Man, it seems like everyone is restoring one of these beasts. Its great to see a lot of these basket cases being brought back to life from a $500 POS to a $5000+ quad. Lets see some pics of yall's progress.
Mine is in my photo album, not a lot to look at now though.

 

I restored mine about 2 years ago. I paid $1500 for it, and doubled that easily enough.

When I bought it, I had to sit down to keep the seat on, which also kept the back fenders on. The fronts were destroyed so I left them off. The coil was taped to the frame, the exhaust was dangling on the axle, The front tires were perfectly bald, the rear Turf Tamers were so dry-rotted I had to run them flat, the shocks were shot, no brakes, a broken throttle lever which would stick open, a slight anti-freeze leak, and I blew a head gasket. Mind you, I got to ride this for maybe a half hour before I loaded it up to take it home, and I think I rode another half hour the day after. The best part was smoking my friend on his 2 week old Raptor up a large bowl, which is where I blew the head gasket. He said all he heard was a loud "Mep" and saw 2 huge roosters and he knew he had no new king of quads.

Anyway, I was going about replacing the head gasket when the urge hit me to tear the whole thing down, which is exactly what I did. I cleaned up the frame, painted it bright yellow, and replaced all the suspension bearings with a Pivot Works kit. Except the linkage, I had to get OEM Suzuki for that.

Then I got new wheel bearings for the front, axle bearings for the rear, Works A/T steelers triple rates up front, and had the rear shock rebuilt. I also got a nice set of PRM ATV's desert grab bar and front bumper. And had the radiator pressure tested and cleaned.

Scared as I was, I tore off the clutch cover to put in a new Hinson Basket and Dirt Digger clutch plates, and water pump seal, and to my astonishment, all the gears in there were BRAND SPANKING NEW!! The guy that had it before the previous owner had the entire bottom end rebuilt. And he even had the brass inserts installed. Let me tell you I was some kind of excited about that!!

Back to the rest of the quad, new rear fender support brackets were added along with the new black and yellow Maier plastics, and so were new tires on .190 rims. New brakes went on, some gloss black paint on the A-arms, silver on the steering stem, Emgo bars, motion pro twist, a new seat cover, and a newly painted motor were making this once horrific machine looking awful purty again. I even added a new seat latch and rubber pads for the seat, along with a cleaned petcock and rubbers for the fuel tank mounts. I replaced the snagged-up wiring and I was on my way.

For go fast goodies, I added a Paul Turner pipe with a Fat Boy silencer, had the jug ported and polished, and had a .080 Wiseco installed. .020 came off the head, and a new Keihin 39mm PWK went in between the drilled airbox and FMF Ram valve.

Once I finally got it jetted right and babied it for a day, I was smoking every kind of quad I could find. From piped and cammed Raptors to a Vito's Banshee, I was unbeatable. 2 years later and I still haven't met anyone to take me in a drag or up a hill.

Sorry I don't have any pics to post, but I did have a story to tell!!!! Latah.......

 

Get some pics i want to see this beast. I wish i had the time/money to do that to my LT250R.

 

I restored my basket case zilla. It took me quit a while, a few years to be exact. It's still not complete. A few minor details left. Im thinking of selling it and starting over again when all is done.

 

looks good so far bro keep us updated

 

I’ve got one I'm finishing but it was 95% done when I got it. I had bought a basket case for 500$ but found one that was nearly done for 1600$. It would have cost an untold fortune and probably most of this year to get the basket case in the same condition and in this case for me it's more about the destination than the journey so I took the easy road. The whole deal worked out real good for everyone, aside from me saving a ton of time and $ I traded the basket case and 95% of the parts needed to make it run to a friend for a Blaster that’s worth the majority of the 1600$ I paid for the Zilla. Both of us walked away from that deal with a [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img].

You can see fairly recent pictures of both Zillas on my gallery page.

 

I thought about selling mine just to get something newer, but it took me since 87 to finally be able to track a decent one down and get it running. We lived at Ft. Lewis, WA. when the 500 first came out, and between being 10 years old and moving all the time, there was no way in hell I was going to get one. Once the old man retired and we moved back to Maine, I had to settle for a Moto-4 to keep me entertained, then by the time I was old enough to get a good job and save some $ I couldn't find a Zilla anywhere that sold for under $3500. Finally I found this one and snatched it up without a second thought.

Now I would like to find an old ATC250R 3-wheeler to restore......I think its almost as fun building this stuff as it is riding them!!!