Iowa Backyard Find - Unknown Rupp Dart frame - Rebuild log

[newtocartin]

So I found this forum when I was searching for information on a frame I happened upon. I posted in another section asking about information on the frame, which didn't lead to anything positive. If you have any info I would greatly appreciate it. The other thread got kind of side tracked and I started asking for more information and because of the friendly people here I decided to post a build log. As you can tell by my messy garage I was not planning on making this a public deal.

So here is where I started, someone posted on the local Facebook sale page that they wanted this thing out of their back yard. I hauled it back to my garage, and started looking for information.

Yes it was mangled a bit. It is rusty and dented up, but it had good bones. Ever since I was a kid I have always wanted a go kart, but I had 3 brothers so my parents were spending all their money buying 4 of everything. Now that I have a kid he gets pretty spoiled. I was told that this frame is pretty valuable to the right buyers. I am not looking to see it torn up and I don't think my kid will hurt it. I am also not looking to spend a fortune restoring it. I just want to fix the frame, rust and get missing parts to get it running again. Maybe when he is a teen he will go looking for parts to get it original again. Who knows maybe I will sell it. But without yapping on forever here are more pics:

The front bars are dinged up.

One of the spindle brackets is broke.

I cleaned it up some and am getting it ready for welding.

There was no steering spindles or linkage but you can see the front spindle brackets have an extra support welded on, I haven't seen anything like this on any google search.

There was the steering column kind of rusty. Looks like it can be cleaned up and while I was knocking off rust it looks like there was white paint on the dash under the red.

The seat is ok, the pan is pretty pitted and scraped up on the bottom, but the back is good, there are some broken welds.

One of the throttle linkages will need to be fixed.

 

[newtocartin]

The backend is pretty decent. You can see that it has a nice rear bumper. I have searched google quite a bit and can't find any pictures that are like it.

Has a working brake.

The engine mount is in good shape.

The sprocket is decent, teeth all good.

I had some scrap wood so I cut out a few patterns for my seamstress to make some seat covers.

I had an briggs & straton lawn mower engine that I had saved a few years ago. It has always ran strong and was a good mower. So now I am going to convert it from a vertical shave to horizontal. These videos are all over the internet, so I figured what the ****, if it fails I will go get one of the $99 ones.

I guess this motor is the 6HP Briggs and Stratton 12V809-1783-B1.

I ripped it apart and started getting ready to put an oil flicker in.

It looks like with some modification I can mount the carb fine.

The oil filler I think I am going to try and cut and put an elbow in it.

Here is a really blurry picture of my son doing cleanup.

So the next steps are to get the axel off... but I banged away at it today, and put a ton of pb blaster on it. But it seems really stuck.

I loosened the lock screws here but they are about 1/3 of an inch away already and I don't want to mess up these bearings because they still work good, I wish I would have taken a closer picture.

 

[newtocartin]

Started stripping tonight.

Looks like some bondo here and it had the holes where the original Rupp badge would have been.

This seat pan will probably need to be replaced

After starting to strip and looking at these welds I think I can conclusively say that this is a Rupp Dart A-Bone that has been modified. Probably due to a hard life of racing every weekend at the dirt track. Comparing the additional parts welding to the standard welds it is obvious these were not done at the factory.

Continune stripping

 

[newtocartin]

The $10 steering wheel I ordered came in today and was really crappy quality so I am not going to use it. Will try a different brand. I am thinking about the MAXPOWER 5890 10-INCH STEERING WHEEL off ebay. That looks like what they are putting on these guys. A couple of vintage Rupp ones just went up. I don't want to wait 7 days for an auction. I forgot to measure the bolt hole distance and the center bold size... grr. what to do what to do...

I ordered these spindles. I think they will work.

RIGHT AND LEFT GO CART SPINDLES

AXLE 5/8-18

LENGTH 4.50"

HEIGTH 2 1/2"

COMES WITH BUSHINGS

I ordered some hubs.. I probably jumped the gun on this because I could have got some vintage wheels, tires and hubs for quite a bit than what I spent. Oh well I really wanted the fat tire look, I guess we can always change this later. I have no doubts that this won't be my last kart I build. I am already looking at other frames!

Set of 4 high quality CNC machined light weight aluminum wheel hubs.

Front Hub (2):
5/8" High speed bearings pressed in
American bolt pattern, 3 holes on a 2-1/2" bolt circle
Dual bolt pattern for use with 1/4 or 5/16 studs and nuts

Rear Hub (2):
1" Bore with 1/4" keyway
American bolt pattern, 3 holes on a 2-1/2" bolt circle
Dual bolt pattern for use with 1/4 or 5/16 studs and nuts

Includes 1/4" bolts and nuts

I just ordered some tires and rims off ebay, should be here next week.,

I could use some help trying to find good places to buy the following:

• pedals - Do I just make my own? looks pretty easy
• pedal springs - need to figure this out...
• tie rods - I think I can make my own with tap & die set and some ends from the hardware store
• brake & gass - linkage I think I can probably fab these too...

I really wish someone had one of these for a standard dart model online someplace....

If you really want... you can find more pics of my kart imgur which where I have been dumping them to use here. I also started collecting google images of kart ads imgur to figure out what my kart was. And this is my parts imgur album for things I am thinking about.

 

[Bbqjoe]

So.....
Whaddaya need us for?

 

[chancer]

Nice kart. It will be well worth the effort. If you make it real nice it will be worth some money to.

 

[mckutzy]

Looks good..
Bearings are cheap... I'd replace them... The hanger cups are fine, as they don't really wear.

 

[newtocartin]

Looks good..
Bearings are cheap... I'd replace them... The hanger cups are fine, as they don't really wear.

You know that's what I was thinking too when I was writing this post! I just hate wasting anything, but I was when I was putting this together I thought, new bearing would probably run a lot nicer.

---------- Post added at 06:30 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:28 AM ----------

So.....
Whaddaya need us for?

lol well I have worked on plenty of cars, never a kart so any advice...

---------- Post added at 06:31 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:30 AM ----------

Nice kart. It will be well worth the effort. If you make it real nice it will be worth some money to.

Thanks! That is the plan!

 

[mckutzy]

Replacing bearing, are things that are consumables...
Just like oil.. Buy new stuff every once in a while...

 

[Hellion]

I'd get narrow vintage style wheels and tires, applicable to the kart's era.

The frame is in such good shape, I'd be inclined to leave it largely alone and keep the original paint (if that is indeed original) and preserve the 'patina'. Fix the rusty parts, buy new hardware as needed, make a new seat cushion and ride.

 

[newtocartin]

I'd get narrow vintage style wheels and tires, applicable to the kart's era.

The frame is in such good shape, I'd be inclined to leave it largely alone and keep the original paint (if that is indeed original) and preserve the 'patina'. Fix the rusty parts, buy new hardware as needed, make a new seat cushion and ride.

I have been looking! I would like to keep it as much original as possible. I found out today that it came from the Newton Iowa Go Kart speedway, they thought it was early 90's.

But I really like the look of these tires...

 

[Hellion]

Wow, so it might be early 90's?

This is one heck of a mystery....

 

[newtocartin]

Wow, so it might be early 90's?

This is one heck of a mystery....

Yeah, I am not so sure, but who knows. My research says that professional racing karts changed frame styles and I doubt this guy knows where it came from. I am trying to get in touch with someone from the speedway to see if they have any historical pictures, or know who was making the karts back then.

I found this ebay post with with a Rupp Dart A-bone model K that has bumpers, looks like it could be a model prior to the one I have. I would like to get a front bumper like that and side bars, but I may have to fabricate them myself.

 

[Kentucky Boy]

That's a really cool frame. It would look great with the old school looking narrow tires or the wide slicks. If you have to do grinding and welding to it, I'd repaint it. Being from the 90's the original paint wouldn't be that big of a deal to keep. If you want to get the axle apart sand all the rust off of it before even trying to remove it and the components or it won't come apart. Again man it's a sweet frame. I'd love to have one like it. Keep the pics coming

 

[newtocartin]

That's a really cool frame. It would look great with the old school looking narrow tires or the wide slicks. If you have to do grinding and welding to it, I'd repaint it. Being from the 90's the original paint wouldn't be that big of a deal to keep. If you want to get the axle apart sand all the rust off of it before even trying to remove it and the components or it won't come apart. Again man it's a sweet frame. I'd love to have one like it. Keep the pics coming

Yeah I will have to do some welding so it is going to get a old school 60's paint job after everything gets fixed.


After starting to strip the paint I dug up some more problems. Should be easy to fix once I get the frame stripped down.

 

[Ebrownie]

I would recommend to not convert that vertical shaft engine. Just buy a predator, or even an old Briggs so it fits the time period of the kart

 

[newtocartin]

I would recommend to not convert that vertical shaft engine. Just buy a predator, or even an old Briggs so it fits the time period of the kart

Honestly I will probably do that eventually. The Briggs I have will be fine for the kiddo but when he gets older or I decide to sell it I will probably fit it out to be period accurate. It is such a good frame it would be a shame to not restore it properly.

 

[newtocartin]

So.....
Whaddaya need us for?

I need to have a parts list I was really hoping someone by now would have a pdf of the parts manual online someplace.

 

[kenworth85]

Try a 50/50 mix of acetone and transmission fluid for penetrating rusted stuck bearings. Works good for me.

 

[newtocartin]

Does this mean these are pressed on? I can't get them to budge and am considering cutting them off