Need help on a 350 GTR project

[bridgestonesforever]

 ???I have just found a 350 GTR, going to look and hopefully buy it on Wed.  What should I look for, concerning buying this machine for a project, been sitting for 25 years.
The seller is a bike trader, so I am a bit concerned.  Here in Alaska it is a long distance to most anywhere, I  live in Anchorage but this bike is 400 miles away,  so I want
to go ready to buy it.

Seller says: bike is complete less a few bits taken off to  access carbs, so I guess this means the carb covers however I am not sure, has original paint, he said ex owner
said he quit riding it because it was making a clicking sound in the engine somewhere?

If any of you guys would give a list of things to look for, I would really appreciate it  Luke

[OldSwartout]

Consider that if there is lot of rust, it will cost a lot of $$$ for re-chroming if you want to make it really nice. Light rust with only minor pitting can be cleaned up to make a good runner without spending much money, just time. The engine noise could be anything from a bad crank or broken ring to a loose nut on the end of the crankshaft or a clutch bolt backed out or broken.  See if there is oil in the oil tank on the right side and kick it over to see if both cylinders have good compression.  Anything is fixable, but it all comes down to how much time and $$$ you want to put into it.   Rubber parts are now all repro'd, I believe, and there are good seat cover replicas available from Taiwan very reasonable.  You'll be able to find carb covers used on E-Bay or maybe from someone here, but the right one is pretty rare as they get cracked by the brake lever if the bike falls over.  Good luck.

Karl

[Bridgestone Man]

Luke

The clicking sound may be coming from the kick starter as they were pretty weak and can make a clicking sound, better check it out.

Sam Keys

[Jeff McBrayer]

As Karl said, re-chrome is very expensive today.  Check the compression and cylinders are almost gone. Richard owner of this site has the carb side covers as I bought a right side one a few months ago.  On the positive side, the 350 is a great machine and I would love to have another one.  Send us some photos as soon as you can.

Jeff McBrayer

[bridgestonesforever]

Thanks guys, I chrome is high here is AK too. in fact I send all my chrome to " Bumper Boyz" in Mexico.  They are been pretty good, decent prices, however
seem to do better with heavy pieces, I would bot use them for  fuel tanks

What's going on with K/S problems with the 350, please tell me more, thanks Luke

[Bridgestone Man]

Luke

The 350's weakest link is the kick starter, early machines had a bad gear, bad heat treatment, most of these have either broken or been replaced under warranty when the bike was new.  The clicking could be the starter engaged all the time, therefore the "dog" clicking as gear turns, you must not operate engine in this state

Sam Keys