Many of you will remember the blue 66 Teardrop sedan that Ross trailer'd all the way from South Australia to the 2016 National meet in Albury. He was selling it as part of his fund raising efforts for the Cancer Counsel's Shitbox Rally.







Well I ended up being the one to buy it (surprise surprise) and have FINALLY made the journey back down south to pick it up from Gricey's place (massive shout out of thanks to Jim and Cheryl for storing the car for my for so long too andputting up with my intrusion for a few days...... again )
I've even bought a commemorative car badge to go on the teardrop that I got from another guy doing his own fundraising for this years Shitbox Rally







I was lucky enough to get use of the bosses work truck over the holidays which gave me the opportunity to arrange for the purchase and pickup of another car at the same time, as well as help out Peter Mckill by delivering some parts down for his new 117.

So the parts and some loading ramps along with a swag were all loaded and secured on the back of the truck then bright and early on the morning of Dec 26th I hit the road
It was a great trip down, taking some of those off the beaten track roads I love to drive so much. Found some great new road trippin' roads for future Nationals trips too. I saw some beautiful countryside and experienced all sorts of weather conditions along the way including being blanketed with hail near Armidale.

The trailer tracked a bit weird behind the truck on the way down and when I got to Gricey's and backed the trailer into the paddock to load the teardrop the reason why became clear. The center locating pin on one of the sets of leafsprings had broken and allowed the front axle so move backward and forward a few inches. So trailer was jacked up and leafspring was pulled apart and center bolt replaced.
Although there must have been some damage done to the tyre also because I later had a blowout after picking the second car up from Wagga Wagga
















And of course what is a roadtrip with Belletts if you don't do at least 1 lap around Australia most famous mountain











And of course there is the mandatory photo from the top of my favorite mountain top dirt road









And finally the morning after arriving back home in sunny QLD with my new babies

Two more saved, you little beauty Stickman! Thats a big trip, but a fun trip too.
The collection grows!
Matt.

Always good to read of your adventures Stickman and your photo's,went on a little trip myself today in the Tassie Devil,scored a few things Bellett related form an old collector,maybe something for you if you haven't got,will talk soon,Gerry

It was a fairly big trip (approx 3000km return) considering one of the cars is a bare shell with parts thrown in. But when some of those parts include a full NOS 3 bearing rebuild kit and 5 extra NOS orig metal exhaust gaskets (suit cast head) and an early sump gasket, as well as a fully rebuilt starter motor.
It was well worth the $500 asking price and the trip to collect it with the other car instead of just getting the teardrop transported up with a freight mob, which was the original plan.
The shell is virtually rust free and straight and comes with the added bonus of Lichen growing on it I really hope I can save that wondrous feature when it comes time to doing something with that car.
I LOVE the Lichen
Has no engine, gearbox, diff or even wiring harness but all those things came as loose parts with it, plus hubcaps, extra wish arms, rear swing arms (out of a 64 me thinks as they are none grease-able) teardrop bumper overiders, vg square tail lights, badges........ blah blah blah the list goes on.....

The collection grows indeed

Thanks mate, I'm glad you came along for the ride, wouldn't have been as fun without you

Good to hear you got the Tassie Devil out for a run and always exciting when the trip include finding some bits too.
Looking forward to our next catch up.
Hoping to do an OSJCC run inc BBQ lunch some where soon so hopefully you have the day off when the time comes

A little bit of info on the Corolla wheels on the ex-Ross Bellett.

They were on my grandfather's car, a yellow KE70 Corolla which he bought new in 1983.

A native of Northmead in Sydney, when he gave up driving in 1993, the car was sent to us in SA. My mum drove it around first, then my sister, who knocked it around a little bit.

In about 2003, it was sold to an acquaintance of my mum, who replaced the motor with an 1800cc OHC Hiace motor, installed a factory tacho, factory aircon and even found a guard at the wreckers in the same colour with the same pinstripe to replace the one that my sister dented.

A while later, he replaced the wheels with a set of 15in Performance Minilites and gave me the old wheels back!

He sold the car and it was written off a few weeks later. Boooo!

However, the wheels live on!

Love hearing the history Dave
And it looks like the wheels will be going full circle then (pardon the pun) as Donkey is rolling on these wheels atm and we will be in Sydney for the ICCA's 50th anniversary this coming weekend

Rest assured the wheels will live on for some time longer yet.........

Awesome!

Well Dave your grandfathers wheels have rolled through Sydney once again....
I am spending tonight at the "Crown on McCredie" in Guildford West.










Unfortunately Donkey was only running on 3 cylinders with the temp gauge kissing the top line for the last 300km of the trip down here but needless to say I reckon he'll get me the 1200km back home again....... hopefully