Cleaning up a 1969 Rupp Roadster

#1
I bought this Roadster locally from a guy that received it along with some other items at an estate sale. Apparently he argued with the seller he got it from that he didn't want this thing but they said that if he didn't take it he could not purchase the other items and the deal was off. So he took it and was about to throw it in the trash when his friend researched and SUPRISE! realized it had value. It turns out that I paid him more for the bike than he bought all of the items for. That being said, I still feel that I bought if for a good price (cheaper than EBay price points)and it was complete, just ugly! I don't know what would possess someone to paint their minibikes this ugly set of colors. It bothered me so much that I just had to change it. I decided that I didn't want to do a full restoration since I wanted to turn it into a daily rider, but the blue and purple had to go. I first wanted to see what I had. After cleaning the carb up and installing a new kit in it, I put some gas in the tank and tried starting it. It fired right up in a couple of pulls and ran excellent with good compression, no leakdown and no smoke. I then checked to see the condition of the sprockets and clutches. They were in perfect shape as well. It was like someone had not even rode the bike. The tires were in like new condition too with no cracking or dry rot. They had yanked all of the wiring off of the bike so I couldn't test any lighting and the tail light was gone. And they had the jackshaft out for some reason (replace the bearing?) and didn't know how to re-install so they came up with some funky bracket to hold that in place. So it was on to disassembly.

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#2
I started disassembling it and the first order of business was to clean up the chromed parts as best as I could. I couldn't believe how much surface rust was all over those. Cleanup was fairly decent but I really started to wonder if I should have brought them in for rechroming. I guess I can do that at any time. Anyway, then it was on to cleaning up the individual parts and repaint if necessary. I didn't repaint the lower shock tubes but maybe I should have. I did clean up the springs though. Cleaned up the jackshaft and replaced the 1 way bearing. Cleaned up the engine and repainted white. I found that one of the brake shoes had broken so I replaced both shoes with a new set. The front suspension was seized so I took that apart and cleaned it up and re-greased. I replaced the front springs because the originals were in rough shape. Sandblasted the frame and repainted the original orange color that it had when new. I have everything together and ready for re-assembly.

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#3
On to re-assembly. I started putting it together and it really came together fast. I put new wheel, neck, and jackshaft bearings in. I will use to original seat that it came with or a while, but I did order new brake levers, cables, wiring kit, grips, throttle, and footpegs from Jim at Black Widow. I still have to put most of those things on yet, but here we are so far.


 
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capguncowboy

Well-Known Member
#4
Man, that thing looks great. That clutch cover is a rare piece. I think the 69 Rupps are my favorite. They really had a nice design and great lines.

The chrome on those fenders seem to clean up really nicely in most cases. Mine looked awful but a little bit of elbow grease (and a soft wire wheel brush for the stubborn stuff) made them polish up to a nice shine.

I really like that paint color. Is it the same shade of orange used on the 70 Roadsters? If so, I'm curious to know what color code it was. I'll be redoing mine soon.

Very well done.
 
#9
Looks great. Can you take a pic of your throttle set up and post it for me. I have the same motor and I'm missing a few pieces of it's throttle. Thanks.
 
#14
Rattle can paint jobs don't take to much time.:wink:

Jim at Black Widow can't figure out how I can find all of these. I tell him that I have "the gift.":laugh: Sad thing is I have found more but then had the seller sell it off to someone who came to their house and begged them to sell it to them instead for less money even though we had agreed on the price and had shipping set up. That's happened 3 times in the past year.

I had 15 minutes so I threw the brakes on today but now it will have to sit.
 
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