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[Bas / NZ]

1985 Bedford, completely redone, entirely re upholstered, new electricals, resprayed, Mags and new tyres. 4X Captains Chairs, rear seat folds down into double bed. 350 chevy V8 with TH350 turbo autobox with Hirch shifter
(South Africa) R110,000 Price tag  $11.9466 AU $13.8159 NZ

[Bas / NZ]

[restoreid]

Yeow that looks cool Now whoes gona be the 1st to build one

[Gordon]

Bas, there is an interesting story behind that orange CF2 that is for sale in South Africa. In the early '80s when vanning was at its peak a South African caravan manufacturer called Jurgens imported 200 brand new plain old CF2 panel vans from the UK. They pulled out the original engines and transplanted Ford V6 3 liter motors with manual gearboxes and then proceeded to fit out the interiors with 4 swivel captain's chairs, and fold down couch. The four seats swiveled  to face a round removable cocktail table. The vans featured the windows as shown on the orange van and they were fitted with air-conditioning. The vans were re-badged as a Jurgens Cruise' o Van and were offered in light metallic blue paint or flat beige with brown stripes. I bought one of these vans in 1999 and rebuilt it with a 350 small block. There aren't many survivors of the original 200.

[Bas / NZ]

Sounds like a good buy then, yes in the ad it was called (Jurgens Cruise' o Van )  so this is one of those for sure then. Thanks for the info, interesting, take it this is the blue one in your gallery / below...

And you brought the Porsche over with you and not the Bedford?

[Gordon]

Yep, bad call in hindsight. I sold that van for ZAR 28,000 which works out to about $4K kiwi and there wasn't a spot of rust in it. In my photo that you posted you will see the light blue nose of an interesting looking car pointing out of the garage. That is a 1964 GSM Flamingo. Only about 120 ever made and I rebuilt that one from a bare shell that we found lying under a tree in the bush. Although not a Bedford I'll attach a before and after shot just for fun. Also sold that before we moved. Another of my big regrets.

[Bas / NZ]

Yes, I guess if we could see into the future, we would all make different calls, but for most of as that is not the case, when I was around 23yrs I had a chance to buy a Bedford that was owned and built by Mike Ironside, a well known self taught customizer here, but I didn't, I regret that choice so much, even today. A lady brought it and the real pain was that she lived local, so used to see it on the street a lot, didn't help things...

But Gordon, nice find and job done on the 1964 GSM Flamingo, had seen photo's of this type of car before, but was not sure of its name.. Well the good news is you are now  back on track now with the rebuild of your van, that I'm sure will bring may years of joy, after all the pain they give us in the process...

[Gordon]

Yep, at the time you make a decision based on the knowledge at hand. With the extra knowledge gained later come the regrets. Thought I would post a more appropriate Bedford picture that includes my old Flamingo.

[Bas / NZ]

Thanks for the pics, do you have any of the interior, was it set up as you said before, van looks real clean and tidy.. also looks like it is sitting very low..

[Gordon]

Hi Bas, when I bought the van it was in pretty poor condition. I've got a few pictures of the van when I first bought it, but they aren't in soft format so I'll scan a few and upload them to my gallery. It was beige with the brown stripe when I bought it and the standard Cruise o Van interior . I managed to get the van lower by fitting shorter front springs and I had the rear leaf springs reset. I'll load up some pics shortly.