Flash's '78 Bedford Panelvan

[Flash]

Back home we put together a list of things to tackle over the winter. Top of the list was to slap in some low as the van had a bit of an agricultural look going with the big fat gaps between the fenders and the low profile tyres.

The tricky thing with these vans is that they have no camber adjustment on the front suspension and came preset from the factory with positive one degree camber. The easiest way to lower them is to cut the front springs or get shorter springs fabricated but if you take too much you start to suffer with tyre wear issues.

After doing some research I tracked down a company in Aus called Stubtech who still have a few sets of dropped spindles for the Bedford. These spindles give you a 3 inch drop whilst retaining the original suspension geometry. The conversion sounded pretty straight forward so I bit the bullet and ordered a set.

The parcel duly arrived with all of the paperwork needed for certification but in terms of fitting instructions there was only a dodgy photocopy of a set of hand written notes.

First step is to cut out the original Bedford ball joint seat from the lower suspension arm and replace it with the supplied plate that takes a Holden HQ ball joint. To make matters more tricky the new ball joint seat needs to be moved further in on the arm in order to retain the correct geometry. The measurements provided were pretty vague, but I had a spare set of lower arms, so decided to plunge straight in.

[Flash]

After a quick test fit of the new ball joint seat we cut off and shortened the end portion of the arm.

[Flash]

Then fixed the new ball joint seat into position. The arm end was then reinforced. Cert requirement was for TIG welding and crack testing.