Classic pic of a 69 sedan and GT from the day.

i've got that pic here too. is a good pic from the day.

except... they are 69 models, not 68's.
the 68 sedan has the same grille as my race car (same as 66 and 67 models), and the 68 GT was the last of the single headlight ones, again, like mine (67 GT was the same too).
some very early 69's were registered in late 68, so they sometimes get called a 68 model, and the 69 GT actually came out in late 68 as well.
the 70 model looked the same but had the vents in the rear guards and had the "short" bonnet with the drivers side wiper post at the bottom of the A pillar (they had a wiper set up like "normal" cars of today).

i've seen chassis numbers posted around the net that aren't quite right, as cars i've had in the past haven't lined up with the supposed commencement dates.
my first car was a 69 deluxe sedan (actually the same car that has come back into the fold that my old man is about to rebuild) that was definitly a 69 model, chassis # 4105202, and was first rego'd in april 1969 in victoria, but if you believe the numbers posted about the place, they say that the 69 started in january 69 at chassis 4111534. that's 6332 cars after mine was built. also, as more evidence, garry now has dave's (from nsw) 69 sedan that was first rego'd in nsw in early 69 as well, and it's chassis # is 4105209, only 7 after mine. they are the 2 closest chassis numbers known left..., but anyway, 2 cars out of sequence can't be wrong!!

to go off topic with a factoid of useless info... well not useless if you need a new windscreen for your Bellett... as you probably know, there's a different screen for early and late sedans.
the EXACT chassis number that the FIRST LATE SCREEN was fitted to was:
PR20 4093588.
so any number before this has an early screen, and any after has a late screen.
the difference in the screen is the shape of the top corners. the early one has lower top corners.
just to confuse things more, this change happened in the middle of the body run of the 67-68 sedan (with the "square" tail lights), so Isuzu didn't even do it when they changed the lights, grille, dash, etc.
all the "tear drop" tail light sedans use the early screen, and all the "flat" tail light sedans use the late screen. the only model that you have to be carefull of is the "square" tail lights cars.
why they changed the screen shape is anyones guess...
and the Wasp uses the same screen as the early sedan.
and while the GT screen is different again, all GT screens are the same (they didn't change when Isuzu went from PR90 to PR91).

cheers.
brett.

Hmmmm, I'll have to show you mine at the nationals. It's definately the above grill (and flat tail lights), only two owner so unmolested and it has the original book with a delivery date to the first owner of November 1968, first service in December 1968....

The plot thickens. I'll be interested to get to the bottom of this one for the models. I believe that mine is classically a 1969 model but it was definitely driving around Adelaide in 1968. I'll post my chassis number when I get the chance.

Speaking of which, do you want to setup a chassis number register with year, style (hex lights, flat lights etc), body shape (coupe, sedan, ute) and chassis number to track all of these changes? It will also give us a good way of tracking cars if they disappear and then reappear years later?

Thoughts?

the register is a choice idea, bro.

is there some table doo-flicky we can set up with:

Model: Bellett, Bellett GT, Wasp, Florian (they need LUV too!)
Year: 1967
Chassis #: 465456465465
Modifications: 15" alloys, 1969 tail lights etc
Interesting factoids: eg one owner, factory two-tone paint, etc
Pic: Can a thumbnail be added in?

Hey Antus, this thing can do polls and blah blah - can it do something like this?

quoting brett:

there's a different screen for early and late sedans.
the EXACT chassis number that the FIRST LATE SCREEN was fitted to was:
PR20 4093588.

Where did you get that one from?!??!?!

Also, I can tell you why they changed it - have you ever actually LOOKED thru one of those screens? Your Wasp doesn't count coz the seats are so much lower... but it's pretty low in the corner....

hi.
which bit of "where did you get that from" are you refering too??
that there's a different screen, or the chassis number that the change occured at??

i assume you mean how did i find out the change point.
that was in some offical Isuzu documents that one of the guys over here stumbled on years ago, and we have had it noted ever since.

and i actually posted wrong info on where the difference is in them last nite too. was late by then... anyway, the top corners are the same between the 2. this can be seen as the A pillars are the same between the 2, and the screen height is the same on the pillars also. the difference is that the centre of the early screen, where it meets the roof. the early sedan roof comes almost straight out at the front edge (in the middle of the screen) to meet the screen and makes the 2 join at an angle, and the late sedan roof rolls over to meet the screen with no angle (ie: flat). if you look at your rat sedan next to rossco's blue jobbie, you'll see what i mean. they are hard to pick when the 2 different cars aren't together, and the screens themselves are a real bastard to tell apart when they're out of a car too!!

i spoke to craig today about why the change happened... he said that is was most like because the early ones had a habit of leaking in the centre top from movement), due to the angle they fitted in the car. making the angle flatter fixed it.
i personally haven't had an early sedan (the early screen in the Wasp fits the roof at a different angle to the sedan), so i haven't had the problem myself, but he said that he has had early ones leak after a while, but the late ones haven't.
might be some weight in that thought then??

interesting indeed...
sounds to me like it's probably a very early 69 style. after all, mine hit the road in April 69, so there's no way that it was built, shipped, bought, and rego'd in only the first 3 months of the year!!
i'd be very interested in seeing the chassis number, that's for sure, as it's definitly a 69 style, but it's a very early one then, and a rare Bellett too!!
they are the rarest body and light shape that came here.
anyway, 90% of those cars in the pic above were sold in 69 , that's for sure.

on the register... i have a pretty big one here that's been going for over 10 years.
it's been done through/for the club over here that was to document all the cars that the club had on it's books.
having said that tho... it's not legally mine. it's the BCCV's. that means i'd in it deep if i allowed it to be used elsewhere. you know what i mean.
the problem always was with it that the club had to REQUEST car info from each person, and they had the right to refuse to give it over, which some did.
it all comes down to the wonderfull world of "privacy laws"...

my thoughts on a register here are:
yes, good idea, especially as there's more people and cars out there that the BCCV know about, but...
it has to be started on here from scratch. that means requesting the info, and expecting refusals...
the format we use is pretty simple, in that it includes:
owner, year make, body style (as in sedan, GT, Wasp, etc.), chassis number, colour, engine type, etc. we don's ask for tail light type, as they really aren't a good way of tell just what the car is. a couple of cars i know have different model lights (front and/or rear) to what they had when new. one is ken's GT... it's a PR90, so it should have the square tail lights, but it was rear ended when it was only a few years old, and they want to put brand new parts back into it. that meant a new tail light panel and lights... those lights being the flat 69 style lights.

so basicly, yep, register is a good idea, but only if the info is passed on to us by the car owner (so that also means we can't just record every chassis number we see at the nats, for example), via bellett.net.
also, the details the BCCV gathers from it's members is plenty to keep a record of what's what, so that register-style would be perfect.
added to that, i can work out (within "near enuf" that can be done today, 40 years on) as to when most of the changes with each following models was as well. that will give a pretty good gauge of what car is what year, etc.

just got to find the time!!

ohh btw dave... florians need luv?? what they need is to be all pushed into the bay so the fish have somewhere to live!!
but that's only after we pull all the G161's out of them for spares for the GT's!!

and mate, those little facts aren't even the tip of the iceberg of Bellett-iania knowledge in my head. added to that is a fkn mountain of brochures, books, magazines, parts, models, you name it, and if it's Bellett, then it's probably here!!
i know you guys have been around them for a few years now, but for some of my history, i've had my own Bellett's since I was 15, which is near-enuf to 20 years now, and rebuilt 4 Bellett's/Wasp in that time from bare shells, with the race car being done twice as well. i've also worked on and helped out through advise on probably 20 or more cars over the years too.
added to that, i've had Bellett's in my life since before I had life... Mum's car when she was pregnant with me was a really hot 67 sedan, and Bellett's have been in our family from 1972, with only a 5-6 year gap between when the last of the folks Bellett's was sold to when I got my first one.
so yeah, basicly, there's a ton of stuff i have to now get out of my head and onto the site for all... god damn...

That's why we need you here to brain dump onto the site and help all of us mere mortals out that have only had Bellett's in our lives for 10 years! So much weirdness went on in the Isuzu factory that no one person can have the whole picture, so with any luck we'll be able to drain you brain onto here for future reference!

Look forward to this site really hitting it's stride after the nationals

R.

OK, Chassis number is PR20-4104299

Cheers.

rossco, that's a VERY early one you've got there mate. and as the 69 style sedans were the rarest ones here, that would make it a rare rare example!!
as i stated earlier, mine was PR20 4105202, so your's is nearly a full 1,000 cars earlier than that.
i'll have to check around over here to see if there's any earlier that i know about, but thats a low number for that style bellett, that's for sure.

well, it's only been 10 minutes, but i can give you some info already!!
i had a quick look thru an old chassis list i did a looooooooong time ago (were talking early 90's here), and i found a couple of very interesting things...
1st... your car IS a very early chassis in oz. all the other numbers for that style i have are in the higher 4104xxx range, or in the 4105xxx's, and alot in the 4016xxx's... except for 1 car...

2nd... big steve (my nats co-organiser) has a 69 sedan that was orignally a QLD car. he bought it off ken and carol in about 91 or 92, and still has it. it's not the peach coloured car he had at corowa last year, but there is a pic of it (when it was maroon) on glenn percy's site.
this car was originally white, and is a shell in very good nic ATM, but will become a race car some day.
anyway, it's chassis number is: PR20 4104295. that's only 4 cars before yours!!
what that also means is that there's now a closer pair of chassis numbers than my old car and ex-dave's, now garry car.

i'll talk to steve and see if he can remember when the car was first rego'd in QLD, so that might give us a better time line too.

cheers.

Ah, he beat me by 4! They probably came out on the same ship

Was his a deluxe as well or just a standard spec one?

Thanks for doing the research on this one, I was wondering about it's timeline

Cheers,
R

all the 69 style sedans brought here were deluxe's. we never got 69 style standard's.
as for why we didn't get standard sedans too, like they did with all the other models...?????
i can only guess that it may have been because as the bellett sales slowed here, and that there were just as many deluxes sold as standards in the previous year (as opposed to probably 1 deluxe to 5 standards in the earlier years), it probably wasn't worth bringing standards in.
i'm only guessing here, i've thought about this before and a few of us have talked about it from time to time, and it's about the only logical explanation i can come up with.

but i'm not "logical' either...

Makes sense really. If a particular model is for export they tend to only send out the top spec ones anyway... It's happened elsewhere with other manufacturers so it only makes sense that Isuzu did the same!

Same reason we never saw the 1300's or diesels too.... Yes I know the Wasp was a 1300, but that is the exception in every sense of the word!

Cheers,
R.

Aussie one's weren't I worked out (or I should say, Brett told me).

I had a brochure somewhere that described them as 1300s, but it may have been incorrect or perhaps not even an Aussie brochure (although it's in English... it's hard to work out where else it would have been for).

It may have even been in a copy of Isuzu Times that were that international corporate magazine.

Anyhoo, Brett pointed out the 1300 is a KR10 while mine is a KR20, although I can't remember if it actually says that anywhere (I'll have another look one day). But yeah, I mean ALL of the Wasps I heard about were 1500 and I just thought, well they can't all be converted to 1500....

But aside from that... the Wasp still is an exception in every sense of the word!

I got a diesel brochure in the post the other day. Top speed..... 110kph.

That's all you need, technically. But dude... duuuude.

Ha, well there you go. It certainly feels like a 1300!

As for the diesel's top speed... No mention of how long it takes it to get there either

Hello everyone great website & topics,I was lucky enough to come across a Bellett for sale in the US, it is a PR10 4106508,1300,2 door, sport sedan with the two single headlghts and long rear tail lights,light blue in color.
Poor thing isnt running now but we are working on her alittle at a time I know at least the last time it ran was in 1991, basiclly it's has a solid body and has been repainted, the interior is ok still had plastic on the side panels the interior was full of parts,wheels,and garbage when I picked it up it's really been suffering from neglect.Hopefully we can get this car road worthy again.

Thanks
Mark

Ours is a 1968 too. (forgot to put that on our last post)

Thanks
Mark

Hi Mark,

Welcome aboard! It's great to have international members already so that we can get a complete picture of where these great little cars went!

That's a high chassis number for a 1968, the plot thickens even further! When was it first registered or delivered, do you know?

You've come to the right place if you want info and advice too as some of the guys on here have owned Belletts from new or there parents have anyway and PR91 races one as well.

Good luck building up the 2 door sports sedan, that's one model we didn't get over here in Oz. When you get a chance post some pics in the 'My Bellett' section as we'd all be keen to see it (in any condition, don't be shy

Cheers,
Ross.