BUGA Community
General Category => Members Rides => Topic started by: Chucky on January 19, 2015, 12:17:39 PM
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I should probably start a thread for our Bedford. Some of this info is duplicated in the introductions thread but I suppose there is no harm in having it here also.
Both my partner Dee and I, love Beddy's. I had the option to buy my van from Dalby in Oct 2014. It came with some history and original mod plate circa 2000.
it came with:
Fibreglass Rear door
202 Red Motor
Trimatic
12 Bolt Diff
Aluminium front and rear bumpers
WB Dash
Checker plate running boards
bodyfiller ;-)
Between myself and friends we have done the following:
Fitted 350 Chev
Fitted Turbo 700
Fitted HQ V8 radiator with twin thermofans
Moved front gutter down both A Pillars
Made and fitted swage rolled floors
smoothed out the whole dash
installed drop column
fitted new steps/sills with swage rolled details
Jobs to be done over the next few months:
fit shifter
exhaust
rewire
fit column mounted dash and controls
new tyres and cheviot hustlers
prep and paint (temporarly) in non porous red oxide.
RWC and REGO!
I've given up on getting to Van Nats LOL :(
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sounds good man, got any piccies of the beast ?
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Here are some pics, it's a low budget build.
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the last pic is of a column mount indicator switch from some unknown american commercial vehicle from the 20-30's. I have two of them, one for wipers (mounted to the left) and one for indicators (mounted to the right). I will make new aluminium 'tops' for them with a few extra switches and lamps for other functions and recast a third unit as a speedo mount that I will mount vertically, thus allowing me to have a completely column mounted dash.
I aint got money so I gotta use smarts ;-)
chucky
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Motor is in
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From the front. We set it back a fair bit to allow for ancillaries in the future.
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And one last shot down the front. Used an early crank pulley, riadiator is about to be swapped out for alloy.
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looking good 8)
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Looks good, great to see another resto.
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Update:
The radiator has now been replaced with an aluminium deep two-core unit from a worked V8 torana. The guy was going to a full showclass engine bay so this wasn't shiny enough, comes with two davies craig 10" fans fitted and working so I'm happy! Radiator is only tacked in at the moment and will be fitted properly this weekend.
Starter motor has arrived, just waiting on mounting bolts.
Steering wheel has been ordered and it is f***ing COOL (see pic)
All wiring has been ripped out and i'm ready to get a VN Relay/Fuse box and start wiring. I will be running two Land rover S3 stalks, with my gauges mounted in the weird american indicator lever mounts posted earlier. I have considered twisting a number of stainless tubes down the column to both hide the cables and also provide a kind of feature to make the whole column based dash look biomechanical.....who knows.
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with the VN fuse box, I grabbed extra relay/fuse blocks from a wreckers. come out easily with a small screwdriver down the back (from the top) I also used new terminals purchased from jaycar. Fuses were more a pain. I had to leave enough wire on the donor fuse block so I could join in new wire.
But now almost everything has it's own fuse and relay! ;D ;D ;D
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The VN-S box seems best to me because it has a clean layout and it's easy to wire, the fact that the fuse box is separate helps me too. I trolled the wreckers for a few hours looking at all different types and not much comes close to being as easy to mount and wire :-)
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Hi Chucky & Dee,
Watching with keen interest, I have a V8 instal also, and will need to get it engineered for QLD rego. Do you have a good contact for the plating? Love the steering wheel!! As I slowly weld away the rust, I'm thinking of an engine upgrade, to something the same but reman, known history etc. Would love to see your work, I am Brisbane owner, Redcliffe, any chance of coming around for a look & chat?
Gotta push uphill before the downhill thrill!
downhill, door slider.