The Bellet of the ball!

Nakazoto · **Posted:** Mon Jun 04, 2012 1:22 am

Alright, it's mega update time!

First things first, I needed to get that nice aluminum stripping stuff off the trim that runs around the outside of the door openings (I have no idea what to call this stuff... can you tell?). So, after a lot of tapping with a hammer and screwdriver, I finally got it all pulled without damaging it.

You can see here where it's supposed to go.

And it's a good thing I pulled it off to as there was some cancer growing under there. This rust stuff is insane, it's like a resilient virus that just never fully dies.

Yuck!

Next up was stripping the paint out of the trunk. The big flat areas like the fenders and roof are no problem, but these complicated areas are just a huge pain to strip!

Still, not too bad.

Then it was time to move towards the front of the car, starting with the B-Pillars.

In a last ditch effort to procrastinate starting on the engine room, I decided to go for the A-Pillars first.

Still searching for procrastination, I did the door jamb and rocker on the passenger side as well.

Finally, it couldn't be avoided and I started the long process of stripping the engine compartment. So many curves, so difficult to strip!

But, my lovely girlfriend got a little interested and so I put her to work on the fenders!

Which, as you can tell weren't in the prettiest of shape.

She was actually considerably better and more patient with the whole paint stripping thing than I was, so she generally did a much better job than me, haha. Still, I soldiered on with the engine bay.

And unfortunately found another rusty spot that had been fixed with a screwed on plate.

More to come soon (like 10 minutes soon)!

Cheers
David

Nakazoto · **Posted:** Mon Jun 04, 2012 1:59 am

Alrighty, let's keep this ball rollin'!
Everyone needs an extra kick in the ass to keep moving, mine came in this excellently marketed and nicely packaged aluminum can!

My very awesome girlfriend started in on the second fender and after just a little bit of work, it appeared as if though the whole fender was white. Which, in the end, it was. It was covered entirely in bondo. I don't think I've ever seen a panel covered entirely in bondo. I only took one picture of it and that was when she was starting on it, but you get the idea.

Since the paint was mostly stripped and my excellent girlfriend was working now on the trunk lid, I decided it was time to start removing the sound deadening on the interior.

Turned out this was a very good idea because moisture had gotten underneath the sound deadening and rust had started. Fortunately, the steel is all very solid still and this will only require some grinding and rust stop to remedy.

I continued with the rest of the interior slowly chipping pieces away using a mixture of Monster energy fueled determination and dry ice.

Just a bit of cleanup with the grinder and some sanding and that should be all ready for some new clean paint! While I was on that, my amazing girlfriend was making some progress on the trunk lid.

After that I started on dismantling the doors so they could be properly stripped. I forgot how heavy these things are! They are seriously thicker and stronger than most new car doors!

All the guts strewn about the floor.

Frame and glass out as well.

Newly emptied door!

Of course, my splendid girlfriend wouldn't sit around and do nothing waiting on me, so she started on the hood!

Naturally before she got too far, I snapped some pictures of the stickers so we can remake them on the computer later!

While I sitting back taking stock of how far the car has come...

... a package arrived!

The keen eyed viewer might notice that this package is shaped suspiciously like front fenders, and they'd be spot on!

They're FRP replicas but they're very close. Only a couple of problems, most notable being that there are no holes in them, so I will have to drill fender mirror, side marker and bolt holes in them. Next the inner mounting plate that mounts the back of the fender to the body just behind the door doesn't line up like it should, so that will have to be modified a bit. However, compare it to the old fender (this is the one that was completely covered in bondo) and that's a miniscule amount of work!

I did actually buy two fenders, I only unpacked one for now though, haha.

Next up, I decided to find out just what kind of rust trouble I was dealing with. Some some grinder action later and I had all the crappy screwed on metal plates that were "rust fixes" removed. And sweet Jesus, this metal was thin and pulled from like a coffee can or something (some were yellow, others black...).

One of the rust holes on the rocker.

For those weak of heart, you may want to avoid the next pictures, they're bad...
This is the front of the rocker.

The extremely worrisome spot on the passenger shock tower.

The spot behind the battery.

And the front of the other rocker.

Ya, that's going to take a lot, lot, lot of work. Unfortunately, I can't afford to get the nice guys at Classic Car Nagoya to do this much metal work. Not to mention the fact that the body guy has 2 Hakosukas lined up behind the Familia he is currently working on. Fortunately though, he's an excellent teacher and has been giving me pep talks on how to tackle it. Couple that with the fact that the Shacho has offered up a spare 200 volt gas MIG industrial welder for me to borrow and I'm looking at a lot of fun!

One final parting shot of my magnificent girlfriend's hands and the handiwork those hands accomplished!

That's it for now guys! More to come as this project is finally starting to pick up steam!
Cheers
David

mrflibbles · **Posted:** Sat Jun 23, 2012 8:10 pm

nice work! i like the repro fenders you got, would love a set! ill just make do with what i can find!
the rust doesnt look overly bad on yours and seems to be typical of these cars with the shock tower rust very common (something else i will have to do to mine!)
looking forward to seeing more from you on this beauty soon!

wasabicars · **Posted:** Mon Jul 30, 2012 4:32 am

Loving it! It's ugly and beautiful all at the same time.

Nakazoto · **Posted:** Mon Aug 06, 2012 1:36 am

Thanks everyone for the comments guys!
So, a wicked month at work capped off by a business trip to Korea and then a visit from my parents means the Bellett got put aside for a while (as seems par for the course so far). However, I did get this into my garage.

That's right, cue aviator sunglasses, a "Yeeeaaahhhh!!" and "Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who! Time to get some practice and finally some good progress in. Obon holidays are coming up soon here in Japan and you can be damn sure I'll be out there getting work done!

Also, this thing has to get on the fast track and the Mitsubishi has to get shipped home to hopefully make room for a new addition. We'll keep that one under wraps until it's a definite though.

Thanks again for the comments guys!

Cheers
David

mrflibbles · **Posted:** Mon Aug 06, 2012 1:49 am

always handy to have a welder nearby! cant wait to see some action shots!

Nakazoto · **Posted:** Wed Aug 22, 2012 5:29 am

Here comes the excuse train!
Actually, this time, I've got a good one. We had a wicked rainstorm a while back and it caused all manner of troubles, flooding streets, causing accidents and destroying a lot of stuff. Across the street from Classic Car Nagoya is a giant empty field that some people are doing very good at not doing construction on. They've just made a massive 3 to 4 meter tall mound of dirt and let it sit there. Well, when the rainstorm hit, it turned a very large amount of that dirt into mud and then flooded all of Classic Car Nagoya with it.

The result was a whole lot of damage. Fortunately, all the cars escaped with just some muddy tires. Countless other things, such as parts, wood flooring, paperwork, etc. was destroyed though. So recently, I have been going to normal work from 730 to 1630, coming home to change and then heading straight over to Classic to help with clean up. Pretty intense.

This floor is supposed to be green...

In the middle of initial cleanup. You can see one of the many mud puddles that resulted.

Ya, it's not pretty.

We pulled every car in the show room out and had to spray down the entire floor and then repaint it.

You can see Taira san with a shovel here. That's right, a shovel being used indoors.

So, there's my excuse for being lazy this time, haha. The good news is that after some serious work, the shop is looking better now than it has in years. Lots of important things were destroyed, but it also meant that we could go through and clean the place top to bottom. I'll post up some pics after the cleanup is completely finished!

Moving on, I decided it was time to use this awesome welder I had sitting in my garage. Disclaimer: I'm a welder in the sense that I also know Spanish. I practiced once, a long time ago very briefly. All I really care about is making sure it's strong and killing rust. So my first goal was to locate my first target, which happened to be this spot on the top of the rocker.

Outlined where I'm going to cut.

Old, crappy, rusty metal out...

... and the hole that resulted.

Tacking in a new piece.

Ya, not very pretty, but it held it in place so I could get some good welds going.

Welded in and ground down!

Inside.

Tomorrow is my birthday, so I'm heading to the store to pick up some POR-15 to rust proof the inside of the rocker a bit and then it's time to finish off this patch. I'm starting to get the hang of this welding thing so hopefully, I'll get better and better as I move along the car, working up to the end boss: the shock tower.

Thanks for the comments and thanks for looking guys!

Cheers
David

Nakazoto · **Posted:** Sat Sep 01, 2012 1:50 am

Alrighty!
Thanks for your comment Asirike!
I got some more welding done this past week and managed to get the top of the rocker done. To be honest, my progress is so slow because I'm worried that I'll screw it all up with my shoddy welding, but the more I do the more comfortable I get and the more I get done. Unfortunately, I think I'll finally feel comfortable just about when this project is done, haha.

Anyways, it was time to make the piece for the top of the rocker to fill in the hole that I made. But before I did that, I went out and bought some of this:

That's right! Genuine POR-15! There's a shop that imports this stuff. They charge a pretty penny, but it's worth it. Here is the inside of the rocker coated in this stuff. I gotta say, this stuff is wicked! It dries hard as a rock and takes weeks to get off your hands.

Then it was finally time to bend up my piece!

Then to make it easier to connect to the back and since I don't have a spot welder, I drilled holes along the top and then filled those holes with weld. You can see them along the top in this picture of it tacked into place.

My welds are most definitely not pretty and my alignment was a little off but it's plenty strong!

After some grinding it doesn't look too bad!

From a distance and with a blurry picture it almost looks good!

Next up was the little spot of rust just ahead of that piece. I didn't do them at the same time because I didn't want to cut out too much material at a time. Here are the two pieces I bent up to patch that spot. You can see the holes I drilled in the piece to create homemade spot welds.

Here it is welded in and ground down!

And from the back side.

Both patches together.

This was my next task, which was no easy one because it was an overlapping of two pieces. The rocker stayed nice and flat all the way back but the b-pillar came down and was welded to the top of the rocker. I wanted to keep this double thick steel here.

So you can see I cut and bent up a long piece for the rocker, welded that in, and then cut and bent up another piece to sit on top and connect to the b-pillar. I think it turned out pretty good!

From the back side.

Top of the rocker is done!

Next up is the front of the rocker! Hopefully I can get to that tomorrow!

Thanks again guys!
Cheers
David

Nakazoto · **Posted:** Sun Sep 02, 2012 5:44 am

Alirght!
The front of the rocker is done, meaning the entire driver's side rocker is complete! Next up is the passenger side rocker. Works is moving quicker than I thought it would, I'm really looking forward to getting back out there and getting more work done.

That curve was crazy difficult, but I think it turned out alright.

Looks pretty good from this angle.

Thanks again guys!

Cheers
David

Camshaft · **Posted:** Mon Sep 03, 2012 8:37 am

Fantastic metal work! I like the way you referred to the shock tower as an "end boss." :lol:

DmK66 · **Posted:** Mon Sep 03, 2012 12:10 pm

Hi David, looks like you're loving that welder.
Any thoughts about colour yet ? There's only one colour really and that's white. Or a lighter blue. Or mint green, black.... Silver's nice.
Or how about that dark red the Hakosuka's come in ?
Hope I've helped......

Kuroneko · **Posted:** Sat Sep 08, 2012 4:09 am

Serious work. Great machine the Bellett, and this is inspiring. Color? GT-orange with a matte black hood! Black Watanabe... Dreamy combo. Hope to see it in person one day too. Neko.

opelboy76 · **Posted:** Sat Sep 08, 2012 10:36 am

I have to agree with Neko. orange/black looks real good on these.

lostforawhile · **Posted:** Sat Sep 08, 2012 6:14 pm

great work, following this thread, I saw earlier that you needed the windshield wiper fluid bag, try an 81-83 Honda civic USDM one, they have the same washer fluid bag inside of the hatch

mrflibbles · **Posted:** Sun Sep 16, 2012 5:59 am

good work so far mate, love that your doing the welding yourself! I have yet to attempt the welding on my bellett! The POR15 is a nice paint we have been using it on my father inlaws 4x4 for the chassis and it looks great so far!

Please guys dont take this wrong, but i would love to see this any colour but orange and black seems to me nearly every Bellett GTR evr built was this colour! I like the blue that they were done in with the black outs. There is a recent arrival here in Australia is a nice metalic green colour. When its all said and done though it is the owners choice as to what colour it gets sprayed...

Kuroneko · **Posted:** Sun Sep 16, 2012 7:43 am

> Please guys dont take this wrong, but i would love to see this any colour but orange and black
> seems to me nearly every Bellett GTR evr built was this colour! I like the blue that they were
> done in with the black outs.

Yeah. If this one was that soft blue originally, then I'd give it a serious consideration as well...

opelboy76 · **Posted:** Sun Sep 16, 2012 11:10 am

it would be kinda good to see pics of various different colored Belletts for comparison. then again, what about something completely unique that HASN'T shown up on a Bellett before?

Nakazoto · **Posted:** Sun Sep 16, 2012 4:20 pm

Thanks everybody so much for the comments!

Camshaft, I started the "End Boss" battle yesterday, but this is going to be like one of those Final Fantasy games where the end boss battle takes 3 weeks to beat, haha.
Lotsforawhile, thanks for the tip! I'll definitely be looking into that because those old school washer bags are difficult to find in good condition here.
Mrflibbles, thanks! The POR-15 stuff is wicked strong, I think I'm going to end up covering the lower side of both rockers with the stuff just to make sure that everything in that area is particularly strong. I already went a little crazy with it in other places, just look below!
Kuoneko, thanks for the comments! Also, that drawing is awesome. I went to that persons website and he's got tons of awesome drawings!

Alrighty, color. This is a tricky one, because white does look very good as Dmk pointed out. The orange/black combo or the white/black combo also looks very good, but it's quite common. I figured that the one thing you don't see much on Belletts is a solid color. So, the question becomes, what solid color? Well, the more I thought about it, the best solid color I could think of came on the old S30 Zs, like below.

I think a Bellett in this color would look epic! Of course, color is something that will have to get thought about after I finish up the body work. Speaking of which, I got some more work done this past week!

I started by pouring out a little too much POR-15, so I decided to use it in various places on the body that needed it most. Starting with the A-pillars, which were rusty, but not so much so that they needed to be cut out and replaced.

This of course worked it's way upwards to the fender mounting surface.

And the inside of the cut out hole for the rocker. It's surprisingly difficult to get any of this stuff inside of there.

I also hit a few other places, such as the battery tray. My next move was to start welding up holes, though, starting with the back side of the passenger rocker.

Like the other side I ran one piece as the rocker extension and then another piece on the top as the b-pillar.

Next up was the front of the passenger side rocker. Unfortunately, this all had to be welded with my left hand and my left hand is about as coordinated as a drunk Russian, so it's not very pretty.

Next, I wanted to get the spot behind the battery tray. This particular spot was extremely difficult because it had a slight curve, a step, overlapping pieces and absolutely no space at all to work.

Here's my piece, it looks like it's just randomly bent, but that's actually my shot at getting it bent to the right shape. You can also see the drilled holes here that I used as spot weld holes.

And, all welded into place!

That's as far as I got, I'm going out of town in about 4 hours for a week long business trip so I'll get back to work on the "End Boss" as soon as I get back!

Thanks again everyone for the comments and inspiration!

Cheers
David

mrflibbles · **Posted:** Mon Sep 17, 2012 4:03 am

loving your welding, i hope the welding i have to do to mine turns out as good as yours looks. love the holes for spot welds too, what a great idea!

Nakazoto · **Posted:** Sun Sep 23, 2012 1:54 am

mrflibbles wrote:

loving your welding, i hope the welding i have to do to mine turns out as good as yours looks. love the holes for spot welds too, what a great idea!

Thanks! Although, I don't think it's all that great, the welds could be a lot prettier, but it's strong and rust free, which was my ultimate goal! The holes for the spot welds thing just seemed like the best way to tackle that problem; turns out it works pretty great!

Alrighty, so today I got to work on the "End Boss". First step was to cut out all the holey metal, which unfortunately included a bit of the frame rail as well.

So I grabbed a thicker piece of steel than the steel I've been using up till now to weld to the frame rail. Since it was a thicker piece of steel, all the prep on it had to be done with an angle grinder. I feel like I'm becoming a 14$ angle grinder artist!

After that was all welded in, I had to do something about the rest of the metal. It was still plenty strong but it hard its fair share of rust starting. A little POR-15 and problem-no-more!

Then after much cutting, bending, welding, grinding, swearing, burning holes in my arms and legs from slag, getting frustrated at the welder cause it wouldn't feed, more grinding, more swearing, more welding and finally even more grinding, I arrived here!

That's it! "End Boss" tackled!

It doesn't look half bad either.

That actually wraps up all the welding on this project!

My next goal is to get some more POR-15 and cover the lower half of the engine bay, the bottom of the rockers, the floor pans and the spare tire well in the trunk with the stuff just to make sure this thing doesn't feel like rotting again!

Until next time!

Cheers
David

The Bellet of the ball!

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