I just discovered this old photo from a few years back. You will notice immediately that the Bellett is rightly some way ahead of much lesser competition. And I thought it only rained in Tassie but a local enthusiast told me that it was the mainland weather that inspired Isuzu to include the 2 speed wipers on the deluxe models
Great Ocean Road 2006 159.jpg (779.46 KiB) Viewed 19274 times
Bellett SEDANS are proof that the gods love us and want us to be happy.
I had one the same model and colour as the yellow peril, was full of GT gear, I think it was ex Sydney car, and full of rust, collected all the good gear out of it an dispatched it to Bellett heaven. Was a shame it had so much rust as it was a short bonnet model, and few and far between. The good part was that through this car I was able to locate my old yellow GT and eventually got it back
I was very lucky that my father kept the yellow peril garaged for the 12 years he had it and the previous owner was the original one who also kept it garaged.
I keep it garaged pretty much all the time except when I'm fixing the puddle of oil under my wife's Triumph LOL!
This was taken when some friends and I toured NW Vic, SE SA and the Great Ocean Road in 2006. the Yellow peril kept up, used less petrol and a lot less oil!!!
Sorry everyone, it s the same photo twice, I'm a slow learner on this stuff.
Can anyone explain the term "short bonnet" model except in obvious terms - when, why, how short, other identiying features etc?
Bellett SEDANS are proof that the gods love us and want us to be happy.
Short bonnet has a infill panel between windscreen and bonnet and the windscreen wipers go the opposite way and has air vents in rear guard. I think late 69 or 70 model.Been around them for 40years but not an expert.
Most bellett and GT's have a bonnet that fits around the mesh cover in the centre of the windscreen so that when the bonnet is open. is has a u shape at the top. The late series cars ie 1969 onwards had a bonnet that was flat across the top as the mesh area also had metal plates on either side.
to expand on the bonnet thing. yellow, your yellow car has the short bonnet. your other one doesnt. 99% of australian belletts don't have it, so your yellow one is very rare, but living in tassie is a why you have it.... from what i can work out, tassie got the last import/s of belletts, which were the only 'short bonnet' cars that came here. this was in late 1970/early 1971. the last 'mainland' cars came here around april 1970, and these were the normal 'long bonnet' cars. also from what i can work out, all belletts until late 1969 were the 'normal' type (ie: no rear vents and long bonnets), then they got the rear guard vents (which were fitted for flow-thru ventilation) aqround late 1969/early 1970, and then they all got the 'short bonnet' in late 1970. this has come about from there being cars about here, mainly GT's, that are proven 1969 build cars and are without any vents and short bonnet, then theres a 1970 GT with the rear vents and the long bonnet, and a couple of 1971 GT's with vents and short bonnets. BTW.... i write "late 1970" as isuzu seemed to change there bellett specs around the may or october point of the year, but it took a few more months to then filter thru here. as for the reason for such a big equipment change is simple.... better wiper sweep area. as we know, the swept area of a bellett in front of the driver isn't wonderful, so isuzu re-designed the wiper post/windscreen base area to move the RH post nearer to the RH pillar, meaning that a swept area like all cars now have could be achieved. but doing this then meant that because the existing long bonnet was in the way, isuzu had to shorten it to fit and add fill panels on each side to fill the gap, and also meant that the wipers had to sweep in the opposite direction to what they had done in the past. hope this helps.
I now understand the difference. I'm amazed it was picked up from a photo but now it's explained I can pick it. As I sit in it, the wipers sit in the rest psition to the LHS and then swing upwards towards the RHS. The driver side wiper post is in line with the speedo, The infill panel is approx 80mm wide across the front of the windscreen and broadens slightly for the ventilation grill in the middle. To help you all out, Chassis no. is PR20 4124187.
Bellett SEDANS are proof that the gods love us and want us to be happy.
