gravity444 Posted April 22, 2014 Share Posted April 22, 2014 I have always wanted to have a project car to keep me busy in my down time. I thought it would be good to start with something small, a mini maybe. The missus had different ideas.. She has visions of cruising beautiful New Zealand in a wicked camper van. What better than a Bedford CF. So we went ahead and bought a 1973 Bedford CF Camper.. Just a little bit bigger than the mini.. I am no stranger to doing bits and pieces on cars which I have owned, but i'm definitely not a mechanic or panel beater. This is my first big restoration project, so there will be a bit of trial and error.. Anyways.. Ill keep you posted on progress.. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gravity444 Posted April 27, 2014 Author Share Posted April 27, 2014 The van is slowly starting to come apart. I have a bagging and tagging system that will hopefully help when I go to put it all back together.. The back doors have been an issue… They are not budging.. I can’t get the screws on the hinges to come off. I can’t hit the pins out. I’m at a bit of a loss on how to get them off the van. The doors are pretty rusty through the bottom so they will probably need to be replaced, but I’d like to save the hinges. Maybe hit them with a gas torch.. Any suggestions?. Otherwise going pretty smoothly. Flip the window guy arrives tomorrow to take out the glass, pretty sure I can pay him in beer. Still thinking about the motor situation.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gravity444 Posted April 28, 2014 Author Share Posted April 28, 2014 This evening, after doing a full days work, Filp the glass guy came around, to remove the glass from the Bedford. It would have taken me days to pull the glass out and there would have been casualties.. Flip had the windows out, no worries, he definitely knows what he is up to. Cheers Flip.. Legend. The front end is now lifted and sitting on axle stands. I was initially keen to have the whole van in the air, but I’m not sure I’m too keen to get underneath. I cant see it being particularly stable. So I’ll keep the back tyres on and prop up the front end then swap the stands to the back once I have done the work on the front. I have put two of the axle stands under the engine subframe, then the jack is under there but not taking any weight. The other two axle stands are further back, but the van is not actually sitting on them. Just there as a safeguard. Is this the best way of propping up the van, so I can get underneath?? The only problem i can see is when I need to remove the subfame for the new engine, i will need to move the stands.. I know you can use a block and chain to raise the van for the engine to come out, but I dont have the height. Also good news.. After a lengthy battle with the rear doors, managed to get the screws loose. The gas torch was a gem, most of the screws came loose with a good blasting on the torch. There were two stubborn screw, but with help from Flips impact driver they eventually moved.. Awesome. So I have taken the hinges off the van, they are still firmly attached to the doors, but I might replace the doors anyway.. Put this one on the back burner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gravity444 Posted April 29, 2014 Author Share Posted April 29, 2014 Took the front panel off today. Getting closer to removing the engine. Is a bit of work, labelling, bagging and tagging every part.. Its gonna be fun putting it all back together. I was scratching my head over that front cross member. I thought it would be good to pull that out to give me loads of space to work in the engine bay. I had a look and seems like a bit of a drama. Cant quite see where all the welds are holding it on and the welds that I can see are tucked away so I cant get my grinder on them. Anyone know best way of taking it off. I think the newer Haynes manual has a method of engine extraction in the supplementary chapter, but I have the old manual and only gives the lifting method.. Hmm.. Maybe a visit to the library.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gravity444 Posted April 30, 2014 Author Share Posted April 30, 2014 It seemed like a big day today. Considering I have never removed an engine from a vehicle, I think I did OK. It was a little tricky as I had no engine crane or helper to give me a lift. I did however have a jack and a few strops. So using the strops and slowly lowering them one by one, I managed to drop out the subframe and then the engine. Took time, but slowly does it. Anybody in the market for a vauxhall 1800 slant engine.. Almost new. Well, actually 41 years old and god knows how many kilometers. The only reason I took it out of the van, was a bit powerful for the missus to drive.. Yeah right. Keep an eye on TradeMe, grab a bargain.. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gravity444 Posted May 5, 2014 Author Share Posted May 5, 2014 Its been a few days since the last update and no pictures to show this time, but progress continues... I have been slowly removing bits and pieces and am now down to a bare shell. I bolted the front steering and subframe back on to make it easy to move around. I will take the subframe back off when the van gets delivered to the sandblaster. So I am now shopping for a sandblaster. I am pretty keen to get the van into the blaster early next week. Early reports look like it is going to cost between $1700 - $2000. This is a little more that I was expecting. Ill be deciding on the sandblaster by the end of the week, so will let you know.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gravity444 Posted May 7, 2014 Author Share Posted May 7, 2014 The van is now completely stripped.. Stage one, done... Pretty excited as Steven from Atomic Stripping, Onehunga, is coming over tomorrow to check the old girl out. Had a few quotes and although they were higher than expected 'atomic stripping' was pretty competitive. He tells me they will use a garnet media, but recycled to make it a bit softer. Sounds like a good plan to me. I will let you know how things go.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gravity444 Posted May 13, 2014 Author Share Posted May 13, 2014 I decided to remove the front left and right quarter panels. This was something I wasn’t expecting to do, but i could see some some rust hanging around underneath the panels . I thought if I was sending it off to a sandblaster, better to do the job properly. It was a good thing, because the left front quarter is not looking particularly flash. The A pillar is almost completely rusted at the bottom. This could be a problem. Thinking caps on… I am thinking of getting a spare left quarter, but i suppose clean bedford spares are hard to come by.. Otherwise I fix the panels I have.. Hmmm The phone call was made to 'Southern Districts Towing' to collect the CF bedford for the sandblaster. They arrived in no time and loaded the van expertly (with no steering or breaks). The old van was loaded onto the tow truck and sent off to atomic sandblasters, onehunga. I am excited but nervous. I spoke to the paint guy this afternoon who recommended spraying the van with an epoxy urethane primer when it came back from the blaster, this i suppose is the etch primer. He said this would work well with the 2K primer. He also recommended using a 1.8 - 2.0mm spray gun. My plan is to get the van to a primer stage in the garage and then shoot it off to a professional for the colour and clear, but this is a long way down the track. There has been more thinking about the engine and running gear.. No decisions though.. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gravity444 Posted May 27, 2014 Author Share Posted May 27, 2014 Spoke to Atomic Sandblasters today and am expecting the Bedford to be returned home tomorrow. Steven said was a bit more work than he was expecting. I am glad that it is getting a proper job, but a little scared as means more work for me later. I bought a mig welder to get the repairs done. I measured the thickness of the panels and they are 1mm thick, i figure this will be most of my work, maybe some thicker stuff. I bought the 'Smootharc Mig 180' from BOC Gas, Penrose. http://www.boc.co.nz/shop/en/nz-boc-industrial-ntl-store/welders/mig-welders/smootharc-mig-180 Is a digital inverter mig welder, so is quite different to anything I have seen before, not that I have done a lot of welding, almost none infact. But here are todays efforts. Improvement needed I know. So the welds were a bit rough, but for a first effort I thought they were OK. I am struggling to understand the settings on the machine which are important as I am welding very thin material. I am using shielding gas called Argoshield Light. I understand this is the best gas for light material. Also using 0.6mm wire. There are three settings: Wire Speed and Voltage - This preset so when you increase the voltage the wire speed increases automatically. I guess I want this to be at minimum (17.5V) as I am welding 1mm steel Inductance - Can be adjusted up or down 10%. Im not really sure what effect this is having. Arc welding adjustment mode - Can be adjusted up or down 20%. I have no idea what this is doing. I think it has some adjustment on the voltage, but not really sure. So I still havent figured out the settings for the steel I will be welding. More trial and error maybe. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gravity444 Posted June 8, 2014 Author Share Posted June 8, 2014 The van is back from the sandblasters. There are definitely more holes in it now. Even the bits that I was convinced were strong, seem to have come back looking worse for wear. Anyway, I suppose that is part of the adventure. I was looking at priming it straight away with an epoxy urethane primer, but the sandblaster has sprayed the van with a rust inhibitor as part of the deal. He said as long as the van stays dry it will stop any surface rust from forming. Also makes it easier to do the body work repairs. So I have been thrashing youtube and learning as much as I can. I think I must have seen almost ever car restoration video there is. The welding, although still not perfect is coming along. I have just been given a pretty sweet sheet metal book by a friend, so am going to crack into that this evening. Looks like it might hold some gems.. Looking forward to dedicating a few days work to the van, so hopefully will see small bits of progress. Watch this space.. More photos on the Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/73bedford 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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