If Wasp's have a separate chassis ... to increase the number of Wasp's would it be possible to create a composite body shell and fit it to a Hilux chassis ?

I'd kinda like a Wasp, but they seem to be rather rare ... and as such people would frown on me modifying one too much.


Cheers
Rob

A wasp has a chassis. I would personaly prefer to see it on a rodeo with a v6 isuzu as far as keeping it original if you get a ridgy didge original one in need of a resto keep it that way. But if you can recover one that had no future before you got it what does it matter.
my 2 cents worth.
A perfect example is on a trip to brissie last week we saw a colt wedged between two other cars heading for scrap, i would rather see it on a drag strip chev powerd it still would have been preserved.

i think the only problem you would have with swapping the cab to a different chassis, is finding one that would fit it.....as they arent exactly the roomiest or widest cabs around.

Any live wasp is a bonus ,in total agreeance with Greg if it can be salvaged do so.
GT's like wise take a look at Patches by Orphanage it will live another life.
Try to save what you can ,If its totaly original try to keep it that way if its a basket case do the best you can
cheers ken

well said mate. i believe that there are a lot of cars with potential out there that just go to waste, as the owners have no idea of their value.

Start with a Chev LUV chassis
KB

how common are the chev LUV's though? i had never heard of one of them either before i joined this forum

Okay ... , I was asking about making a complete cab out of fibreglass or composite, not using an original cab; as the Wasp cab looks reasonably easy to take a molds off of.
Just some random thoughts.

The reason I thought of Hilux chassis is they handle well and are reasonable small compared to some of the others.

YES, if I found one I would restore it, I was thinking these thoughts as they are hard to find.

Cheers
Rob

problem is here that the KB20/Luv is too wide.
believe it or not, the Wasp and Luv chassis' look the same, but the Luv one is 3 inches wider. Isuzu added the extra to them right down the middle, so the Wasp body is to narrow.
the early Rodeo's used the Luv chassis too.
basicly, anything that bolts to a Wasp that ISN'T governed by width, like the front suspension arms, ball joints, diff centre, etc, are common between them all, but anything that IS, like steering drag link, diff housing, axles, etc, won't interchange.
cheers.

Just put flares on it!
KB

Cut the body in half widen it 3" put it on a luv chassis & fit a chev motor

You keep bringing the chev idea up.Go on you know you want to.The wasp chassis is allready boxed in.They even have a gbox tunnel the can be unbolted its just begging for it.Shorten a diff from a late model 4x4 with a air lokka equiped.I have not mesured one up but if you want i have one in the boat if you are serious.I had a gen 3 out of a ss commo with a six speed in the shed for a long time but it now resides in a lj torana.
What disc brake front end was used in pr91's wasp.I would assume luv or rodeo with a booster i cant see why you couldn't do this mod.The length of the engine bay would be the next issue.I mesured a swb pajero for the gen 3 it was possible but fire wall mods were needed.
The only reason you would want to change chassis is if you didn't have one.

whoa we are getting serious now!

u would assume correctly with the Rodeo discs. they go straight onto the Wasp stubs. Still needs a caliper bracket made to do the conversion tho, as the Rodeo bracket is cast into the upright as one piece.
the whole Rodeo upright will bolt onto on, but as the steering arms are in a totally different position to the Wasp arms, using the Rodeo units as a whole would create a highly dangerous amount of bump-steer. also, the castor bars on the Wasp front end foul if the Rodeo upright is used, so basicly, it's a case of using the Wasp uprights and fitting the Rodeo discs to them.
i used Rodeo calipers, but if i had my time again, i'd look around for something else, as the brackets were a complete b-tard to design and make. i'm sure there would be an easier option now, but i'm happy with it anyway.
and yep, it has a VH44 booster.
oh, and KB20's/Luv's never had discs from new. the Rodeo was the first to have them.

slight firewall mods are needed to fit a V6 common-bore engine, around the rear-mounted throttle body area.
as a V6 chev would be carbied, i'd guess that it might go straight in.
having said this, any V8 would need firewall mods, for sure. i'll let you know when i get to dropping the 308 goes in my 2nd Wasp 'old-skool drag car'....
damn, i've said too much!!

cheers.

Now we're thinking.

Fibreglass body, widen 3" fitted to LUV or Rodeo chassis, V6 or V8, tubbed, low and good rubber.

Will the Rodeo windscreen fit the widen body without too many mods to the cab roofline is my next question?

Colour, pearl version of the std Wasp blue

Cheers
Rob

now we're waaaaaaaaaaay off topic.... but anyway!!
the rodeo screen is a totally different shape to the kb/luv, which is heaps different again to the wasp.
rodeo's use there own screen, kb/luv's use a florian screen (the kb/luv is all flo panels, glass, dash, etc from the b pillasr forward), and the wasp uses an early bellett sedan screen.
but hey, if we're making a fibreglass body, we can make any screen fit. or any other part for that matter!

hmm, you wouldnt be able to legally drive a v8 wasp on the road though? unless it goes on the engine capacity, in which case you could probably use a 1UZ-FE, or if you are really desperate i think the land rover v8's were a 3.8 or 3.9? either way there would be a lot of cutting, welding and fabricating would be needed. i tell you what though, it would be awesome to have a bellett team build project.

okay ... V8 hmmm, but ... how about a multi-turbo diesel, fibreglass tube framed Wasp styleside ...

Isuzu diesel if one can be found that is small enough to fit a KB/Luv sized Wasp !?

Cheers
Rob


Will see if I still have my old Rodeo and Gemini wagon drawings.


Maybe we should move this thread or parts to somewhere more appropriate for such musing's ?

Nothing wrong with 305 chev trick turbo 350 trans short t/shaft &shortened 9"rear

i think you may be right RobSA, might ned to get the mod's to move to a different section? help us out here dave!