BUGA Community
General Category => Introduce Yourself => Topic started by: doujoy on July 16, 2018, 05:42:50 AM
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Hi to all,
New guy just joined but old Bedford CF man who served my time on Bedford vehicles from 1959, thanks for letting me join your club.
I still work on Bedford's as I have one of my own bought ten years ago as a retirement project, I go to a number of vintage rallies around Scotland in the old CF and am a member of the Bedford CF UK owners club.
My old Bedford has done a hundred and fifty thousand miles and was registered for the road in 1981 but needed a lot of work doing to it to get it back onto the road.
A new project last June just to keep me busy was a 1950 Ransome MG vineyard tractor and is now just been completed, you can view it on facebook under dougiestractor.
doujoy
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Hi to all,
I have been a mechanic for most of my working life, did a bit of long distance driving for about nine years through the nineties over the EU Countries.
Married with three children from 1965 to Margaret who died of cancer two years ago, kids all been married, so grandchildren to keep me on my toes.
Like to keep busy and the old Bedford and tractor do just that, having to get used to living on my own after 51 years of married life, that is taking a bit of time.
doujoy
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Hi doughboy,
Sorry to hear of your loss of your wife Margaret.
Loosing our loved ones is one of the biggest hurts of our lives.
Hope you are doing ok.
This site is a bit slow now days due to the bedford page on Facebook
Not sure if you have Facebook but if so do a search for bedfords
Wendy has a page on there.
I sacked Facebook so I'm afraid I'm not on there anymore,
Cheers marty
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Hi Marty,
Good to hear from you, I am a get off your butt and get on with what is left of life kind of guy, I do miss Margaret a lot but I have a good family.
Facebook is ok but a bit too public for my taste I think people forget that they are speaking to the whole wide world when they put stuff on there.
doujoy
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Hi to all,
Due to the high price of fuel in the north of Scotland I have fitted a second fuel tank where the spare wheel carrier used to be so that I can fill up locally and do the whole trip without buying at higher prices up north.
The old 2.3 petrol engine has been worked on quite a bit over the ten years I have owned my Bedford and at a steady 55 mph I am able to get 21 mpg.
On the motorway where I am able to make good use of the overdrive gearbox I can gain another three mpg, so for an old beast it does alright.
I always thought that the CF should have had a starting handle so I have made and fitted a starter dog and raised the radiator two inches and made myself a starting handle, very useful for many of the jobs like timing belt and tappet gaps on the OVH camshaft, and if you get a flat battery in the cold Scottish winter time.
doujoy
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Hi to all,
I have decided to sell off some of the tools that I have no use for anymore, some old BMC sykes tools and old clutch kits and brake shoes for Vauxhall Cavalier mk2.
So a bit of a clear out of stuff that has laid in my shed since the days when I ran my own workshop here in Perth Scotland.
My next classic rally will be down in the town for Biggar so maybe I can sell off this collection at that, hope to get £150.00 for the lot.
doujoy
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Hi Doujoy, glad the Bedfords have been good to you and that you are keeping busy. Sounds like you have done some good mods to your van. In Australia we had the 3.3 litre Holden motor fitted as standard, my van runs LPG and petrol so its got extended range with the dual tanks and better economy on LPG.
If you are selling parts, there are another couple of popular UK-based Bedford CF sites :
http://www.bedford-cf.co.uk/
and
https://www.bedfordcf.org/
There will be a lot of CF owners over your way on those sites I imagine.
Stuart
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Hi Doujoy!
Welcome to our site...my ears were burning Haha
Thanx for sharing your story, we would all love some pictures of your beddy
Great to hear from you..
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Hi wendyh and Stuart,
Just got back from a trip north to Rannoch with the grand kid's they had a great time on a very basic woodland site up there and the old Bedford ran well three gallons to sixty miles well loaded, on single track roads.
My old tub is not worth a photo she is not pretty but she goes well for a thirty seven year old Bedford CF.
I am a member of both of the clubs mentioned but I have seen more life in a tinkers vest!
doujoy
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Welcome Doujoy,
It's always good to hear from our international Bedford brethren. Great to hear that your CF is still serving you well, mine is coming up for it's 40th annual registration in September. Feel free to post any pics, any time. I'm sure "the old tub" is worth it. The hand crank is definitely unusual, but good mods with the fuel tank and gearbox. By the way, what ratio is the diff?
Happy travels,
Jeff.
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Hi Jeff,
The axle is a Salisbury 4.454-1 light commercial with the high geared gearbox and J type overdrive.
doujoy
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Hi wendyh and Stuart,
Just got back from a trip north to Rannoch with the grand kid's they had a great time on a very basic woodland site up there and the old Bedford ran well three gallons to sixty miles well loaded, on single track roads.
My old tub is not worth a photo she is not pretty but she goes well for a thirty seven year old Bedford CF.
I am a member of both of the clubs mentioned but I have seen more life in a tinkers vest!
doujoy
Hey we all love bedfords no matter what the condition
If you check out my pictures in the gallery on page 6 and see what my van looked like...so please post up some pictures and be proud of your beloved beddy....
I've been lucky to have Ray work on the van, with me and keep her in good mechanical condition and after 8 yrs of saving up I finally got a professional paint job....
So please post up some pictures...😊😊
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Hi Doujoy,
Sorry to hear the UK bedford sites are not active now, I have found some very useful posts on them in the past. A fellow named Phil Bradshaw seems to be some kind of CF Bedford genius, some very good answers to questions and info on part numbers etc.
I'm not much of a Facebook person as well, however I play in bands and got forced to make one as part of a previous band - its actually turned out to be useful, if just for keeping up with the "Bedford vans and parts for sale Australia" Facebook page. There's a lot of great content there if you like CFs. You don't have to share any info if you don't want to, all you need to do is use your Dougiestractor page and "add friend". Your grandkids will show you how to do it !
Would also love to see pics of your van one day, they've all have long service lives by now so any roughness is part of the character.
BTW your tractor on Facebook looks very tidy indeed! Well done.
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Yes Facebook can be a very useful tool if you use it wisely,
Great networking tool for all your hobbies...I love it.
Reaches far an wide
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Hi you guys.
Good to hear from you all, I will try to get a picture of my old Bedford CF up loaded to the site.
doujoy
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Hi to all,
My old Bedford gave me a scare on a short journey on Wednesday when the engine oil pressure dropped and the oil light came on, with a top up I managed to get home.
So it was strip down time to replace the oil seals on the pump pickup and then press in some light grease refit and retime the Ign timing and so far all is well.
Got a two hundred mile round trip this weekend so let's hope all well.
doujoy
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Yeah ok fingers crossed then.🤞
Let's us know how you go then 😊
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Hi Guys.
Well the old Bedford made the round trip ok 216 miles, just home an hour and a half ago.
I will give it a check over tomorrow once she has cooled down, 22 miles to the gallon not bad of a high top with high mileage under its belt.
doujoy
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Ahhhh great to hear that you had a successful trip 😊
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Hi to all,
My old Bedford will be going out to Scone Rally on the 9th of September which is a very good place to find spares and sell off any unwanted parts or tools.
This rally is ran by the tractor and engine club at Scone Palace near Perth Scotland, my own old tractor won't make it there this year due to a lack of suitable trailer transport but I might have a better arrangement by next year.
As a member of the tractor and engine club and having started my mechanical time on tractors I do enjoy seeing so many restored tractors at this rally.
doujoy
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Hi to all,
Yesterday the new needle and fuel jet arrived for my old Ransome vineyard tractor, when I seen what they wanted for a second-hand carb I thought it would be cheaper to replace the only two moving parts in the SU carb fitted to the tractor.
So with that done all I need to do now is reset the mixture and see what improvement that makes to its running at tick-over.
The Bedford starting handle is getting more use now on these colder mornings, saves a lot of battery power, Ign. on and one press of the pedal a fool turn of the engine and a sharp half pull and off she goes much to the entertainment of people passing at the time.
doujoy
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Nice one doujoy.. my first car was a Morris minor with a crank handle start option.. it was great, never had to worry about a flat battery, wish I had the option still.. you had to be careful it didn't back wind and catch you though..
I have seen videos online of people starting their truck with a wheel jacked up using a rope wound around the tyre to crank the engine.. check it out, have to try it on the Bedford one day!
https://youtu.be/-aquUatFDeI
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Hi stuuuz,
I do find the starting handle useful when the old Bedford has been sitting around in the wintertime.
doujoy