Dear Donkey.....

[Farmer]

A nice story mate, & good to see the pics, thanks.
Tricky photo playing there at the end, I'd like to know how to do that so I can try all different colours on before the Wasp gets done. Suffice to say it won't be 'Wasp blue'.

I don't recall you ever showing us the little friend under the tent. Might this happen??

Cheers, Matt.

[GerryBellettGT]

Great set of Photo's Geoff, just happened to get one of you, Master in Motion, was wondering if my old Tear Drop could have grazed in the same paddock as Donkey at some stage,have another present for Donkey when we catch up Gerry

[BULLITT]

hey gerry mate ...safe on those bricks ...no probs ...what exactly were you doing with the axe ? and is that qld rego on the blue machine and looks like a breaker breaker ....2 way aeriel on the towbar ..any more shots cheers davo

[GerryBellettGT]

No mobile phones back then Davo,ten 4 rubber ducky,the axe closest thing to a hammer to get the drum off,plenty of more photo's but could be a bit embarrassing,besides this is Donkey's story and a great one at that Gerry

[BULLITT]

sorry mate wasnt trying to push in on donkeys page ...bloody unbelievable how geoff has done the other cars in his reflection ..smart man ..out of my league ...took me ages to learn how to use a compi comppoot ah geez you know what i mean cheers davo

[Stickman]

Thanks for the photo Gerry that's cool as and Donkey looks forward to his treat with much anticipation.

...and for the curiosity of Farmer Matt and all others, here are a few pics of Donkeys younger brother Billy.
His name I think is fitting for 2 reasons.....

1. I once had a Budgie called Billy that was the same blue as this car &
2. The previous owner was Bill Buys in WA


The first 4 photos are as when owned and raced by Bill and are actually the photos from when he listed it on Ebay

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This is Billy being loaded onto transport ready for his big trip from Perth to Brisbane

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This is Billy (with Donkeys stockos) sitting under the house I used to live in, he now resides at my brothers place (as seen in pic under temporary tent) waiting patiently for some repairs/mods

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Billy's towers need to be fixed, also to get QLD rego some mods have to be blue plated to meet QLD compliance ie: the Galant disc brakes need a boosted twin piston master cylinder fitted (still orig non boosted single) + I have to get the front seats either put back to std or make new mounts that comply (whats there was done by dodgy brothers WA) and get inertia reel seat belts and mounts (dodgy brothers also) replaced with new to meet compliance also.
Other than that there's not a lot needed, some minor rust in back passenger door and a clunk in the back end to be sussed out and it's happy days.
Will give him a cage and race seats and harnesses one day so that I can go out and play with GT Orph but that will be after Donkey gets his facelift.

[Farmer]

Ah-haaaaaa, I remember the listing and thinking, "so far away....." What a nice little car, and yet another polynesian blue strip taillight. (Not that they're common - '69s are pretty scarce!)
Shame about the red tape, are they any easier on cars for historic rego? Or perhaps the mods exclude it from that?
It will be nice to see him at the nationals wunnathese days.

Thanks for showing and for saving,
Cheers, Matt.

[Stickman]

We all love red tape but.....
the red tape isn't too much of an issue for this car though, it's more the shoddy way that the mods have been done.
A blind man must have welded the seat brackets together out of scrape steel found at the tip, seat belt floor mounts are just a couple of bits of hacked off 40mm angle bolted to the floor and the brakes although being front disc conversion may as well been left as drums as the rest of the system hasn't been improved to cater for them. No booster, just orig single piston master. Donkeys drums work better

When the Gemini engine was fitted the drivers side engine mount was butchered to clear the front mount oil filter but they still couldn't clear it properly so the engine has been fitted on a slight angle and some of the wiring is a bit dodgy too.
In WA you don't have to have an engineer certify mods like these so sometimes dodgy things go unnoticed till you pay top dollar (Violent Crumble would have been a MUCH better deal) and get them to the other side of the country.

I had a mate in Perth give the car a look over and test drive before I purchased but needless to say that these were things that I don't expect he would have noticed or known as anything wrong anyway.
Wish I'd bought Bill's son Rob's car (orange car below) instead but I wasn't aware of it until after I had purchased this blue one (it was half the price & rough as guts - more my style)
Ya get that


Wish I bought this instead.
Rob's car - now living somewhere in Tassie (by a forum member????)

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[Stickman]

One interesting thing about Billy is that he is an EX South African car, shipped to WA in the 80's so not even an Aussie delivered car

[BULLITT]

yes but still a nice looking car ...ironically the orange one did go to tassie and is owned by james darvas hes the guy who threw us off with his teardrop tailight early grille and late dash he is doing the orange one up ..see james acar on griceys ..help help help ,,,cheers davo

[Stickman]

Argh that's who got it, might get to see it at 2014 Tassie nationals maybe.

[BULLITT]

looks like deluxe stainless window frames ...........cheers davo

[Stickman]

I went to have a play in Donkey yesterday as I haven't driven him since Merimbula (short shaft uni's still cactus)
So I started him up (all good so far) give him a little choke till he warms up (still good) went into the shed to get my sunnies then heard what can only be described as the sound of a duck being squeezed like bagpipes under someones armpit
WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!
I raced out to Donkey and oil is pouring out underneath!
Seems the gasket between the block and oil filter blew it's guts and pumped about 3ltr of oil onto the ground.
Lucky it happened at home is all I can say.

Oh Donkey, your such an ass

[gt orphanage]

donkey needs lovin sticky we are looking at south aus in just over 7 monhts mn i have to get around to fitting a new quarter glass in ol yella and a grill in patches before then and maybe a hot engine in patches may go in also the old one is sad.

[Stickman]

Yeah I know, he tells me every day that 'all he needs is love' (lut da dardar da darr) 'all he needs is love, love, love is all he needs'. But the old goat can't seem to hold a note, or his oil

I've made Donkey a new ratter grill for SA Nationals, just gotta fab a couple of brackets then it's done but there'll be no pic's posted, it's a surprise for the Nationals Dave is gonna love it. Some QLDers will no doubt get a sneak peak before then.

I've scored some maintenance/reno work in Ipswich for the next 2-3 weeks then 3-5 weeks at Annerley painting a house for a repeat client from last year then I'll have some cash to fix a few things on Donkey. Anything to stop him singing. I've had no work since end December so living on bread and water again but next couple of weeks I'm flat chat again so all good.
I'll bring Donkey up for a play with his brothers and sisters then.

[Redzone]

So it looks like this is the car I got from redcliffe in 1998 as a parts car for my girlfriend's 67 auto! She lived at Valdora, between nambour & coolum qld...

[gt orphanage]

I have asked the question I don't know if it is the same car Dave.

[oz_toffa]

always wondered about the donkey Love, Sticky.

that was until we did a Vic trip and there was donkey on the property. i think we all fell in love with him just a little. they are the most unusual animals and quite intelligent and more like a big dog than a horse, if you get my comparison.

and as always, Donkey only craps in one big pile. sounds like yours is still keeping his end of the bargain.

Did buys some parts from Bill and wondered where his family cars ended up. he writes a good motoring article as well.


OZ

[Stickman]

A bit of a Donkey update....
As we are all keenly aware the SA Nationals are almost upon us and Donkey has been very sad to say the least.
Buggered short shaft uni's, stuffed front L/H lower ball joint, stuffed front bearings, oil filter mount gasket blowouts, filter canister O ring seal issues and last but not least, he no longer wants to start at all

Something needs to be done so we are off to the Orphanage for the weekend
Donkey loaded and ready to go on Friday arvo

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Donkey has made it to the Orphanage right on sunset

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Saturday morning it's up the hoist and drop his pants for hip replacement surgery

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We worked and laughed into the evening while Mr Orphanage gave us his best renditions of some of his favorite songs

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Myself, Russel and Adam had a ball, then dinner, then a sleep over, then back into the fun and games again Sunday morning.
The ultimate Bellett working bee weekend (Donkey wasn't the only one needing surgery) that was topped off with a flying visit from Occa and Trish

Thanks Greg and Lizzie for your help and hospitality.
Donkey is smiling again and raring to go to SA

[BULLITT]

GREAT STUFF DONKEY GETS A RACE AFTER SPELLING FOR A WHILE (A-B-C d ---) NOT THAT SORT OF SPELLING DAVO oH LOOKING GOOD MATE READY FOR THE NEXT ADVENTURE ..KEEP AT IT ..ITS A LEGEND ....CHEERS DAVO