Hey All,
When I was a wee lad, my family had a 1986 TRX350. I loved that thing. It was the first quad I ever got driven around on, ever rode, eventually wrecked, rode again, and mourned after it burned when some ! burned the house down (legitimate arson incident).
Fast forward a few decades and a mechanics certification, I longed to rediscover that glory and reconnect with my heritage by seeking out another 350. I found one which was a total heap of garbage, drove way too far to get it, but when I saw those yellow sublights, I knew the money was well spent. Behold what that 350 turned out looking like when I was done below.
Flawlessly restored and feeling like a king, I knew that the next thing to do was to provide it to someone who would use it gently and respect that it was in essentially brand new restored condition. Sold for a massive premium later, I found myself TRX350-less.
I moved onto the 1987 TRX350D's, did one in red and sold it, did another 1986 and sold that, then another 1987 'D' and kept it because it was just phenomenal ... and then came the challenge - to find "Old Blue".
To find a 1987 TRX350D Blue, I had to buy a red TRX350D and restore it, sell it to this guy, plus take the same guy's EXTRA Blue 1987 TRX350D and restore for him. Once all that was done, I got to bring home my own 1987 TRX350D Blue which was the biggest pain in the ! machine I ever worked on to date. It had literally everything wrong with it but the plastics, which was all I cared about because everything else (technically) could be fixed. And everything else (literally) was bad. The electronics were all bad (CDI, Fuel Pump Relay, Fan Cooling Unit), Fuel Pump, Engine had everything wrong you could think of, clutches were shot in the right-side crank, brakes were completely seized (the pistons were completely corroded solid). I ordered $2,500 worth of parts to fix this thing and spent countless time on the phone with Shadetree, the resident Honda master, to help me through counteless troubleshooting as I try to figure out why in the ! the previous owner was such a ! and how things could have happened. He also bailed me out by providing me a new carburetor after finding out that the one that was put in mine was from a 250 ... And after swapping cam chains (I found an OEM one - not a DID one - so HA!) - and doing countless other work, I finally got her to run. Amazing.
The end result was phenomenal. I now how the restored, pimp ! supreme 1987 Blue TRX350D. God Bless America and ! taxes to !. Please feel free to ask any questions about TRX350D's to me if shadetree is unavailable! I've worked on a lot of them and can answer most things! (Also - RTFM is the best advice in most cases!) I look forward to contributing!
