Vintage RUPES Milano Rotary Polisher - Type Vander - 1500 RPM

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Vintage RUPES Milano Rotary Polisher - Type Vander - 1500 RPM


1950's Era - RUPES Milano Rotary Polisher

Thank you to my good friend and alumni student of the Competition Ready Detailing Classes, Class of January 2015 for sending me this vintage RUPES polisher all the way from New Zealand!


I returned to the office from the Wisconsin Roadshow Class on Wednesday and then left on Thursday to Orlando to work at the Ace Café Bike and VAG shows on Thursday and Friday. (Also shot a new TV commercial for Ace for Velocity Channel).


Upon returning to the office on Monday I found a box on my desk. Seeing who it was from I took it out to the garage to open it up and check out what was inside...

Yeah.... all the way from New Zealand!

What's in the box?

Cool sticker from Aaryn that will find a new home on one of our vehicles....

Hand written letter from Aaryn on his company letterhead...

Oh my gosh! Aaryn went way too far... not only the tool but some delicious chocolate candies and an antique car duster too!

A few more pictures of just the polisher...

Very cool indeed Aaryn!


:bowdown:

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Re: Vintage RUPES Milano Rotary Buffer - Type Vander - 1500 RPM

Continued...


First lets take a closer look at this Vintage RUPES Polisher....

Three-prong plug-in - My guess is this is a 220 volt tool

Identification Plate stating some info about the tool...

Here's the factory original RUPES tools for the polisher...

I believe this is called a Spanner Wrench....

The Spanner Wrench is used to remove a spanner nut, which is an old school method of attaching backing plates to spindles...

The backing plate states she's good up to 8500 RPM - now that's high speed buffing!

More than likely this was for sanding or grinding with these types of RPM

Rocker switch for on/off

 

[JustJesus]

Re: Vintage RUPES Milano Rotary Buffer - Type Vander - 1500 RPM

Very cool of him! The sweets are a nice touch.

Nice addition for your collection!

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Re: Vintage RUPES Milano Rotary Buffer - Type Vander - 1500 RPM

Continued....


Mmmm..... yummy....

Whittaker's Dark Orange Chocolates!

Whittaker's Dark Peppermint Chocolates!

And Whittaker's Creamy Milk Chocolates!

Also included is an early car duster with the original case! This will get a prized location on the shelves of my antique wax collection!

Aaryn also included this antique Lambskin buffing bonnet...

You can tell this is a real animal skin by the appearance of the hide on the back of the bonnet.... this isn't no artificial lambswool buffing bonnet!

And an extra antique backing plate apparently made in England...

Incredible stuff!

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Re: Vintage RUPES Milano Rotary Buffer - Type Vander - 1500 RPM

Continued....


New home!


Here's the new home for this vintage RUPES polisher... it's nestled between my 2 RUPES Prototypes from RUPES in Milan Italy, and my 2 First Generation, low production number Mark II BigFoot polishers given to me by RUPES at SEMA

Here's the new home for the Nenette Dust Absorbing Polisher

Thank you Aaryn!


I can guarantee you that not only will many people see these that visit Autogeek personally and take a tour of our facility but also thousands of people will see these pictures here on the AutogeekOnline.net Car Detailing Discussion Forum in the Car Detailing History forum group.

Google will index these pictures and this thread and now they will show up forever via Google searches that will lead people to this thread.


Beautiful.



:dblthumb2:

 

[Aaryn NZ]

Re: Vintage RUPES Milano Rotary Buffer - Type Vander - 1500 RPM

Mike, you're very welcome. rops:

It was our pleasure to send this parcel off on its 8000+ mile journey to you & we are pleased it made it safe & sound. I'm glad you like the RUPES polisher & the Nenette duster & to be fair - I couldn't think of anyone who would enjoy them more than you Mike. :dblthumb2:

Ahh, yeah - Whittakers Chocolate! Yummy for sure. Kiwi made chocolate & in my opinion, the best chocolate in the world. I remember you said Stacy enjoyed the Whittakers Chocolate we brung over in 2015 & there was room enough to squeeze some in to this parcel - Enjoy!

I like the new home for these antique tools, & I look forward to seeing them in person in the future. Nice post Mike, thank you.

Aaryn NZ. :dblthumb2:

 

[Justin at Final Inspection]

Re: Vintage RUPES Milano Rotary Buffer - Type Vander - 1500 RPM

WOW SUPER COOL!!! I knew Aaryn was a great guy but this just seals the deal! I agree that Mike is definitely a great choice for that polisher! Very cool Aaryn.

 

[Rsurfer]

Re: Vintage RUPES Milano Rotary Buffer - Type Vander - 1500 RPM

That beast must weigh in at 10 + pounds. I want one of those dusters since it will remove dry mud.rops:

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Re: Vintage RUPES Milano Rotary Buffer - Type Vander - 1500 RPM

Mike, you're very welcome. rops:

It was our pleasure to send this parcel off on its 8000+ mile journey to you & we are pleased it made it safe & sound.

I like the new home for these antique tools, & I look forward to seeing them in person in the future. Nice post Mike, thank you.

Aaryn NZ. :dblthumb2:

I'm going to send the link to this thread to one of my friends at RUPES and see if he can help me to identify the approximate year of this tool.


I looked through the pictures I took when I was given a tour of the RUPES corporate office and manufacturing facility in Milan, Italy back in 2014 and it looks like a few I took pictures of as well as the tools, which I also took pictures of...


Here's the link to the write-up I created. I was the first person RUPES allowed to take pictures of how they make their tools, (that's a different thread), and the only person from America that was invited to RUPES in Italy that took pictures and then did something with them, (create a thread on a real forum).

Rupes Bigfoot Orbital Polishers Virtual Museum Tour - Milan, Italy


Here's one of the pictures I took of a unique tool made by RUPES in the 1950's. It resembles the "look" of the tool you sent me as far as color of paint, shape and size and even the plastic handle and rocker on/off switch.

This is a two speed sander/polisher which uses an ingenious gear drive mechanism. To use a slower or faster speed you simply turn the the tool over and use the spindle for the speed required for the task at hand.

It's actually identical to this tool except the tool I have is painted and the tool in the below picture is bare aluminum.

The 1955 Wander Sander/Polisher

Here's a side shot of the vintage RUPES polisher you sent me...

So except for the tan paint it looks the same.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Re: Vintage RUPES Milano Rotary Buffer - Type Vander - 1500 RPM

Here's the link to the thread I created with the pictures of the vintage RUPES tools in Milan, Italy,


Rupes Bigfoot Orbital Polishers Virtual Museum Tour - Milan, Italy


Here's a picture from the above thread showing some RUPES tools...


Rupes tools specially made for Rupes manufacturing

And here's the tools Aaryn sent me that go with this vintage RUPES polisher now in my antique wax collection...

Car Wax History


Fun stuff...


:dblthumb2:

 

[Aaryn NZ]

Mike - as soon as I saw this RUPES polisher I knew I wanted to send it to you. So when I got the RUPES I did a search online to try & identify it, & the ONLY information & pictures I could find was in fact documented by yourself. This confirmed it - it had to go to you. rops: Even cooler when looking through your pictures & I saw the same tools that had come with your machine.

I too have studied the pictures you took whilst your time at the RUPES factory, & I wondered if the one in your article (the 1955 Wander Sander/Polisher) was in fact the same tool but had been built as a concept machine & never got painted or something of the like.

I admit, I did contemplate cleaning your vintage RUPES but as much as I like shiny things, some things deserve to wear their patina proudly so decided to leave the remnants of work alone. :buffing:

I hope someone comes back to you with some more info regarding the age etc for your vintage Rupes Mike, & please - do let us know.

Very cool Mike. rops:

Aaryn NZ. :dblthumb2: