Garage restoration.... with Belletts

[dave]

Hey people

I've been ridiculously slack lately in terms of being on this Forum and for that I'm sorry. I love our Bellett Forum! And further I'm glad it's tuff enough to continue rolling without my constant input.

Anyway, I've got a few minutes now when I should be sleeping to show you one thing that took up a bit of time I should have been dedicating to the Forum!

Earlier this year I had to go through my Mum's house and it was a tough time, however there were so many awesome things I found during that time and one of those things has been given an extra lease of life! Furthermore, it's Bellett-related (well, it is now) so I figured it can go in Bellett Chat.

When I was a kid, I had a garage which I used to thrash my Matchbox cars around on. A girl down the street ran into it on my bike when she couldn't find the brakes (footbrakes babe, for killer skids) and she snapped the roof. Then, being the handyman that I was, I decided to snap the other side to make it even.

Needless to say, it looked a little bit rooted, however the shed it had been stored in was water tight and it didn't have any rot or other damage:

Toy garage - 01 - broken roof.JPG (80.01 KiB) Viewed 20155 times

It looked good otherwise:

Toy garage - 02 - broken roof.JPG (74.33 KiB) Viewed 20153 times

.... then I thought, "That would look good with some 1:43-scale models...." which I have a few of laying around.

So then I decided to gently pry the roof off, which I did with amazing success for a guy who is not normally that handy (note previous alteration to roof....)

Toy garage - 04 - roof off.JPG (75.21 KiB) Viewed 20152 times

So off to Bunnings it was to get some wood. I got some board that was about the original thickness and some glue. I went to Ross's and we cut it up to the right shape, then I gave it a bit of a sanding on the corners to round them off a bit...

01 - new roof cut.JPG (75.78 KiB) Viewed 20152 times

02 - new roof cut.JPG (83.06 KiB) Viewed 20150 times

I'd bought some undercoat for it.... but worryingly it said "for best results use undercoat before applying this product". Because the roof is a car park, I thought that it should be grey, however after some consideration I decided to restore it to the original red. Grey was just too grey!

The original undercoat and paint looked awful, but then I found some metal primer, which worked stacks better and didn't require that I undercoat it before I used it even though it was undercoat! Then gave it another splash of red:

06 - new roof painted and drying.JPG (75.38 KiB) Viewed 20149 times

The original paint was dull and almost looked infused into the particle board. This was a finer grain wood and the paint was never going to match. Fortunately, it de-glossified itself a bit. I'd looked at the ramp up the back of the garage and realised that attempting to remove it would be utter, utter folly, so I used Sunday's finest newpaper to mask it up and give the ramp a spray to match the roof.

I admit, there was a minor amount of overspray on the footpath outside the car wash toilets... if anyone asked I'll tell them a 1:43-scale man was stabbed there. I gave this a couple of more coats and it came up better than when it was photographed.

05 - garage masked off for painting ramp.JPG (95.32 KiB) Viewed 20151 times

Anyway, with no further ado here is the finished product with some models on it!

07 - completed garage with cars.JPG (103.09 KiB) Viewed 20145 times

If you're wondering where the Isuzus are, they're INSIDE the garage. I figured it had a bit of a country dealership-kind of feel, so they are inside as you can see:

08 - completed garage with cars.JPG (100.8 KiB) Viewed 20146 times

I considered getting some Isuzu dealer-style decals made up, but I don't really want to change it away from how it was when I was a kid. In some pics you can see a black and white "Bridgestone" sticker. I put that on when I was a kid; lucky it doesn't look out of place!

Here you can see the PR90 Bellett GT, Isuzu 117 Coupe and Isuzu Florian inside the garage:

Isuzus in garage - 02 - GT, 117 and Florian.JPG (79.8 KiB) Viewed 20141 times

I decided against gluing the roof down again; I mean I'm no longer using it as a toy and the cars are stacks easier to get in and out!

As is the Snap On garage paraphernalia!

Isuzus in garage - 03 - Isuzu Bellett GTRs with Snap-On garage.JPG (77.28 KiB) Viewed 20139 times

That's right, trendsetters - Snap-On do a 1:43-scale kit of their bestest garage gear! There's a garage crawler, x4 chassis stands, a rolling tool kit, plus a separate kit that goes on top just like real life. There's a jump starter, an air compressor and even a vacuum cleaner! Of course, the most obvious item is the hoist.

Isuzus in garage - 04 - Isuzu Bellett GTRs with Snap-On garage.JPG (73.83 KiB) Viewed 20137 times

It took me a bit to find the right display cabinet; I eventually got one that would fit it at Harvey Norman. Plus it hasn't got the double doors, so there's no wood in the middle to foul up the epic service-stationness inside.

Speaking of, a few months ago I bought a 1990's BP service station off eBay. This one is a bit muddled when it comes to scale, but it looks OK with the 1:43's as well. To buy this one originally, you had to buy it in 6 separate pieces each week as they became available. Luckily for me, someone hoarded it then was happy to sell it for $19.00.

Here are some pics of that item:

Display Cabinet - 08.JPG (61.9 KiB) Viewed 20130 times

Display Cabinet - 09.JPG (60.23 KiB) Viewed 20129 times

Now all I need is another garage; if I put all the cars onto those two garages, they get a bit crowded!

Anyway, cheers for reading this far!


Dave

[redback]

They Both look like busy service stations

Neil

[Leadfoot_Liz]

well i would be proud to have something like that in my display cabinet. keep up the good work. It put a smile on my face and brought back some great memories. (yes even some of us girls had garages and matchbox cars when we were young).
Liz

[RobSA]

Dave, jmho but that looks way cool.
I'm glad you decided to leave the garage the original colours to.

Hope you find another garage soon

Cheers
Rob

[GerryBellettGT]

If they were only all real ones we would all be down for a look,top collection any how,Son of Gerry

[GTtoo]

Hahahahhhaa !! gee you had us fooled Certainly no need for an apology Dave. Yeah, when things get tough on ya, you need to drop off the radar from time to time. You've always cooked up something inspirational, and the garage thing well, that's just awsomely crazy !! What a retro auto show, almost pornographic And that's gotta be the Isuzu dealer ship as the central focus. Ominously looking blue, very horn GT on stands. You're putting ideas into my head !?
Also love the inconspicuos Gemi van pulling into both servos. What's coming out of the "bristly" carwash ?

Again, much joy. Just like fangin' the GT, makes me feel like a big kid again,

B

[rod]

great model collection ,thats got me thinking , from 1 model collecter 2 another ,looks great ps ,where did you get the bellett models from cant seem to find any , cheers rod

[Farmer]

See Tracy, I'm NOT a fanatic, REALLY! I've only got a couple of models! And a few brochures! And a few manuals, and just the odd road test mag! And only half a dozen full scales (not counting parts donors here)! Not like DAVE - he's the real deal!
I especially like that you went & bought a NEW cabinet to show 'em in Mate, you make me look only half-interested. This is a very good thing should a florian crop up, or something!
Great that you restored your old servo, and yeah, why not get a third, if it will fit in the cabinet.
Cool as.
Cheers mate, Matt.

[Bellett.Boys]

Dave, you're amazing. Great photos too.

[dave]

Cheers guys, I'm all coy. Shucks. I just wanted to share the love; I wasn't fishing for accolades!

[dave]

great model collection ,thats got me thinking , from 1 model collecter 2 another ,looks great ps ,where did you get the bellett models from cant seem to find any , cheers rod

Hi Rod,

There's usually one or two on eBay. The EBBRO 1:43-scale GT-Rs aren't too difficult to find; the orange one there is an EBBRO.

The 1:43-scale EBBRO PR90 GTs come in white, red and dark green, however they have been off the market for some time so they don't come up all that often.

My particular blue GT-R is a different brand; NOREV. While PR91 Brett has stated in a different thread that they're not as nice as the EBBROs, they're not TOO shabby overall. They're probably about 85% as good but this is thankfully normally reflected in the price; they're generally a big cheaper than the EBBROs.

Unfortunately and much to my annoyance, it seems that nobody has one a 1:43-scale sedan yet... in fact, out of the 450,000 different versions of Bellett that we know Isuzu to have made (OK; Wasp, sedan, 2-door sedan, Bellett B, GT, Express and Fastback and any deluxe, Sport or whatever versions under that), the ONLY 1:43-scale models I've ever seen is the GT-Rs from EBBRO and NOREV, plus the PR90 GT1600 from EBBRO.

God-dammit, if EBBRO will make a 117 Coupe and even a Florian for crying out loud, when will they do a nice 1:43-scale teardrop sedan, preferably white-with-red-interior!?!?!?

As you may have seen in Brett's post, EBBRO are now doing two different versions of the R6 Isuzu race car, while they are about to start building the Bellett MX1600 show car as well.... but alas some of us want the simpler things in life and a Wasp blue Wasp would certainly be on my birthday list....

Anyway, I digress.

Cheers!

Dave

[oz_toffa]

Great photos Dave..

Good to see there are some other people who get a bit over the top and into their toys and stuff.
Very nice spray job there. My limit of no runs and a real good cover of colour is also a flat piece of material too

Thanks for sharing.

[PR91]

great model collection ,thats got me thinking , from 1 model collecter 2 another ,looks great ps ,where did you get the bellett models from cant seem to find any , cheers rod

plenty on ebay rod. that's where i get most of mine these days. wasn't always like that. once upon a time i had to search the shops! there's both diecast and plastic on there.
remember to look closely if u collect only quality (like me), as with GT-R's for a start, there's a couple of different manufactuers, and the quality varies alot.
as dave said, EBBRO is best quality for diecast bellett's, but there's nothing bigger than 1/43 in diecast, or 1/24 in build-it-urself plastic. FUJIMI make the nicest plastic kits.
cheers.

[KJB]

There are a couple ( Red, Blue) of EBBRO 1:43 Bellett GT 1600 (not GT R ) models left at Hobby Link ( good to deal with) in Tasmania if anyone is looking for one. (www. hobbylink.com.au)
KB