding of someone else's design would tax my skills.

My understanding is that, in effect, a properly designed expansion chamber system will create a "tuned resonance"... effectively modulating the exhaust back-pressure to make the most out of the engine. The shape and distance from the exhaust port, of the pipe is highly important... even before you make it fit the chassis.

Mix in an amount of pure wizardry to make the whole package work... and you'll get a ring-dingey thing that makes power where you need it to... "comes on the pipe" as they used to say... Four-strokes come on the cam. 

The RZ needs to leave before this one, but I've also got this thing in the shop:




This is a friend on mines. It is the original(?) EMPI kit... predecessor to the famous Meyers Manx kit. VW Bug-based... this one with some interesting provenance: originally owned by Gene Berg, of VW fame, himself. My dude has the original California pink slips to prove so. Gene Berg had a VW Beetle shifter and did a lot of the early hot-rodding for those cars.

Apparently there were a few ways to buy the original kit. Released in 1963, the end client could buy a painted, running car. Or the assembled tub and "roll their own"... or the panels in a crate, formed... or finally, the kit could be purchased flat-packed, like an IKEA shelf... and the end user had to form, fit, fasten and weld the whole affair together. I'm pretty sure it could be put together without welding, but it it seems the folks at Gene Berg Enterprises had themselves an early wire-feeder:


As well as someone on the payroll who claimed they could weld...

My buddy likes the "patina", so I'm just doing the cage-work to make it slightly death-trappey. Mounting up some vintage Porsche seats as well.

It seems Tapatalk has me throttled on pictures to a post, so to be continued:

[JohnnyPopper]

Not an expert on expansion chambers, just know that the science behind the concept is nothing short of genius.

Basically pick your power/rpm range and build your pipe, right?

I still have my '89 Yamaha YZ250WR, haven't ridden her in over 15 years. Bought a aftermarket pipe, and boy, what a difference!!

While in the throws of competition, used to really tork the minds of like 250's that I could walk away from at top speeds. WR was a concept that escaped many at the time.

I should pry dig her out and go for one last ride. Any takers in SoCal?

[jeremy.farlow]

I cannot remember which way it went... either YZ engine in a WR-chassis to make the IT, or YZ motor in an IT chassis to make a WR... but dad got credited with building such a thing based on the YZ 490 engine in 1984...

That was how it was at the Yamaha east coast division in the 80's... grab your calipers and head down to the warehouse and see what you can make fit.

It wasn't the most honest thing he's ever done, but dad still has a pre-production FJ 1100 he "liberated"... the deal was that the factory would let certain employees test new models and give the company feedback. The company would apply for a temporary registration and when it was up, the employee was to "destroy" the motorcycle and send the evidence back to Yamaha Japan.

"Destroying" the bike meant cutting the frame with its preproduction VIN and smashing the case halves to get that VIN and put them in an envelope to Japan...

Well dad really... REALLY liked that FJ. When the call came in to destroy the bike he did as he was told... mostly. He had access to the YMUS school and all of its tooling... including the number and letter stamps just like they used in Japan. So he went a the cheapest replacement case half he could, punched it with the preproduction VIN. He did have to cut his frame, so he waited until someone foolish enough to campaign such a heavy bike wadded one up. Happened at turn one at Road Atlanta sometime around 1986. He's not clear if he straightened that frame or just cut the frame numbers out and welded them back in, but he had his FJ, free and clear.

Like my RZ, very little of the original FJ running gear remains. Most of it was later model FZ 1000 stuff, I think the top triple came off a TDM 850, with handlebar mounts. All of this done with parts either outright stolen from the factory or bought at cost.

Tapatalk wouldn't let me upload these pictures last night, here's the project that will take the place of the EMPI dune buggy when it's done. The missus got herself a Porsche:


We're gonna stick an LS in it. We have *most* of it in hand... I'm sure what we're missing won't be cheap to source, but I was super glad when she didn't take any convincing to NOT put a Porsche engine back in it.




Jeremy

[JohnnyPopper]

More great stories...

I owned that 356 for about 20 years, knew peeps that had your same model, they swore by that car, never drove one.

The WR I bought from a local dealer whose custom was to take a new bike each year and let the parts manager trick it out with all the fun aftermarket gear. He would ride it for a few months and sell it with a warranty. Lucky me.

IT (International Trials) came before YZ (no idea what it means) WR stood for wide ratio transmission. Lower 1st, taller 5th, ergo pulling away from identical standard bikes. The lower 1st made technical stuff a breeze while standards were burning up their clutches 

[jeremy.farlow]

There was a suspension difference on the WR chassis. I do believe you are most likely correct that WR stands for "wide ratio", but it was also more oriented towards trail riding. I'm guessing what dad did was stick the YZ 490 engine in the IT chassis and that's what became the WR.

At least the way dad tells the story that was HIS intent. He was trail riding mostly. He liked the engine of the "widow-maker" big YZ, but didn't need the motocross suspension. Didn't want it.

One of the earliest pictures of me standing is me, barely head-height to the peg of dad's first YZ 490... in the world color yellow and blue. I'm 6' 3" and dad might have once stood 6' 4". But still the big YZ was too big for anything tight.



Jeremy