The Bellet of the ball!

ctmandu · **Posted:** Tue Feb 22, 2011 12:59 am

that engine looks like the ones used on the early chevy luv, 72/75 only...

rustyra24 · **Posted:** Tue Feb 22, 2011 9:40 pm

A little off topic but in the car pictures at the start of the thread what is the black car with quad headlights?

ToyGuy · **Posted:** Wed Feb 23, 2011 6:23 am

rustyra24 wrote:

A little off topic but in the car pictures at the start of the thread what is the black car with quad headlights?

Not sure which one you mean, but if it is the one at the rear, it is a Toyota Carina GT-TR:
viewtopic.php?t=13307

All I need to do is fix the engine.

opelboy76 · **Posted:** Wed Feb 23, 2011 10:09 pm

I assumed he meant the one in the far right of the picture, the one that looks like an old Checker cab or something... I don't really know what exactly it is.

Camshaft · **Posted:** Wed Feb 23, 2011 10:49 pm

viewtopic.php?t=13485

It's been sorted. JNC to the rescue!

e-at_me · **Posted:** Thu Feb 24, 2011 6:37 am

sweet ride. i would have traded for sure also...

but... quick question.. are you going to keep those front wheels? if i am looking at them right, i think they are Fortran Asso's or something like that from Mugen... yeah?

Sven7 · **Posted:** Tue Mar 01, 2011 12:22 am

Wow, one project to another! This baby looks sweet!

Union76 · **Posted:** Mon Mar 07, 2011 1:35 am

The block is the same as twin cam block - I've had one of these engines before, twin hitachi's yeahhhhhhhhhh!

F3ared · **Posted:** Wed Mar 09, 2011 1:56 pm

I disapear off the forums for a few weeks and this is what i find? :lol:

Thats awesome dude, ive always wanted one.

In terms of colour, well, as popular as it is you really cant go past the orange and black. However, if you want something different...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Isuzu_Bellett_GTR.jpg

Prettyyyy...

http://classicmotorsports.net/forum/cla ... 323/page2/

In terms of engines id go for the DOHC. Had one in my gemini and with only an ECU and bigger throttle body it was making just under 120hp @ the rear wheels.

Nakazoto · **Posted:** Wed Mar 23, 2011 6:52 am

Thanks for the comments everyone! Been MIA for a while, but that's mostly because the Mitsubishi 360 build got back into full swing. For the color of the car, I'm thinking of keeping the same two tone Black/Blue, except using a darker color blue, like WRX blue or something. I think it'll look really good and bring out the classy lines of the car!

e-at_me, I am definitely changing the wheels. The front wheels totally say Asso on them in all caps, so amazing call there! I've never heard of them. They were just some spare wheels the shop had around that would hold air. The wheel choice is a tougher nut to crack though. I'm curious as to what Mesh type wheels would look like. I'm not such a big fan of Watanbes on this car. Maybe some old Nissan 14 inch steelies. Lots of options, gonna have to spend some time with photoshop to come up with one I like, haha.

Alright, I've gotten a bit of work done on her in the downtime after working on the Mitsubishi (I work on the 360 pretty much all day Saturday and Sunday, leaving only the weekdays after work to work on the Bellett).

First up, removed the washer tank. That thing is in rough shape, I gotta find a replacement, but I imagine finding one that says Isuzu on it will be a bit on the tough side.

Then the headlights and grill.

Popped the cam chain cover off to take a look at the insides. What a crazy head design, haha!

Fuel hard line out.

Then I thought to myself, "I'll just pop this fuse box out, disconnect the connector and put it somewhere where it wont break. I undid the screws and found this!

Sweet Jeebus that's a lot of wires! I don't have a repair manual either, so I was thinking about how on Earth I'd remember where all the wires went.

Pictures, lots and lots of pictures. These are my pictures I took along the way as I removed the wires one by one. I figure if anyone is doing the same thing I am, these pics might be useful if they can't make sense of the old diagram.

Whew, that was a lot of wires!

Door speakers and random interior bits out.

Front cowl pieces out.

And finally, hood vents out.

As soon as the Mitsubishi gets its paint on this project should really start picking up steam! I can't wait to get further into it, there's so little rust on it, it's just incredibly easy to work on!

Thanks again everyone for the comments!

Cheers
David

redzone · **Posted:** Sun Mar 27, 2011 3:57 am

Hi David, what was the original colour of this one?

Camshaft · **Posted:** Sun Mar 27, 2011 8:47 am

Hooray! Another Nakazoto build thread kicks into high gear! :mrgreen:

So, are you going to let Classic Car Nagoya do the bodywork on this one?

Nakazoto · **Posted:** Tue Apr 05, 2011 4:25 am

Thanks for the comments guys!
Redzone, I snapped a picture of the original color a little further down, check it out! Camshaft, I'm totally going to let Classic Car Nagoya do the bodywork. No more skimping, if it's going to get done, I gotta do it right, haha!

Work on this thing is slow, but that doesn't mean I aint progressing with it, haha. I have this set of Rays mesh wheels (from my old AE86) floating around, so I decided to see if they fit the Bellett. The wheels were staggered and the rear wheels were too wide to fit in the rear, but the front's could actually fit.

First things first though, while I had the wheels off I snapped a couple of pics of the suspension. First up is the rear. Semi-trailing arm with a transverse leaf spring to act as a sway bar, or near as I can figure, haha.

Pretty wild setup, haha.

Front double wishbone, now that's what I'm talking about.

Two jacks to put the rear wheel at the height that I want it. Looks damn good!

I think this is equal parts hella flush and tucked, haha.

Ya, don't really think it would work in the real world, would have to get skinnier tires.

On the front and the rear.

Now, I know I've taken quite a bit out of the car, but there was a lot of positive camber. Not sure if it's due to the light weight fun from me taking stuff out or just strange wheel fitment, but with positive camber like that, I'm tempted to hunt down something to drop it down a bit.

Alright, enough messing around with wheels, time to take more stuff apart. This is the lower chrome trim piece that runs along the rockers.

And where it used to be.

Finally starting to run into some rust. Looks like it's localized to the fender, but hard to tell. Will really be able to tell once it comes time to bust out the sander!

The rockers have seen better days.

Door panels out.

Brake master cylinder out, managed to break one line while doing this...

You can see the broken line in this picture.

Here you can see the original color. This is where the hood latch was. Whoever painted the car didn't take the two bolts out of the hood latch to paint underneath it.

Front bumper off.

Looking pretty bare.

I think the front bumper would look so much better without those little rubber bumpers on it. I think I'll weld the holes up, make them smooth and then re-chrome both the front and rear when it comes time.

Rear bumper off.

And this is how she sits now!

Thanks everyone for the comments, more to come soon!

Cheers
David

Camshaft · **Posted:** Tue Apr 05, 2011 8:40 am

Interesting. I've never seen a maroon Bellet. Most of the pictures are white, blue, orange, or yellow. I'd imagine it looks very classy! Now that you know it's not original, you're free to repaint it however you see fit. Any colours you're leaning towards?

opelboy76 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 05, 2011 9:06 pm

go orange.

Nakazoto · **Posted:** Mon Apr 18, 2011 1:23 am

The more I think about it the more I think it would be cool to let the 70's maroon run free again, haha. Like you said, white, orange, blue and yellow make up about 98% of all Belletts. I think it'd definitely be classy and unique to go with the original color.

Got a bit more work done this past week!
First step was getting the center console out, but as you can see the wiring behind it is a rats nest! There's a strange mixture of added wires for the aftermarket stereo and for the fog light switch. Whoever wired them in sure didn't care about making the wiring clean or pretty, haha.

Here are the factory wires to the clock. I love the wing nuts that hold it in too!

And the factory wires to the pull switch for the blower motor.

After some work, out on the ground!

The back side.

The radio is this snubby little thing that someone just jammed into a cut out opening and then used three bolts to keep it from rotating down. Pretty ghetto, this will take some work to correct, haha.

The resulting empty space.

Parcel tray out.

And its resulting empty space.

Visors and related out.

Then my buddy got curious about the why the engine was so hard to start but ran so smooth once running, so we pulled the starter out.

After a quick dismantle things don't look so pretty. The front bearing (one way clutch?) thing is almost completely seized up, and it looks like the armature may have been contacting something.

Definitely in need of a replacement or a serious rebuild, haha.

That's just nasty, haha.

Next up, I wanted to get the dash out, but after looking for quite a while and getting my buddy to check it out we discovered that the dash is welded to the car! The main dash skeleton is welded on both sides and in the center and the pad/leather cover is just glued to it! First time I've ever seen that before. So, the next step was to dismantle everything on the dash that I could. The little pads have three bolts that hold them on.

Glovebox and other random bits.

Alright, more pics to come in the next post!

Nakazoto · **Posted:** Mon Apr 18, 2011 1:33 am

Alright, continuing from last post!

Time to unplug some more connectors! These particular ones are for the triple gauges in the center.

The left half of the wire harness was then able to be pulled into the car.

Triple gauges out!

I just love how simple they are, haha.

Slowly getting there.

The little rotating vent things are pretty awesome. Spring loaded and held on with a giant plastic nut!

Wires for the tachometer, which can only mean...

... main gauge cluster is out!

A better look at the back. The little black box on the right is the chime that goes off when you break 100 km/h I believe.

Looking good!

Removing more random electrical bits.

Turn signal out.

Flasher relay and hazard relay.

The connectors that go to the rear harness.

And finally, harness is out!

Whew, that was as far as I got this week!

Thanks everyone for the comments and support!
Cheers

David

tj75gc · **Posted:** Mon Apr 18, 2011 2:28 am

Wow, those triple gauges are so pretty. An exercise in simplicity.

Quote:

The little black box on the right is the chime that goes off when you break 100 km/h I believe

Is it a warning or a celebration?

Lookin toward to the rest of this build!

Camshaft · **Posted:** Mon Apr 18, 2011 9:00 am

I bet a few careful hours with a hairdryer would allow you to pull the dash covering off without damage. Then you could strip the glue off and re-install it at a later date, or at least have a helpful pattern for a new one. I bet the welded dash is great for torsional stiffness! :lol:

Think of it as a "performance upgrade."

jt191 · **Posted:** Mon Apr 18, 2011 10:05 am

Nakazoto wrote:

Now, I know I've taken quite a bit out of the car, but there was a lot of positive camber. Not sure if it's due to the light weight fun from me taking stuff out or just strange wheel fitment, but with positive camber like that, I'm tempted to hunt down something to drop it down a bit.

The car was designed to use bias ply tires. Factory front camber specification is 1 1/2 degrees positive camber. Changing this will require cutting metal.

The Bellet of the ball!

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