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Flash's '78 Bedford Panelvan


Flash

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AWESOME  build quality there bud, much respect! :) I know this will be costing you a truckload to build,  no matter how many good deals you do on the way.   Yeah I am still a bit shocked at how much "runner" engines are advertised and sold for on TM. That old Chev would net you $100-$200 in the US. Clever move that.  

 

  Who did you get to chrome your bumpers, and what did they ping you if you don't mind me asking? I have a new front bumper for my silver Transit (painted) that needs chrome, I was quoted $650 to get it done. Was a bit shocked, but believe that is quite normal!  :shock:

 

Nice to see you have some Transit parts fitted!  :compress:

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Awesome man. I love what you are doing (or have done)

Get a Quadrajet - all the way for economy. Easy enough to get, can even buy them fully remanufactured and supposedly 95% setup for your specified choice of motor. You having a 350, it should be a piece of cake.

 

Spencer on here was going to write an article on how to tune a Quadrajet for maximum economy especially as there are a few of us now with carby V8's all trying to get a little more economy out of ours. 

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Really rather enjoying the details and direction you're taking here,

 

Looking forward to seeing the finished product..

 

Early fronts look so much better than the late model / "jumbo's"!

Thanks for the feedback. Yep I also prefer the classic lines of the older model.

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Very handy of Bedford to design the CF engine bay to take a V8. :geek:

 

Always loved the CF with a V8, looks better than the Chevy van of the same vintage imho. 8)

 

A pity Vauxhall's planned OHC V8 never made it to production. http://www.annteak.com/viva/slant-4-or-v8-you-decide/

 

Wonder if it was just coincidence that the Slant 4 shared some dimensions with the 1966 Pontiac OHC 6 and the venerable SBC.  The original 265 SBC shares it's 3.75" bore with the 2000 and 3" inch stroke with the 2300.

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AWESOME  build quality there bud, much respect! :) I know this will be costing you a truckload to build,  no matter how many good deals you do on the way.   Yeah I am still a bit shocked at how much "runner" engines are advertised and sold for on TM. That old Chev would net you $100-$200 in the US. Clever move that.  

 

  Who did you get to chrome your bumpers, and what did they ping you if you don't mind me asking? I have a new front bumper for my silver Transit (painted) that needs chrome, I was quoted $650 to get it done. Was a bit shocked, but believe that is quite normal!  :shock:

 

Nice to see you have some Transit parts fitted!  :compress:

Thanks for the feedback browndog. My front bumpers were the originals so they showed a bit of history, but they give the van so much character that I was determined to get them looking as good as I could. I've had chrome work done in the past that looked bloody awesome when fresh, but sadly didn't last the distance, so this time around I figured pay the extra for a decent job. So I took them along to Nigel at Otahuhu Chrome Platers. The stripping of the old chrome was around $100. He outsourced the hammer and file work which cost me $240 from memory and the chrome work for both front bumpers was just under $600, so around $940 all up. Not cheap, but the quality is top notch, so I would highly recommend him.

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okay thanks for that, I will pay him a visit and get a quote, also need the dome head bolts plated. . My front bumper is NOS, but painted, so not requiring any prep work apart from stripping the paint. I was lucky enough to score a NOS pair of chrome rear quarter bumpers a while ago for about $300. I have straightened the bumper irons and had them coated matt black. 

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I so want to see a proliferation of vans at Nats next March and I want them rocking and rolling all weekend.

Every time the doors open in the morning I want to see clouds of smoke drift out of them and a bevvy of beer cans sprinkle out noisely onto the ground.

 

Damn I need to get me a van STAT.

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okay thanks for that, I will pay him a visit and get a quote, also need the dome head bolts plated. . My front bumper is NOS, but painted, so not requiring any prep work apart from stripping the paint. I was lucky enough to score a NOS pair of chrome rear quarter bumpers a while ago for about $300. I have straightened the bumper irons and had them coated matt black.

Luckily my bolts were still mint, but one was badly seized and no amount of CRC would help. Sadly I didn't get it out in one piece. I found some new Morris Minor domed bolts on eBay and brought in a set, but the head is a smaller diameter, so I'm running a button head stainless steel bolt as a temporary measure until I can source a proper replacement. Its not really noticeable until I point it out, but it sure bugs me.

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I so want to see a proliferation of vans at Nats next March and I want them rocking and rolling all weekend.

Every time the doors open in the morning I want to see clouds of smoke drift out of them and a bevvy of beer cans sprinkle out noisely onto the ground.

 

Damn I need to get me a van STAT.

I'm getting flash backs (excuse the pun) to the "Up in Smoke" movie by Cheech and Chong with the classic "Hey I didn't know your name was Alex" line in the rocking van scene. You've gotta watch that movie if you haven't already.

Van's rock .... literaly

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Luckily my bolts were still mint, but one was badly seized and no amount of CRC would help. Sadly I didn't get it out in one piece. I found some new Morris Minor domed bolts on eBay and brought in a set, but the head is a smaller diameter, so I'm running a button head stainless steel bolt as a temporary measure until I can source a proper replacement. Its not really noticeable until I point it out, but it sure bugs me.

 

I had the same problem, was short a few bolts on the two vans I have. Went to Bolt Shop, and bought some M10x25 gutter bolts. These are zinc plated, and the heads were a bit larger than required. I turned them down in the lathe to the required size. The square section under the dome was fractionally larger than required, so a bit of careful work with a flat file sorted that. They look perfect, and almost impossible to tell apart from the originals.  Speaking of which, I noticed they all had an insulating washer under the head of the bolt, between the head and the bumper. Like a fibre washer, but white in colour. I still need to sort that little bit out. 

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I like that you have 2x porsche sitting in the background of 2x bedfords being worked on

 

A contractor from around town here has a 71' (I think) Bedford with a 350 Chev, used to idle around the site I worked at with two massive exhausts exiting just in front of the rear wheels sounded cool as hell

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I like that you have 2x porsche sitting in the background of 2x bedfords being worked on

 

A contractor from around town here has a 71' (I think) Bedford with a 350 Chev, used to idle around the site I worked at with two massive exhausts exiting just in front of the rear wheels sounded cool as hell

Cheers for that. We are both lucky enough to be able to use our Porsches as daily drivers. People would probably cringe to hear that my '82 SC has just over 370,000 km on the clock and Mrs Flash's '93 964 Carrera 2 is not too far behind at almost 260,000km on the clock. We do all of the maintenance ourselves so running them is a lot cheaper than people would expect. Air-cooled rules !

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