Heya!
First post here, figured I'd drop in an say hi! I'm currently living in Japan and have a recently restored 1967 Mitsubishi 360 and a recently acquired 1973 Bellett 1800 GT that I'm starting to restore. Back in the states I have a 1971 Fairlady Z in mid restoration and a 1988 300ZX SS waiting in the stables.

Heard about this site from Japanese Nostalgic Car and sounded right up my alley. Looks like you guys have some fantastic Bellett information floating around on here and I'll most likely be calling upon that and your knowledge during my restoration!

Cheers
David

welcome mate, nice to have you here! love what you did with the mitsubishi 360, thats a seriously cool car! cant wait to see what you do with the bellett!

Cheers Dave

Look forward to following your car work on the site and sure hope we can contribute to help you complete your restoration.
Keep up the posts and plenty of pics are always welcome.

OZ

Welcome

Welcome Nakazoto !! Nice to see some serious Bellettists as yourself on here, instead of being "SPAMMED". Looking forward to blue GT resto. Enjoy Bellett Net, dude !!

B.

Welcome aboard,good to see a rarer ( in Australia ) model.Will watch progress with interest....
KB

Welcome to the site Dave
Keep us up to date with the 1800 resto

Hope you're OK up there bud!

David ("Nakazoto") shows his location as Nagoya, from what I can find out on the 'net this wasn't much affected by the tsunami but was shaken a bit by the 'quake. It'd be nice to hear from him to be sure he's OK

Are you out there David? Are you OK?

Cheers, Vic

Good call guys!

Not taking anything away from the Qld floods or the Vic fires of two years ago, but the issues in Japan are making them look like kids games.

Fingers crossed to Nakazoto David and any other Bellett owners over in Japan, forum users or otherwise. Hell, goodwill and kind wishes to everyone over there.

As I always say at a time like this; lives can be rebuilt but classic cars are only original once and they don't make them anymore*.


Cheers,

Dave

*I am being facetious.**

**mostly

Thanks for the well wishes guys!
Nagoya did feel the quake but we had no damage or even any injuries at all! Didn't even knock the empty beer bottles off my desk. It's really weird actually because I look outside and there isn't any panic, it's sunny, everything is just as it was. If I hadn't been checking the news I wouldn't have even known there was a tsunami or reactor problem. I know it's only about 300 miles north but it feels like a completely different country. There is quite a bit of media induced panic going on that's awfully frustrating, but that's what you expect out of the media (especially the American media, they really got my mother worried).
Tokyo is operating almost as normal and background radiation levels are actually less than they are in other big cities like NYC or LA. The only things really hindering Tokyo are the power outages on the north side of the city and limited train service. Everything north of that though is really heartbreaking. Absolutely mind numbing images of destruction. Very sobering and incredibly sad. I pray for those up there with no heat, water, food or homes.

Thank you all for the kind wishes and restoration of the Bellett will proceed as normal (as soon as I build up some spare cash, my daily finally bit the dust so I had to by a new one (ended up with a 2000 Toyota Chaser, not a bad car)).

Thanks again guys,
Cheers
David

That's great news, and good that much of the country is as normal - necessary for getting the effected parts back on their feet.
I know what you mean about the media - I was watching an early report out of the U.S. and they were trying to give an idea of how the Tsunami may effect other countries. They had the Quake pinpointed off the coast of Japan and a wave pattern for the Pacific. Problem was they had Japan located where New Zealand is!! Up where Japan should be they had nothing - just the coast of China! Looked pretty dire for the east coast of Aus too - we were in the red bit!
Someone had gone to a lot of trouble - just a shame they didn't look at an Atlas first.
Scarey indeed, if the Quake had been big enough th shift Japan ONTO New Zealand!

Thanks for letting us know. Stay safe,
Matt.

Yeah good news that things are OK up your way and the projecto-Beretsuto will proceed as planned!

Cheers,

Dave

Nice to hear that you're OK David.

What follows is a bit of a rambling begging letter - please don't feel obliged to help, particularly if it would be a nuisance. Anyway, as you might be aware, Isuzu started out after the war building Hillmans under licence to Rootes in the UK - they built them until 1964, if interested you can find my history of the cars in the Bellett History section of this forum. Some of those Hillmans still exist in Japan; I've seen them advertised for sale http://exchange.goo-net.com/usedcars/sp ... 03001.html ; there is one in the Toyota museum; I have seen a video of a national Isuzu Club meeting where one was present and they appear in Japanese magazines from time to time.

Now, I am actually a Hillman owner, it was because I wanted to explore the Isuzu-Hillman history that I joined this forum. I have stayed because there are such great group. You may have noticed that last year I organised a calendar for forum members (thread here viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1071). Well I do a similar calendar for a Hillman group that I am a member of.

I am always on the lookout for pictures for these calendars, and I would dearly love to have one of a genuine Isuzu Minx. I can't use the ones on the Internet because they are generally too low in resolution to print well, and because I don't have the copyright. So here is the begging part. If you ever see one of these Minxes, I would really love a digital photo of it (it would need to be reasonably good resolution, from a camera rather than a phone). As I say, please don't go to any trouble, but if you are in a position to help it would be much appreciated.

Many thanks, Vic

HI VIC DID YOU SEE THE MINX FOR SALE ON GUMTREE AT PENRITH IN SYDNEY ITS A 1952 MKV THE ROUNDY SHAPE, MOTOR HAS BEEN REPLACED CAR LOOKS ALL THERE BUT.... ITS THE EARLY MODEL THE GUYS PHONE NUMBER ,,,FROM THE ADD IS 04515588590 REGARDS DAVO

SORRY VIC I THOUGHT ID GOT YOU SOMETHING BUT FURTHER RESEARCH IN DROIN THERS A 52 MODEL DONE 53.000 MILES REAL MINT AND ITS $3900 ON GUMTREE AS WELL REGARDS DAVO

Hi Davo,

Thanks for pointing them out; They are the model before the one that Isuzu started out building in 1953, similar mechanically, slightly different styling. A bit old for my taste (I like '60s cars) but I'll let the other Hillmaniacs know - someone might be interested. The prices give an idea of how under-appreciated Hillmans are in the classic car market: $3900 for that car in Drouin - imagine how much a 1952 Holden in similar condition would fetch.

Cheers, Vic