  his project started after looking at all the hot new products for the new quads hitting the market. While paging through ATV magazines I didn’t see much for my 1987 Yamaha Warrior or any older quads for that matter. Then it hit me. Why not do a project to show how many companies are making more of these parts than most people realize, myself included. When this all started I wasn’t sure what we could find out there for this 20 year old machine. I figured there had to be something but never thought we would find as much as we did. This Warrior was sitting in a back room for some time before it came here to Minnesota so it was missing more then a few parts and not looking too healthy either. The first thing we needed was an idea of what we wanted it to look like and be able to do. We cleaned up the garage and went to work on the Warrior. We started looking for missing or broken parts, making a list of things we wanted to purchase. We then headed to the local dealer and ordered up the parts. Then we were set to tear down the machine and give it a new look. Parts started arriving, which made us more then a little anxious to get to work. We got the plastic parts out of the way, then the motor came out, and was off to get fitted with a Hot Rods crank, cam, and of course a DP clutch kit. With the powerplant out, the rest all started moving rather well until it was time to remove the bearings. These must have been in place since ‘87 but with a little work they were out and the pile of parts for sand blasting was growing. The frame was looking pretty bare almost ready to be stripped of its original blue paint. We brought all the parts to R&R powder coating, spent a night sand blasting the frame and hubs, then another night doing everything else. When the powder was done I was more than happy with the results. We finally had all the parts back in the garage ready for reassembly, threw the Pivot Works bearings in and start bolting things on. We did run into a few problems along the way but we solved them and had it all worked out rather quickly. Now it is all buttoned up with the exception of the graphic kit, which is still undecided. The first ride is in the books and we were actually lucky enough to have a guy come along who had a stock 1987 Yamaha Warrior so that was cool to be able to see and feel the difference. A special thanks to Travis, Mike, Rob, Dave and everyone else who helped out and contributed to make this worn out Warrior into the “Woods Warrior.” Matt Stromgren works at the Parts Unlimited telemarketing office in Brainerd MN. Aaron Thomas Photography is also located in Brainerd MN. AaronThomasPhotography.com. |
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