About time I put my Wasp on this forum!

A fella rocked up briefly to a show I was at in a yellow Bellett ute; it was one I'd seen on the web quite a few times and it looked like this:





..albeit not quite as nice as it was in those photos.

I was speaking to another guy I'd just met called George and he said to me, "I know where there's another one of those just like that," I was intrigued and asked him what he meant - a similar model or EXACTLY like that... and he said, "EXACTLY LIKE THAT CAR, right down to the paint job..."

So after a brief chat with George I convinced him to keep that one under his hat; I was keen on a Wasp and the Mrs had given me the green light. I rang the current owner, Scott the bushie, after the show and he said he'd hold it for me. Scotty didn't even want a deposit - all he wanted to know was that I wasn't going to hot it up or anything, as he'd declined to sell it to some people previously for that exact reason.

In January 2008 Antus and I set off for a mad 36-hour dash to drive to Gulgong, pick it up and bring it home. Scott was very hospitable and we stayed there for a few hours, then we hit the dusty trail. He showed us the way back to the main town in his nostalgia rod but I blew a tyre on the way and my jack was... in Adelaide. So he dutifully helped me change the flat by grabbing a jack from the museum he worked at.



I was a bit nervous coming home with no spare as the Goggomobil-based trailer I have wasn't coping with the Wasp's stout weight and was chewing thru the inner edges of the tyres like there was no tomorrow. We stopped at Bathurst and bought a spare tyre, plus we did a lap of the Mountain!



Once we got the car back to Adelaide, it sat for a few weeks before Ross 2ldohc and I decided to get it running. I drove it up the street and back on the handbrake as there was NO braking whatsoever. Jokingly I told people that for my 30th I'd like either the gift of eternal youth or working Wasp brakes.

As we were about to move house, Ross took it upon himself to organise a BIG present for me! He suggested we tow the Wasp to his house to get it out of our way while we moved and also secretly grabbed a few bucks of each of our friends. Then at my 30th, he rocked up in the Wasp! Basically everybody I know was in on it... It was awesome. He'd fixed the the brakes, fitted a new tyre and a new battery and the $s also bought a 3-day permit, so not only was it NOT in the way for the house-moving that was to occur one day after my birthday, but I USED it to move heaps of stuff! He'd also fixed all the lights that didn't work and also replaced the broken indicator with a Gemini one... that he stole from me without me knowing!

Here it is all loaded up with pavers... it's not any slower with a tonne of stuff in the back.... it's just not fast at any time. Incredibly, you NEED to be in third gear by about 20km/h...



Anyway, I gave it a decent cut and polish and tidied up what I could and took it to the rego dept for a number check. They passed it and I got it registered! All I needed to do was get my new plates. I've got a running theme on three of my Belletts - all 60's plates in SA started with R, so I've got RPR-020 on my sedan, RPR-091 on my GT and RKR-020 on the Wasp!

Lucky they were all available... but it's not like I was going to be fighting other people for those plates....





I like where the back plate sits - I hope I don't get picked on for obsuring my plate, but that's just how they were made!

Anyway, that's the story of my Wasp so far. There's another chapter in this - I Googled 'Bruce A Ruston' and got some info from the original owner, however that's for another day!

Cheers,

Dave

Good to see the Wasp up here! A rare sight indeed and looking good after the cut and polish!

Cheers,
Ross.

What's that mark on the back? Oh yeah, that's where it slammed your Valiant and didn't sustain any damage of it's own.

Wasp = 1
Valiant = nil


FAIL! hahahaha just kidding you know i love your Valiants.

needs a twin cam dave. the ONLY way a Wasp should fly...

wasn't there a 3rd "Ruston" Wasp?? a tray from memory.
do u know what it's fate is??

Yeah the guy told me they had a tray back and also a sedan, however as I understand the sedan wasn't painted up yellow.

Get this; the NSW rego dept (who the SA rego dept liaised with when I got the number check done on it) said that it was listed as grey in colour! I said to the SA rego guy, "that car has been yellow since 1967!!!!!"

(yes I know it was blue when it was new, but it was a greyish blue!)

Peter, the owner of 'the other' Bruce Ruston ute (or is it that mine is 'the other' one...?!!)... came over to Adelaide over the weekend and suggested we get the Wasps together for a bit of a photo shoot.

I couldn't agree more. I thought the sight of seeing them together would just be mind-blowing (for me, at least, if no-one else!) so that's what we did!

Actually, mine is probably 'the other' one coz as I understand mine was the 2nd one bought... so mine is like the slightly younger twin... possibly the evil twin given how ridiculous it is to drive.

I hope Peter doesn't mind me putting some photos up, but we had the cars together for an hour or so and let them get re-acquainted.

I hope you like the photos!

Cheers,


Dave
















Plus one of our cars lurking in the background behind Ross's nice 1968 Deluxe.

Ain't they cute!
And izu064 got back without any speeders - the Holden 1-tonner I was about to overtake got zapped by a very happy moustached mcycle cop exiting Bordertown.
She liked the Gorge Rd too though the G200W & 5spd made her a bit top heavy.
Nice cruising back with 3.6L & 8 cylinders. It gives that feeling of power!
Big thanks to Dave & Ross.

izu069 (Peter).

I recently grabbed a load of pavers my friend was giving away and what better to grab them with, but the Wasp?

So here's the Wasp dumped to the weeds in all it's glory!

See... Looks tuff! You need to dump it permanently

HOW COOL IS THAT DAVE!!!
I remember both those utes getting around Sydney when I had my first Bellett.
I was in the Army and bought a 19661/2 Bellett, last of the 3 main bearing motors and the first with the ALL syncro gear boxes, white in colour with blue upholstery, regrett ever selling the car, however when marriage and family comes along, ahh well, I guess we have all been down that track.

I will give you a call when I find your phone number.

and wind down the torsion bars to bring the front down too!!

Here's another angle of it... taken from Nearmaps in 2009.





Cheers,


Dave

twins

hin dave loved the little teardrop in the first photo how about some close ups cheers davo

thats the ex BCCV car (DOHC efi) that went to SA last year.

glenn

THANKS GLENN GOT IT NOW THINK SAW THE PIC ON THE TRAILER BOUND FOR S.A CHEERS DAVO

Mean parking skills there Dave!

yea but..he knows the bloke parked next to him and his wife and kids allways push the doors out wide and hit the car next too them ..oh sorry ..why are you so upset its just an old car GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR cheers davo

Also Davo, that photo is of Peter A's car... which was the first once to surface back in the 1990s.

For some reason, the first Ruston car had a chromed front bumper and no rear bumper, while mine has a black front bumper and a chromed rear bumper cut in half... bear in mind, these are all WASP bumpers and not Bellett bumpers, too!

I can't remember Peter's car and he's fiddled with it a bit, but my Ruston car was pretty well specced.... optional chrome hubcaps and optional second sunvisor!!! They Wasps only came with one... and they are unique to the Wasp!

Typical!

Cheers


Dave

Hey Dave, your always cooking up something. Great to see the evil twins together .

Ross's Deluxe looking mighty fine there. About time the cob webs were blown off it

Since I've known you (which is like 2 seconds in Bellett time speak), I've had the pleasure of helping load up Waspie with a couple of ton of "whatever", witnessing mass rear dumpage, following it through the streets of Adelaide with no hassles at all.

B.