All my Belletts at some stage. My first was the blue/green one. Then i got placed into the yellow one with much dissaproval as i loved my first car but it had a lot of issues which my dad/ brothers got sick of fixing, such as the exaust falling off 7 times. I went through 3 carbies lol. It had endless problems over and over but gave me good 5 years of driving pleasure and proudness!!! I then moved into the yellow for a while then was placed into the Deluxe which was a luxury and beautiful smooth driving but handled like a boat on a choppy bay!! Was terrible! I loved these cars. Am proud to have grown up with them and wish I had one now. Mine was quite unique compared to the others as it had a push button starter. You would turn the ignition on and push a button to start. Not so unusual? It also had a button under the bonnet to start it! Which came in handy many a hundred times when it would break down due to muck in the carby. I'd have to start it via that button and put my hand over the carby to suck out the gunk then off i'd go again lol I miss that car!

Welcome Simmy
Good to see old pics ( around what year was this one?).
Any more old "Bellett pics"?
KB

Welcome Simmy
Great Pics,
Isn't it funny you can drive a Bellett that's constantly breaking down or has problems
and come away with great memories and loving every minute of it!
When the same thing happens in a new car the memories aren't quite so great!!
Josh

Oh what i loved about it was that I could usually fix it myself. Except this one time, I was in Rosebud. My freind had one of those bits of metal sticking up out of the centre of their driveway where teh gates would latch into and i looked at it thiking, this probably isnt a good idea but was told to bring car in off the street. So i drove over it and it ripped my whole entire exaust system off at the engine lol. I had to drive home from Rosebud that night, With windows down so i didnt pass out from the fumes. I had socks over my hands to keep them warm lol. I was freezing cold.Tired and Tired from the fumes but the car was that blinking loud it kinda kept me awake lol. I drove down through frankston and saw some cops on the other side which had pulled somone over. I was panicking that they'd pull me over for the sheer volume my car was putting out. I managed to idle down the hill past them luckily lol. They did look though. Another time i was driving along a country road out where i lived , it was around midnight. Not many houses out there. I heard this loud bang and looked out my rear vision mirror and saw sparks flying out the back of the car lol.. It had dropped the exaust again lol. I got a rag out of the boot and tied it to my bumper bar and drove home lol. I always had a torch handy!! No mobile phones in those days.


$5 petrol would give me 1/4 tank!! That would take me miles and miles! I had a sticker stuck on my sun visor telling me what the commmon speed limits were in my car. So basically i had miles on my speedo but dad converted them to the common KM limitss so i'd know. I soon learnt and still to this day remember the conversions! one time when young and silly i recall doing 160kms an hour back from some countrypub where i'd been watching a band i knew. Just my girlfreind and my dog in the car. I was completely amazed my car did that speed! I had the original engine in it and like i said in earlier, it lasted me a good 5 years and it was only because of the exaust falling off 7 times and 3 or more carby replacements that i had to get rid of it.. I remember also having to buy holden shockers from kmart to fit it. We had to replace them quite often due to living on dirt roads. My brother had to cut them down to size to fit though. What do they use now?

I drove it for about a week once without brakes, Or slight brakes for 30 seconds at a time lol. My master cylinder had a leak and they'd slow when you first put your foot on the brake but then would bleed out. I had to use common sense and the gears to slow down. didnt get to the stage of having to use rubbish bins and curbs to stop me lol. I learnt a lot about cars from having the Bellett. I would tell my dad/ bro's what was wrong with it by the noises it made. I would give them the idea what i thought it was and they'd take it from there. One day i had to replace carby again. This time my horrible big brother told me to do it myself. I proclaimed that "i couldnt!!! " he said yes i could . I had the tools and the manual and there was no way i could stuff it up so i could do it. So i did. I was so pleased with myself. I was taught when ifirst got my car how to change tyres etc. People just dont learn that now days! I was in the racv but majority of the times i rang them was due to flat battery or running out of petrol lol.

My dad brought this car for me for a steal. He saw it advertised and went to warrandyte to check it out. Turned out a young lass who had moved to england owned it. she had asked her parents to sell it as she wasnt coming back in a hurry. They had set a price but my dad likes to haggle for a bargain. As they didnt know anything about cars he went on to tell them how much work it needed for RWC and REG etc. All the things it had wrong iwth it etc. He walked away paying $50 for it!!!! He then paid another $100 for new (second hand) gearbox as this one had no syncro in 1st gear. Dad said it would have been a bit harder to drive, that was all. So i went off and got rwc check. Had to fix washers (werent working) Indicator lenses were dull and indicator didnt blink quick enough! My big bro is an auto elec so we went to his work, got a new flasher can, fixed, dad replaced washer unit and i suggested we buy an orange permanent marker and colour in the lenses! Dad was wrapped. It worked! gOT THE rwc and went off to vicroads. In those days no appointment required. Dad told me NOT to talk about the washers and the unit he put in was tempermental! They didnt even try them as they didnt know anything about Belletts and dindt know it had them. They passed it and it was registered. I took it to get insurance. They picked on a couple of bits of rust on the outside corners of the bumper bar and that was it! All done in one day and on the road!! Then i got my licence and was happy as a pig in poop! That car did some amazing 4 wheel driving feats too lol god i miss it!

Most Bellett owners I would say carry some tools and a torch and if you were going any distance some spares (mobile phone or not) .
I got into Bellett's thanks to a friend (oz_toffa on the forum) I just needed a car to drive
and he knew of a car available (I wasn't convinced as I had had Holdens and Fords)
and wasn't that fussed with the style.
But once I got into it and started driving it In was hooked, since then I have had quite a few
Sedans and a couple of Florians, 20 years later still hooked!
Funny part is that first car I sold to a friend (again needed a car quickly), he was 6 foot 2 and a big boy (looked quite interesting in a Bellett) and the first thing he did was drive it to Queensland with a friend, sat on about 125Kmh all the way and the only thing that went wrong was a spark plug lead, which they used some coat hanger wire to get them to next town.
He Loved it!
Recently 3 of us traveled to the Nationals at Coona from Adelaide, 2 sharing the Bellett driving duties and me in the 4wd following, the Bellett used 13L of oil and about the same in water getting there.
We put some treatments in it and on the way back it was still using a reasonable amount of water and oil, the clutch started slipping and halfway back the windscreen got smashed and the motor died.....even then we still had a laugh.
One of the oil leaks was through the fuel pump, wasn't a problem as most of guys carried spares at the nationals!
Early holden shocks are still the go, quite a lot of spares are still available, and the forum is great for finding out the part numbers (or equivalents).
Also most will be more than happy to sell, swap or locate any other parts you may need!
Every where you go people comment on the cars, on one of the recent cruises we had stopped at a pub for lunch, people in the car park were trying to work out what they were and when they were made, one of them came in to find out from us the details.
Another one, we were stopped just before we went our separate ways when a gentleman pulled up to take some photos of the cars and began telling us about his Bellett, which wound up being one we had picked up from a farm and I had given to a friend to get him into a Bellett.
They both worked in the same town and he had seen it driving around.
These stories are always cropping up, that's why the history of the cars in half the fun!
Josh

Great stories Simmy.
My first Bellett was as a result of my sister having a boyfriend who drove one. I liked the car and how it drove os when i was licensed and had some money from the bank, $1500 as my first loan, i bought a auto bellett from a mate of my dad's who lived in Qld. He drove it down and i did lots of stuff to that car including twin carbs and extractors, hot dog mufflers and one day the auto would take 3 miles of driving to change into top gear so out it came. Headed of to wreckers in western sydney and took EVERYTHING i needed to change ove auto to manual. Started on a sat morning and realized once my auto was all removed i needed a spigot bearing for the manual trans input shaft. Quick drive to penrith and the local bearing company didnt have one in stock.
So it all went back in for the week and the next weekend, bearing in hand, we did the conversion.
Also drove that car down to Melbourne and over to Adelaide on a holiday. did have my exhaust fall off on a bumpy road out of Wagga and drove it for another 4 hours till i was able to repair with fencing wire. Always carried tools in my boot and the car was adopted by my brother who did up all the interior and re-sprayed it. He took it to Canberra and it was parked outside some flats where he was staying off and on and one day he came home to find it was gone. it had no rego and i reckon local council towed it.
Since being in Adelaide, i have been wrecking and repairing Bellett's for 30 years. had 10 cars in my back yard at one stage and my kids used to jump between the roofs and pretend drive in them. My wife's sedan was meant to be a purchase for a friend but they didnt have the money so i bought it for her. Still have it at home even though she is pretty tired.
Sounds like you have plenty of history there and still have some choices of car to get on the road with the cars Dad still has kicking around. The easy way is to buy a car in good condition.
My last purchase was a very nice Deluxe Sedan out of Melbourne. Could not have built a car for what i paid for it.
Do hope you can get along to the BCCV meetings or even a Annual Bellett meeting. They are a great way to connect to people and share the Bellett experience. Am sure there are cars around in Melbourne if you talk to the right people if you feel yours is too much work.
Looking foward to following along with your Bellett re-birth. Keep the pics and posts coming.

Cheers

OZ

yep, all about who u know around here, not what u know... coz alot of them in melbourne aren't on bellett.net.
young mitchmcd's sedan proves that!

I'm sure with my dads know how and the boys i do know and you guys on here. I'd be pretty good! I also still have an original manual if worse comes to worse lol