bedford fish van resto

[hammondo]

 

so, in a magical moment of clarity, I discovered the genius of restoring a bedford van to use as a daily work van/promotional vehicle for my business, and my business is fish. More specifically we do commercial aquariums.

but thats boring, so back to the van.

bought this about 6 weeks ago:



I immediately began stripping the car down and sorting out the rust spots that had come through.
the floor in the back was in pretty good shape, but there was some plating required in the front section caused by water leaks in the roof/gutter, in the end though the floor came up good and is coated in POR15:





the body needed some straightening, but she's come up pretty good. main shell now primed and guide coated, in a few more days I can start rubbing it back:

[Marishka]

lookin good,
what colour you going to paint it?

[hammondo]

lookin good,
what colour you going to paint it?

thanks mate, is going to be metallic silver. the signage is in blue/black, oh and I'm considering doing a white roof.

[hammondo]

you've probably noticed the subtle changes I've made to the body, seams on the front quarters are welded up, front gutter removed, and rear bumper recessed into rear lower quarters. all of this is due to the worst rust areas. the beaver panel was shot, and the design of the water drainage in the front was pretty average so I think sealing it up will prevent future problems.

[hammondo]

I'm modifying a dash out of a CJ chrysler to fit in.

at this stage its a bit rough, but will take a guage cluster I have from a UC (sports dash), as well as air con vents etc.

[Rogue Trooper]

you've probably noticed the subtle changes I've made to the body, seams on the front quarters are welded up, front gutter removed, and rear bumper recessed into rear lower quarters. all of this is due to the worst rust areas. the beaver panel was shot, and the design of the water drainage in the front was pretty average so I think sealing it up will prevent future problems.

The front gutter is gone so you've done the hard work there. I had that done to mine many years ago as well but rather than leaving the gutter finishing at the top I had them continued down each side of the widscreen. Best thing I ever did. Stops water blown from the windscreen from seeping in around the top of the doors when you're driving.

[SkippyThBushKangeroo]

I'm modifying a dash out of a CJ chrysler to fit in.

im preetty sure my dash is of that era n mode too hammo, it fits very snugly and i can pull the whole assembly out with only 3 screws to undo, notice that whoever fitted it also included the guage assembly in the bottom metal piece below the speedo this give you some idea of what it will look like..... 

[hammondo]

yeah the valiant dash is a pretty easy swap, I didn't have any spare guages. the VH guages look good in yours though.

[hammondo]

the motor was reco'd about 6 years ago and still has 135 compression, so I gave it new welch plugs/gaskets and a fresh coat of red paint.

after stuffing around with the holley manifold and extractors for an hour, I decided to ditch them and stick with the stock manifolds. Runs on gas anyway and was never meant to be a speedy car.

[hammondo]

 

quick update:
body work finished and off to spray booth:


back to the shed all in 2-pack silver:


new wheels:


roof mods turned out good:


dynamat cabin:


suzuki wiper motor adapted on:


getting close now