Well she may not be perfect(yet) but shes all mine. I finally got the brakes finished. All new brake lines,wheel cylinders and rebonded shoes. I have a few bits and pieces away at the powdercoaters and the dash mat is at the restoration company.(If i only had a button for my glove box).....Haven't really decided what to do with the tray, tossing around a few ideas...and the colour, well theres another argument..discussion.

I heard on the grape vine about the grille. Keep the Wasp grille! It's tuff!

re grapevine grille why butcher a gt & a wasp

Grill stays,it still will borrow some gt parts.No gt will be butchered the donor car is in three pieces without the use of a cutting device.The wasp will get tacho,spedo,we have a 1500 lynx mainifold,gt carbs,and the three cluster gauges out of a later gt grafted into he dash.All modifications can be reversed at a later date even the dash as it has the cut out any way.The only car that is owned by us that has been butchered is patches as when the floor pan was done we altered the seat mounts.All the other cars can have original parts bolted back in.Original door trims,seats,engines,steering wheels ect are all stored.

looking good, very nice work.

Cheers
Rob

Nice to see another Wasp rebirth. Is this the truck from Murwillumbah? (black). Plans sound good - they can do with a little extra performance!
Fantastic!
Matt.

I am limited to performance mods i have had a lot of suggestions but most are declined,i wish i didnt sell the gen 3 and 6 speed a few months ago with a few mods would tickle it along nice,would tow the boat perfectly.It makes a great work bench it makes entertaining coversations when you get busted using it as a work bench.You dont mess with the woman they call mother trucker.[drives a hino]2nd best.
Matt yes it was Glens It came from your way we were told ?any history besides some body that stood on the roof to paint a house.

that will always happen. they lend themselves too it............
my old man still hasn't learnt that the tray on my Wasp isn't a work bench/shelf/standing platform/whatever else, even after 16 years since the rebuild, a re-do to fix the various bench/shelf/whatever marks, AND many an asskicking!

Any ideas on the tray please. Im keeping the flat bed but not sure how to finish it. Im open to suggestions. A little bit of history on the wasp might help, everything seems to point to a style side tray so i guess a flat bed doesnt really apply.

the wasp was available in either a cab-chassis for 846 pound, or a styleside or cab-tray for 945 pound (from memory)
*edit: just found the correct prices in my Wasp stuff. was 848 pond for cab-chassis, and 946 for either styleside or cab-tray. wasn't far off!*
the 'genuine' isuzu tray was actually a locally made unit, and if memory serves correct, someone on here once knew, or found, one of original tray builders (may have been in brisbane?? i should write these things down!!).
these trays were the classic holden 1-tonner type, over-engineered, big, wide, heavy units, and looked like they were made from railway iron.
my opinion....... yuck!, but in the day, they were there to serve a purpose, not look fancy.

liz, here's mine:



was done in 1994.
i wanted to do a jarrah timber type of thing, but back then, the timber alone was going to cost over $1k, before any frame was made to hold it, let alone tailights, etc, and on an apprentices wages......
steel prices have since gone thru the roof, so maybe the timber vs steel/alloy comparison might be better these days.

mine uses a 2 inch and 3 inch steel tube frame, with alloy an checkerplate floor and bargeboard as a result. the fact that a mate owns an aluminium fab business helped that decision!
the tailights are 1978 ford LTD, and are mounted in a heavily worked piece of 6X4 steel tube.
we made it the same width as the tray, as i think the whole 'tray wider than the cab' look was far to 'tradies ute' for what i wanted.
it stayed that way (in that, i flat tray, no roll bar) for about 10 years, but a always thought it needed something on the tray so it didn't look like a bellett had been cut behind the front doors and a tray whacked on the back, so we made the roll bar, which is actually just 2 inch exhaust pipe, hence just for looks, not strength.

hope this helps.
cheers.

Liz, your Wasp was previously owned by Eric Bailey, who swapped it for 'Black Betty' (See 'My Bellett'). Eric was involved with "Speed on Tweed" historic motor racing. He told me that the Wasp had been used as a track truck & promotional vehicle.
Sorry that I don't have any more history than that.
I also have a Wasp & when I get to it I'm going to just re-board the tray, probably with local Iron Bark. Just a note, in N.S.W. with & without sides are separate rego categories, so I'll add the sides for rego, 'cause I can always take 'em off. If I were to add them later, it means a re-Blueslip! Not sure how it goes in Qld.
Cheers, Matt

what a silly idea! 2 different reg schemes for the same thing.
ours is just 'tray' on the reg. no mention or what, when or where, just 'tray'.

Thanks for the imput boys... id be interested to follow the thread on the builder as the history of a hobby is as much fun as the repair and play time. I have to agree that timber is my favourite medium at this stage, not to sure about a metal tray but thanks for posting the picture as it gave me food for thought on the back end Im pricing some reclaimed blackbutt timber but i may wish i had never started looking $$$$ we will see what happens.

No more "whaterver" marks, PR91. And that really KICKS ASS !!

Thinking about a WASP nationals ??

How about an ozzie Hardwood top on the tray for some era, Mrs. Leadfoot. ?? Oh....and a great choice for the powerplant,
GTwasp possibly ??

B.

I like the style of tray that's on there now.

It's wider than the body, but not by a ridiculous amount and looks authentic to the age of the vehicle.

There are some brochures in the Isuzu Bellett History section so that may give you some ideas, but they will be the mega-huge items that Brett was talking about.

Ideal for carrying 1.5 tonnes of spuds (ask Farmer's brother about that) but not much good for being cool.

Actually, having a look at the brochure, I think you should do the paddy-wagon style! Sure, it's a million years more work, but.... if you need to lock up some misbehaving Japanese people, then the Wasp divvy van would be the way!

Cheers,

Dave

hell yeah! a KR20V(PA) = Wasp panel van. would be the coolest!
and how said only the japanese need locking up...? u've been to a few bellett events, so u know!!

as if the bellett nationals isn't enuf work!


have a look at user "ocka"s dark blue Wasp in the 'nationals honour roll' thread. he's done a beauuuuuuuuuuutiful job with jarrah(??) on his tray. even has a hand carved isuzu symbol in the bargeboard behind the cab. really looks good.


i know of 1 done like that 'back in the old days'. went damn quick i'm told.
but DOHC is awesome too!

after looking at the pic in that thread, i then realised it doesn't show the tray area....... good move brett!

as 'ocka' is a really nice bloke, and a good mate, i'm sure he won't mind a few pics posted og his beautiful, but unfinished at the time of the pics, Wasp resto.
i hope i have the details correct, but the tray surround is hand formed stainless steel, and the recessed floor, bargeboard and tailight panel are polished jarrah(??)
as u can see, the awesome old style isuzu symbol has been hand carved into the bargeboard. really really nice too!!
the rear guards are a work of art too. they are stainless again, hand rolled, and actually mounted to the diff housing, so as the wheel travels up and down on the suspension, the guard travels with the wheel, instead of moving with the body. this same idea is what is used on many hotrod's with 'cycle' guards. very very unique idea for a Wasp, and looks great on ocka's example.

the tray:

and the carved bargeboard:

*update with new pics of ocka's Wasp above*

liz, you've asked for some Wasp history.
here's scans of some of the sales brochures i have here, roughly showing the Wasp tray.
cheers.

Thanks for the scanned pictures. I was thinking of doing away with the rail under the tray but it may stay now. I would need to do some welding and clean up the tray frame some, but it may work. The carving on the head board is beautiful. I was thinking of doing something like that myself.(great minds think alike), but now i will need to come up with another idea. Got some engine parts back from the powder coaters so now even more so Im keen to go to Coona with her but I would like her to be ready first.