Bellett's in North America

[hudson]

Hi all,

Just putting a post out that if anyone knows of any Bellett leads in North America (for searches, united states, canada) let me know

I see the odd one listed every once in a while, so I know they're out there.

Cheers,

Andrew

[BrisBellett]

Hello Andrew and welcome! There are some Belletts in NA....one I have seen on a site in Florida: http://home.hetnet.nl/~dcc/bellett_owner_pic's.htm although I am not sure why the Florida one is a RH driver??

You might try some Canadien sources.....and someone on this site might know of some contacts there.

Anyway, welcome aboard!

Clyde
Brisbane, Qld

PS: In what part of the states do you live?

[PR91]

i believe there are 2 or 3 GT's in the US. i don't know if there are any sedan's though.
that Florida 2 door sedan is owned by a user on here. story is (from memory, without searching) that it was bought in Japan by a "visiting" US serviceman, and imported with him when he returned home. this is why it's RHD in the US.
Canada built sedan's from CKD form in LHD for a few years, and they sold quite well, so Canada would be the place to start searching. a few of us diehards have a fair range of Canadian Bellett stuff, like brochures and advertising material, so they definitly aren't an unknown car around Canada.
hope this helps.

[JT191]

I have a choice to avoid this topic or explain why I want to avoid this topic...

Somewhere on this website, I read the little description that this is "neutral territory" for the Australian Bellett owners. I have listened to some of the stories about friction among the Gemini car clubs in Australia. It didn't appear to be anything serious until I saw the little video of the Bellett club gathering photo slide show, with the audio of a group of owners asking another owner to leave the show. I mention this only to point out that you may think things are bad in Australia, but they things are worse on the other side of the planet.

In North America, they vandalize each others cars and threaten physical violence.
There is basically no following for the pre-1990 cars, and the following for the post-1990 cars is seperated into two groups: those-who-do and those-who-don't-and-complain-about-the-other-group.
There are two or three people who build and race the cars.
There is a huge group of people who work part time flipping hamburgers, and spend the other 20 hours of their day on the internet making up stories about how their car beats Ferraris, praying for the header fairy to start dropping headers from the sky, avoiding questions about their 500 hp car that does the quarter mile in 17+ seconds, and complaining in envy about the two or three people in the those-that-do group.
The people in this second group don't appear to have the courage to make good on their threats, but their behavior effectively killed any real, mature, adult enthusiast movement on the continent.

For this reason, I would like to state that I would prefer not to discuss topics of who I am, where I am, what I have, who I know, etc. I would rather not have the masses of the other group descend upon this place and screw it up like they have everything else.


Belletts were sold in Canada. I do not know if any of the Canadian cars remain on the road. The three or four cars known to exist are right hand drive, appear to be privately imported from Japan, and most probably came home with service members.
PR91's count on GTs may be high. All but one or two are two-door or four-door sedans.
Short of finding a car parked out in a Canadian farmer's field, chances of finding one are slim.

[BrisBellett]

g'day,

No worries.....we are not into that sort of behavior and requiring your details is not required to belong to this group. We are just happy to have anyone with an interest in the car and if I can speak for the group here.....we are happy to assist with information and parts when they are available. With that out of the way.....again welcome to the group.

Another option: If you have any type of medical skills there are lots of jobs in the health care system here. Move to Australia....I am sure you can find a nice Bellett.

[hudson]

Wow!

I wasn't expecting so many responses (if any) and definitely not so soon!

First of all!

I knew of at least one 4 door sedan that was for sale, and in a garage, not a wrecking yard about 3 years ago in Edmonton Alberta.

I know of a couple in various junk yards in canada that you can turn up with savy web searching.. they both look pretty darn tired and in at least one case sunk up to the belly in the dirt (so absolutely a rotten nightmare).

I've seen 2 GTs for sale in the states.. one was LHD in Texas it was on Ebay twice.. not sure what happened to it, it was even mentioned on the Grassroots Motorsports Forum.. the other is RHD and was being sold by an ex-serviceman somewhere in the southern states..

JT191: I assume you're speaking about the "isuzu scene" in NA?? Because that doesn't translate to all car scenes over here. I have no idea what the isuzu scene is like here.. didn't even know there was one to be honest. I'd like it if you'd pm me your details.. I promise I'm in no way at all connected to "them"

For everyone else, I live in Southern Ontario, Canada and I can't move

I'm into all kinds of wacky old cars.. belletts just happen to be one of them. My problem at the moment is I've finally got a garage and it's got most of the cool tools people like us need (220v mig, an air compressor that you can actually do work with, yaddaa) but it's just toooo damn small for working on my 60's Volvos! .. while I can.. it's damn tight so I've always got my ear to the ground looking for something cooler and smaller!

Some of the other cars I dig are: Sunbeam/Hillman - Imp/Stilletto, Simca 1000, Renault 8, Hino Contessa, Daf 55s, nsu tts and on and on.

Generally I like my cars from the 60s or around there and driving the rear wheels!

Cheers,

Andrew

[JT191]

かも、ハドソンさんは私達をテストしていまてぃた。

Maybe Hudson is asking a question he already knows the answer to...

You have better information than we do regarding Canadian Belletts. Such a high level of efficiency and motivation would be of value, please obtain a Bellett as soon as possible and help contribute to the knowledge base here.

Yes, I was referring to the "Isuzu scene". Don't be too underwhelmed by it when you do find it.

If you have questions about technical or historical information, I am available on this forum, but the Australians might know more than me about Belletts.

[hudson]

JT191:

I wasn't posing a question with a known answer

While, I certainly wasn't expecting an oh yeah, Big John is looking to sell his Bellett in Toronto! Maybe this thread will pop up when someone is searching for a good place to sell theirs.

At any rate, I don't know of any Belletts on or nearly on the road in Canada other than the one I came across 3 or so years ago. At the time, it was too far away for me to purchase.

So they were never sold new in the States?

I always find it interesting when a car was only imported into Canada and not the US.. the US has always been the larger market.. and I'm not aware of any differences in barriers to market entry at the time.

If that's the case.. I'm really perplexed as to how that LHD GT ended up clapped out in Texas.

At any rate, the only other cars that I know of in that rough time period that were imported into Canada and not the United States are Vauxhall / (sometimes/years sold as Epics) and Dacia's... odd.

Btw, should I bother busting out one of my old Japanese text books and figuring out what that Hiragana means?

Cheers,

Andrew

[JT191]

Kamo seems to be a colloquialism you probably won't find in a dictionary. Tabun leans toward probably, and kamo is a less certain version of maybe.

"Maybe Mr. Hudson was testing us."

Please understand my mild level of humor at looking at most situations. If not for a healthy sense of humor, defeat would have crushed me long ago.

[hudson]

かも、ハドソンさんは私達をテストしていまてぃた。

....

Such a high level of efficiency and motivation would be of value, please obtain a Bellett as soon as possible and help contribute to the knowledge base here.

Hhehe that was bugging me.. so I was trying to translate it.. at one point I knew a bit of Japanese.. but that's mostly gone now.

[hudson]

Please understand my mild level of humor at looking at most situations. If not for a healthy sense of humor, defeat would have crushed me long ago.

No problem..

So you're a mysterious person who is obviously disillusioned with the Isuzu crowd in North America, can pump out Japanese complete with colloquialism and has to apologize for their sense of humour! Quite the individual!

Oh I forgot, hangs out on a Bellett forum and apparently doesn't own one?

I'm confused

[BrisBellett]

Hi, a 'housekeeping' matter....maybe this thread should be moved to 'general' section as it really does not fit in the 'wanted' section and it has gotten a bit boring and noncontributory to the group as a whole. Webmaster please. Thank you. Clyde

[hudson]

Clyde,

Sorry I was just trying to figure out some stuff about the mysterous JT191.

So far I've figured out he lives in America and owns a bellett most likely imported from Japan..

But back to topic.. I've found what I hope can be my Canadian Bellett!

It's not ridiculously far from here, nor is the asking price ridiculously expensive.. the seller claims it's solid.. there has to be a catch! There is, it's a four door.. but I have a dog and a fiance and hopes of having children and car trips in a classic car.. so maybe that's not sooo bad!

At any rate I'm stoked and now have to figure out how to unload a lot of 60s and 70s Volvo kit to get this!

I've been jonzing for a non claustrophobic 60s project car for quite sometime! I found a super nice Sunbeam Imp several months ago, but it was more than I though I could afford and a 2 door with maybe not enough room for fiance, dog and road trip.

I've also located lots of Simca 1000s, but always too far.. and across that damn border (hastle, expense, yadda yadda)

So, I'm contacting the seller at the moment and will keep the club up to date.. With any luck I can swing this.


OH! before I spend time and energy driving up there, I haven't actually SEEN a ballett in real life.. at least not that I remember and have most CERTAINLY never sat in one.

A fellow named Dave Carey I believe told me on facebook that someone 6'2 can hope to fit in one of these bad boys comfortably...

Can anyone else give me more info on that? Most of my height is in my legs.. will the backseet be an ornament behind me? Well, I guess I could always put the dog there if it becomes useless space.

Cheers,

Andrew

[hudson]

I guess I should get the dimensions of a Bellett and check them in my garage before I get too excited about a non claustrophobic project car.. but I know it can't be bigger than a Volvo 145

[antus]

Hi, a 'housekeeping' matter....maybe this thread should be moved to 'general' section as it really does not fit in the 'wanted' section and it has gotten a bit boring and noncontributory to the group as a whole. Webmaster please. Thank you. Clyde

Agreed, moved to off topic.

With regards to the conflicts and so forth between different groups or individuals here and there around the world the moderators and myself are watching for any trouble and will warn and ban as required if we have to. We can also be PMd if something requires quick attention. So far though everyone has been helpful and friendly and we will do what we can to keep it that way.

[bellett65]

There are Belletts in Canada. The BCCV sent a screen to a Novus dealer in Western Canada. That was 8 years ago though. I cannot remember which provence they went to though.

[hudson]

With regards to the conflicts and so forth between different groups or individuals here and there around the world the moderators and myself are watching for any trouble and will warn and ban as required if we have to. We can also be PMd if something requires quick attention. So far though everyone has been helpful and friendly and we will do what we can to keep it that way.

Are there actually conflicts? Wha?

I thought JT was being paranoid/making fun

[hudson]

There are Belletts in Canada. The BCCV sent a screen to a Novus dealer in Western Canada. That was 8 years ago though. I cannot remember which provence they went to though.

Yes there surely is. I just found one for sale not far from here, like I said.


I have a question though regarding parts... I'm assuming Isuzu has all but forgotten they have made these cars, no?

Is there an aftermarket for sheet metal (rust repair panels)? Or is it mostly a fabricate your own/cut off another car affair?

Thanks for any and all info.

[hudson]

I should add that I'm slightly confused as to how this thread is completely off topic.

But whatever.

[65bellett]

Hudson before you came along we were such a focused bunch of blokes Welcome aboard.

As far as sheetmetal is concerned a few new bits and bobs turn up every now and then on ebay and the such but as a rule it is scavenge and fabricate what you can.

As discussed on another thread there was a big Isuzu dealer in Honduras so there might be faw bits worth looking out for in South America. If you do get any stuff sent to you from South America get it sent by boat in a box marked medical waste, if you send it by road it could get hi-jacked by the blood thirsty Isuzu fans of North America. JT191 HAS WARNED US ALL!!!!