Rumour was last year that a wasp was in coona,round the corner from the pub this turned out to be true just about 5km's from the pub and a few corner's. This wasp was found behind a house the next rumour was that it was in bad condition and the owner would not budge on $700 and a forum member had some photo's and the loction of this car. I had a look at the photo's and decided it was not worth the effort to recover it home.
It was announced on sunday that this ute was for sale if anyone was interested to my knowledge no one was interested including myself. Later sunday i was heading to the motel and Lindsay and Dave cq were outside my room talking and out of the blue i spoke of the wasp and came up with the decision that we look at the wasp and if there was enough bits that we needed between us we would buy it wreck it and gricey would trailer it to the dump?
The trip began with a small convoy to see if the bits we all wanted were in place. On arrival we find a teardrop sedan rip not even worth wrecking. We looked around it for a little while with the threat of a sanke poping out at any time . As we headed towards the rear of the house where the wasp was the owner turned up he asked what we thought of it as we all looked on amazed and now a little confused as we found it to be in a restorable condition better than the cars we were after parts for. As we all stood around a little confused as we now had 3 buyers and 1 wasp the owner was a little confused as no one was saying much only a few suggestions on how much work was involved in repairing this old thing heading for a price reduction. Gricey let's rip with too much for me boy's and walks off with the owner in toe.[i think the rust in the sill scared him it was around the size of 20 cent's and this is the only rust].
As we all looked at this find ol mate's talking to gricey saying i dont think they are interested we were interested all right the problem was who was goinig to buy it . while we were woking this out gricey is working the owner. when we walked back to the owner gricey signaled a fair offer which i proposed and he accepted and Lindsay forked the cash. WELL DONE LINDSAY. The wasp was picked up in a short time and is now on route to qld where it will be restored. We laughed at the adventure all afternoon and shared a few drinks around the trailer.

Oooooh what a feeling.!!! Toyota corolla engine. Air in tyres. --Free. Best looking steering wheel in a vehicle of that vintage I've ever seen. Comments on the day. Doors are not interchangeable with sedan. Locks and top of frame. Mudguards have a larger flare. Says the big fella with the stubbies and thongs. Wink wink,nudge nudge, just go along with me on this fellas. Too right. STINGER.
As the 'orphanage' said. Only rust was in sills that we could see. Imaculate cab.
I dont think a quick polish to bring it up for roadworthy would do the trick. The exposed seat springs wouldn't pass.
Lindsay. You've bought a unit that will save you time in repair if you had to work on 'Woorolin' or the 'Dubbo' utes to
bring it up to standard.
My Wasp project is too far away to have entertained in buying it. And I think I have enough parts in the 2 that I have
to complete 1. If I don't. There's always the 'Wishlist' or wanted to buy or exchange in the forum.
Dave.

A good wash, a coat of satin clear, some recycled boards for the flatbed and a mexi rug to hide the seat springs is all it would need for me.
It is a beautiful time capsule.

Well that's my 2 cents worth.

Wonder who's got it now.

Great story Orphanage except for the sanke popping out . Sounds scary whatever it is.
Anyhow someone give us some photos please.

what picks of the sanke

HI GUYS JUST GOT HOME FROM BALI WHAT A GREAT HOLLIDAY DIDNT SEE ANY BELLETTS /FLORIANS DID SEE SOME ISUZUS A 4WD DRIVE TYPE RAV 4 CALLED A PANTHER ..I THINK I HAVE SOME SHOTS WHICH I WLL POST ALSO SAW A CHEVVY LUV FULL OF VEGES (NOT PEOPLE) REAL FRUIT NOT IN BOXES JUST PILED IN THE BACK ...I DONT KNOW WHOS BEEN THERE ...WE DID LOVE THE SHOPPING AND FOOD ..GEEZ WE ARE IN A GREAT COUNTRY....THE DRIVERS ARE CRAZY SOS THE ROAD RULES THERE IS PLENTY POVERTY AND YET YOU PASS A FERARI ,MASERATI,AND PORCHE IN CONVOY KINDA LIKE THE QLD COONA BOYS DRIVE HOME .I DID GO TO THE MANILLA GOLD MINE BOY WHAT AN EXPERIENCE DIDNT GET THE BLUE BELLETT GERRY I WAS 25 YRS TOO LATE SPOKE TO THE PREVIOUS OWNER ,AND I NEARLY ...NEARLY HAD A WASP ...WAS GOING AROUND TO PAY FOR IT AND I HAD HIM AT $200 THEN HE SAID THAT SOMEONE ELSE WAS INTERESTED AT MORE $$$$ I PULLED OUT .....(JOKING ..I DONT WANT A WASP ....) I AM STILL TO TEST THE PR90 ITS A FAIR DRIVE AND IM PRETTY FLAT AT THE MOMENT....MONETARY AND WORK WISE THANKS AGAIN FOR A GREAT MEETING PLACE AT COONA IT WAS ONE OF THE A HIGHLIGHTS OF MY YEAR MEETING YOU AL....L NOW I PLACE THE FACE ,GLAD WE ALL GOT HOME SAFE.AND ON WITH OUR NEW PROJECTS FOR NEXT YEAR THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT AT MY GIG ..AND LASTLY BRETT I STILL OWE YOU THAT BEER I HAVNT FORGOTTEN ....IM PLANNING NOW FOR A CAR NEXT YEAR ..CHEERS TO ALL ..DAVO

Aah the Wasp.

Paul H and Ross from Adelaide actually found this Wasp last year and we all went for a look.

The owner wasn't home and we entered negotiations with his next-door-neighbour who had tried to secure it for her son, despite the fact he was more interested in Commodores.

We left with his phone number; Ross then followed this up when we returned to Adelaide, negotiated a price with him and then advised we'd work out some way of getting it back to Adelaide.

The owner then went off and got the rotten sedan you guys saw; Ross did not ask him to do this; he kind of talked himself into doing it. So then we had the problem of how to get two cars back to Adelaide, one of which we didn't want.

With our import business starting earlier in the year lumping us with about 8 American cars in various storage areas around town, coupled with the fact that we did not have the time nor the resources to go all the way back to Coona to actually pick them up meant that the cars stayed there for the whole 12 months.

I've heard the owner was dirty on Ross for making him get the sedan which we never asked him to do! Anyway, there's no worries - Ross doesn't really have the time to do a resto or modification, while Paul doesn't really have the space or the resources. The other cohorts were myself and Gav Porthouse. He didn't need a Wasp in his life as he had a disassembled sedan at the time while as for me, I have one of the only unrestored Wasps that still drives (sort of; ask Brett about that sometime).

So it's great that it's gone to an enthusiast who will do it up and I have no doubts Lindsay will be getting onto it pronto!!!

We kept it quiet last year because the theory was that nothing is safe until its in your hands... and we were right! But we had plenty of time to get it, if not the opportunity and at the end of the day, as long as it's not going to the scrap dealer, then it's a success story in my opinion.

And truth be known; we spent half the weekend in 2010 just barrelling across the countryside in both Paul's GT and in Gav's Bellett sedan, swapping drivers, exploring the area, trash-talking each other on our handheld UHFs and just enjoying driving around the countryside with good mates in awesome cars. We couldn't have had a better day if we'd tried.

Hopefully we'll see the lost Coona Wasp at Murimbula or Adelaide 2013!!!

Cheers,


Dave

Nice attitude, Dave - No angst! Nice that friends don't get out of joint noses and can be happy for the car. And yeah, eventually we all get to share.

Family.

Cheers, Matt.

Ditto from me too. Great that the stinger has been (eventually) saved.

Gotta say it was a heap of fun discovering the Wasp last year, literally under our noses a few km's up the road. It started with a guy coming up to me on Saturday just as we'd all parked up at lunch, saying he was pretty sure a ute was up the road on the left hand side. Didn't take Ross and I too long post lunch to locate the Wasp. With the owner nowhere to be found, the fun really started, talking to (part negotiation with) the next door neighbour. Turned out the owner was on a cruise ship, couldn't be contacted etc etc. Bugger. Sunday's when the wild goose chase began... Owner's son was apparently assistant manager of Woolies bottle shop in town, so we high-tail it in there, but son not working today........ roster says back in Monday morning, when we're leaving to go home. Double bugger. Then we get told the street in town in which this guy lives, but no idea of the house number, only that he drives a white commodore..... And guess what? Up and down the street we go but no white 'dores in sight. For cryin' out loud, can we just find someone who will sell us the flaming Stinger!!!!!!

Anyway, it was a hell of a lot of fun acting like PI's for the weekend; trying to keep everything quiet etc etc. We did eventually talk with the owner's son Monday morning, but no love and no simpathy at us genuine buyers heading 1700 kays back to Adelaide like now, was forthcoming. Tell you what, it was fun while it lasted, and a good story shared between us.

Glad to read of the next chapter in this Wasp's 'discovery', 12 months on. It amazed us that of all the 'barn-finds' there could have been in Coona's vicinity, the rarest of Aust's Bellett family - a Wasp - was right under our noses (literally 4 minutes from the pub) and within the collective grasp of the 70 odd fanatics in town who would know what it was and would want it badly, given its good condition. Well done gentlemen on securing the Coona Stinger. Very much looking forward to seeing the resto!!!!

Paul.

Another great story,I'am sure this one will stay in OZ,the arrival Sun nite sure
fueled everyone's passion as we all talked BELLETT"S

Gary Carter snapped this one.....


And 'round the back......


A great find. Goodonyezall!

Cheers, Matt.

I would fix the grille and bumper (and engine) and cruise around as-is! I Love patina!

Here here Dave!
Although I think the bumper is fine as it is.
Give's it the 'Dirty Harry' chin effect.

id just get it going and drive it, after checking there werent any more snakes!

flib... u'd have to do an engine and box change coz it's got bloody corolla stuff in it!

Nice find and recovery-----------(good pics too!)
KB

Hey for a second there I thought it was actually a different Wasp, but that would have been too amazing....

When we saw it last year it had a straight bumper!

I wonder what happened between 2010 and 2011 to put it's nose out of joint!

Yeah Brett I did mention it would need the motor fixed (by that I mean thrown away and replaced with Bellett stuff!).

Such patina!






I noticed it still has the original Wasp reverse light same as what is fitted to mine... sans lens, unfortunately.



Cheers,

Dave

an engine box swap back to isuzu shouldnt be too hard, do that and drive it!

stinger will be home for christmas, thanks to bellett friends.