76 Mk2 Chopper resto, start to finish

[splodge]

After restoring a Kuwahara ET last year I really wanted to get going with another project. It had to be either a Chopper or a Grifter. Any bloke in their late 30's and 40's will always remember these bikes & you never had one yourself then your mate would have. So after a few months looking I found a bike in bits & because it looked bad & wasn't built up I managed to get it for a bargain £51. It was basically a frame & forks with seat & cissy bar & crank & then a box of bits, a complete bike except for headset bearings, the original advert pic on ebay:



Then having a closer look back home



And the bits


It was in a sorry state but perfect for a resto, everything had a light covering of rust, the front wheel was pretty bad, I didn’t want to buy new bits for it though, clean it up & keep it original, the tyres needed replacing though but everything else was just going to get a good scrub & the frame & forks a respray, more pics:




So after stripping it down the only problem was removing the cissy bar. It was rusted in & although I wacked it with a hammer for 2 days, heated it up so it expanded it still wouldn’t come out. I managed it though by turning the frame upside down, placing a trolley jack in the cissy bar hoop then a bit of wood from the jack to the frame. Raise the jack & out it popped.

The small chrome bits went straight into the ovenpride bag & left to soak over night whilst the wheels & handlebars had a good scrub with alloy wheel cleaner, they came up pretty good after the first clean



And the small chrome bits after 24 hours soak in oven pride & a good scrub and the rear mud guard came up really well considering how bad it was. It’s still badly pitted but its original & still looks chrome.



Now the frame, it had been sprayed before so no probs stripping the old paint & getting it down to bare metal.



I wish I took the crank out completely but never mind, first undercoat then sand down again



Another couple of undercoats then ready for the Fizzy lemon yellow. I didn’t really know what colour to do it, a mate had a purple one when we were kids, everyone remembers red ones but yellow seems to suit the 70’s look so I went with that. According to a Chopper website Ford Signal yellow is a 98% colour match so I went with that.



A few days watching paint dry meant I could crack on with the other bits, the seat came up lovely with just a good scrub with leather cleaner, there was only one small split & didn’t really need repairing, and also the pedals, before & after shots




The Heron Raleigh badge was pretty bad but I really didn’t want to replace it. They are made of brass & riveted to the frame, that’s what I love about these bikes, how much did that cost back then, modern bikes now just have a sticker. I gave it a good clean & was amazed how good it came up...& to think I nearly replaced it with a modern painted one



So back to the frame, the stickers arrived so I sanded the frame so it was a nice matt yellow & got sticking, once they were on I gave the frame & forks a good couple of coats of lacquer, it was starting to come together





The gear selector cover was buggered. Again I thought about buying new but thought let’s try & repair it & if that fails then fork out for a new one. Not only was it broke in two but chunks were missing from each side at the front. Using a bit of card from a Wiskas cat food box (perfect width!) I glued the bits together then gave it a thick undercoat.




Then spray matt black & stick on the sticker, good as new



So now the bit I love, building it. I was missing some headset bearings, unlike modern bikes where they are in a race these are all free so when you take the forks out they drop out, hence they had been lost. My local bike shop gave me a bag of about 100 for £1. When they are covered in grease they are a lot easier to fit



Then cracking on to get it together, new brake cables, new tyres, wheels cleaned again & it’s pretty much there




I’m pretty happy with how it came out, I could have bought lots of new old stock but kept the cost down buy repairing & cleaning. In total the bike was £51, stickers £22, tyres £20, spray & lacquer about £20 so about £110 all in. All that’s left is to get some handlebar grips & rivet the Heron badge to the headtube, the rivets should arrive today, & yes all 3 gears actually work! Job done.



& for the next project, the other icon of the 70’s....Mk1 Grifter

[jojo]

nice i had one of these pinched but now got two others thats a great resto i love how u repaired stuff

[splodge]

And now with the Heron badge fitted, i thing brass looks better than painted!

[mushroom]

I like how you've got a gazebo covering your giant bread roll there

[marcusthemoose]

what you've done there is my idea of a resto- restore all the original parts, then buy repro or 2nd hand if you really have to.
well done that man.

[4737carling]

Wow what a great resto with fantastic pictures. ;D Your chopper turned out lovley

So a 76 mk1 (now your taking my language!) what date is your mk1?

I know a little bit about restoring grifters ;D

[dylan]

nice bikes mate

[splodge]

So a 76 mk1 (now your taking my language!) what date is your mk1?

The Grif is a 78 mk1, bent front forks means the bars are jammed in, it needs a bit of work but i'll get them out & straighten them up.

The paint & decals are original so i'm a bit reluctant to totally strip it back & re spray & use repo decals. It looks a bit tatty but its original, the wheels etc are in good nick it just needs a new seat, rear mudguard & sort the forks.

What do you all think, total strip & repaint or clean up & get it in good order? (were now talking about the Grifter by the way!)

Oh & thanks for the comments guys ;D

[4737carling]

Sorry splodge i thought you said 76 not 78. I think if the paint and decals are good then keep it original. It sounds like someone has tried to get the bars out before hence the bent forks!
Get some original supergrips for it (andy is selling some nos sets on the grifter forum) The rear guard maybe difficult to come by but you could always cut down a mk2 rear guard.

Looking forward to seeing the pictures.

[splodge]

The Chop is 76 but the Grif is 78. Well spotted with the supergrips, but new ones are £7 each & old proper supergrips are really expensive, i cant justify the difference for a bike im going to ride to the pub in the summer, for a show bike then yes to keep it original but new ones look similar & means I can spend more on beer! ;D

Your right, i think the rear mudguard will be a mk2 chopped down, i've not seem any mk1's... its going to be after christmas before I start on the Grif...

[retrowagen1234]

Bloody hell , This is insprirational


Granted mines a bit worse than yours was to start with, But mines going to be one of next years projects finally.
Its been on the back burner for so long i think this will give me the push to get it sorted...


I like the yellow too.. ;D

[4737carling]

Splodge, andy has nos sets of original supergrips for £55 posted, i can understand you putting modern ones on if your going to use the bike a lot but the originals look so much better and are nothing like the modern replacements.

Having said that the pre production may 76 models had super mx tyres similar to the modern supergrips (but these are very rare bikes and not for the pub run!) ;D

looking forward to seeing pics of your clean-up