1982 Bedford CF 250 (Murv)

[Gray]

Alot of you already know about Murv and my history with him so now I have him up here in Leigh with me I figured it was about time I did something with him. don't know how fast this will be and there may be a bit of time between updates as the workshop is busy just now and I'm going to be doing this in my spare time and between customer cars. but I have a few plans in my head and wil be going down the old school custom van route
He had been laid up for quite a while and getting him was a bit of an adventure, for those who don't recall the trip is here retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=99655&page=1

Anyways, since then he has just sat at the workshop, I did pick up a set of wheels for him and I dismantled part of the front end.
I had been looking for a front spoiler to suit as the standard CF front bumper is pretty awful. Luckily we have an accident repair place next to us so lots of bits and pieces end up outside there, yesterday I found one that may be the basis of what I'm after so i dragged it over, chopped it in half to see how it would look, with a bit of fettling and blending it might just work



Notice the size of the wheels? well luckily I have a set of four CF350 wheel spats tucked away that should sit over them nicely, its one of the reasons I have to find a front bumper that they can blend into and look "right"

Now, to use wheels that wide and the arches the original arches need cut back, another problem is the new archline overlaps the door slightly which obviously isnt ideal so in a moment of wisdom I figured shortening the doors is the answer, this also clears up a couple of other problems as the doorsteps will now become battery trays and I suspected there was filler in the bottoms anyway (classic cf rotspots)

So a few minutes of looking at it...



And its out with the grinder.....



The picture doesnt show it but the frame is cut with an angle upwards and backwards, this is for keeping water out when the new bottoms are welded in

so now I have a door bottom that will eventually be flush welded back in, it looked a bit ropey alright





And a few minutes with a flap wheel gave us this...



Going by how bad it is I may aswell reskin the whole section so I removed that skin



And was left with the frame, theres a few trouble spots on it but is reusable





When this piece is welded into the van the new skin should go under further than the door did and be welded into the sill but for it to do that the lip on the bottom needs removed, this one



And the fastest way to do that is with this...



And its gone...



Next up is to take a few measurements and cut the new skin out of some sheet....



And then over to the folder.....



Which leaves us with this



The eagle eyed amongst you may have spotted I left the fold long, this is so I can put a second upward fold in that may be usefull for putting the door seal on.

Next is the curve under, I did this in a set of slip rolls we made ages ago from stuf we had lying around, from memory it was some box section, some scaffolding pipes, a landrover jack and some bearings. It works well



And gets us pretty close to what we want..







Then a few tacks....





And we have this







This was about midday when it started raining and for a final trim and fit I need to offer it up to the van which is outside so called it a day at that. hopefully I will get it fitted one evening this week and then sort the plate for the bottom of the door aswell.

Ideas etc always welcome, I'm going to be sort of making this one up as I go along. I know the general look I'm after and have a few things up my sleeve to try aswell .
Thanks for looking

[lemon]

Very cool!
Stock running gear??
And the early fiat brava rear lights look ace on these!

[Gray]

Jun 12, 2011 15:41:01 GMT lemon said:

Very cool!
Stock running gear??
And the early fiat brava rear lights look ace on these!

Its all original running gear, 2.3 petrol and a 4 speed with overdrive. The previous owner had thrown money at the engine and it shows, its surprisingly perky.
Up until a few months ago I had my heart set on dropping the body onto a rangey chassis and building a big 4x4 camper but after driving it again its to nice a drivetrain to break up, if i find another shell i may do that
About the only mechanical change I'm thinking about is swapping the back axle out for one from an auto as it makes motorway cruising very relaxed.

Rear lights is one of the things I'm still undecided on, the CF stock items defianately need chucking though, they are horrible! I ha thought about frenching a set into the body but the Brava lights might get it yet, they do have a nice look

[dugong]

I remember seeing Murv.

Murv is ace.

;D

[Gray]

Murv seems to have that effect on folk ;D

Anyway, got an hour or so on this so I shall do a small update.

It was dry enough to try the new panel in place and I'm pretty happy with it, it follows the body nicely and with a bit of fettling will blend in perfectly



The front is just how I want it...



But the rear has a slight gap, nothing much but we will address this in a second...



The door gap is very good, I'm quite impressed with this...



And do you recall I left a slant for water run off?



And a shot of my redesigned door, I still need to make a panel for the bottom of this but that should be simple enough



And so onto the gap at the back of the door. It is possible to weld that gap quite neatly but its quite time consuming and because of the heat you need in each wash across with the weld the risk of warping and buckling the joint is quite high, so, we get a bit off 3mm flat bar and place it in the gap, draw the profile around it......like so.....



And after a few minutes with the grinder we have this......



Which placed back in looks like this.....



Not only does this close the gap up but when it comes to welding it gives me something to aim the heat at and allow the weld to wash onto the thinner panels

Now that I know its all fitting its time to take it all apart and have a dig at the paint in the step, CF's are notorious for rotting these out but murvs didnt look to bad, or they didnt before i tickled them with the grinder.....







So, it may aswell be replaced, theres not point sealing rust into him. You can see in the last picture its quite a complex shape but a few minutes with the tape measure gets the basics and then after marking it out on a sheet of zintec its of to the folder. The original CF step is done in two panels with a spot welded joint half way down (you can see it looking crusty in the pic) but I'm doing away with that and making the panel fromm top to bottom in one piece. After cutting it out its ready for folding but first you need to work out the bend sequence. Theres only one way to form a panel like that through a folder and if you don't know which bend to do when, you quite often find theres a bend you cant get as the folder wont allow it. Best way to work the sequence out is with a bit of scrap and take note of which one comes when, heres my test piece....



And happy with that its onto the actual panel, I meant to take photos of it as i folded but I forgot :lol but this is the finished panel....



And once again thats what I'm up to now, it could be a long project this one but an hour here and an hour there will build up. Hopefully i'll be into a bit of cutting and welding next time and feeding some fresh metal in

[enneaitch]

i absolutley love these... think your works great!

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Excellent work!! I wish my panel beating skillswould be half as good

Oh - and the first picture made lought out loud, in a very lunatic-amused way ;D

[Lawsy]

cracking work, looks like murv's getting some love

we very nearly bought on of these last week...

bookmarked

[Gray]

I absolutley love these... think your works great!

Thanks
Theres no van of the era quite like the CF, I love them. they look right, go well and have the best driving position ever!

Oh - and the first picture made lought out loud, in a very lunatic-amused way ;D

It does that to me every time I see it..... I kinda wish I could drive it just like that ;D

we very nearly bought on of these last week...

You should have, once driven forever smitten I like your MK1 cav, don't know if you noticed but theres something wrapped up in tarps in the first picture behind Murv

[camper damper]

I like the van or should i say Murv

[Gray]

He answers to Murv ;D

And a bit more tonight, I did mention I would be doing a wee bit of that cutting and welding malarkey in my next update so with that in mind I decided to get that step panel in place.
First up is to cut the old one out, this is a fairly straightforward cut across and round the step floor and then the bottom of the sill is attatched to two brackets underneath, these ones....



So a bit of chopping later we are left with this, surprisingly the bracket are in good nick and only needed a rub with the grinder..



And then a rub along the step to get the metal nice and clean..



And then a trial fit to see how that looks....



And I'm pretty happy with that, so out with the old electric metal squirty gun and....







Nice solid and neat
Everyone loves welding shots so I figure theres room here for a few gratuitous welding shots













Beware, critiscism often ends in violence....... lol

Just after I had finished that the breeze got up a bit, just enough to take the shielding gas of my welds so I went back in and welded up the door bottom panel I made..



And that was my lot for tonight. hopefully if the weathers in it I may get it welded in tomorrow evening, just a small update but I'm pressing on.

Thanks for reading

[monster]

Given how epic your journey (was a great read!) was in collecting this from the field it had sat in for over 3 years i will be following this project closely.

[Gray]

Jun 16, 2011 21:41:07 GMT monster said:

Given how epic your journey (was a great read!) was in collecting this from the field it had sat in for over 3 years I will be following this project closely.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, it was alot of fun ;D

I don't have any particular timescale set out for this one and as we have loads on and another full resto starting next week it will probably be a few hours a week, just enough to keep it moving forward. theres alot of bits n bobs to be done and a complete refit of the interior aswell. I may grab a few shots of the inside tomorrow.... how many vans do you know of that have a mirrored drinks cabinet in them? almost seems a shame to get rid of that! ;D

[dude]

Beautiful welding, and awesome van! Hope it'll get a 70's-tastic brown 'n' beige paintjob when it's done

[Gray]

The final colour is still undecided, mettalic gunmetal has been mentioned and also some gorgeous blues but although its weird looking, I kinda like the way he is now..... maybe a modern twist on that theme would work?

[dude]

Seen alot of delicious metallic brown cars lately, I for one have contemplated painting the taunus metallic brown..
Would work wonders on murv too, with some funky scallops, panels, flames or eh.. shapes? and details in plain beige with some black and white pinstriping

A full blown custom candy, flake and lace paintjob in brown and cream would be different too ;D

[duncancallum]

brown/cream metal flake mate, you know it.

[Gray]

Some good ideas here, I reckon its gonna take a bit of thought, a "please photoshop this" thread and possibly a poll when the time comes ;D

[Gray]

Bit more done this weekend, got an hour or two in last night so decided to weld the panel in over the step. At the moment I'm not to worried about the edge toward the back of the van because I'm going to be replacing the whole sill section from the doorshut back to the rear wheelarch.
Anyway, started tacking it in (remembering the bit of 3mm I cut for the gap)



And kept building it up, I'm not overly fussed about neatness here as its going to be buffed back in so am concentrating mainly on making sure I have no missed edges and distribute the heat fairly uniformly



Until finally we have this...



Now we have to blend it back in, I use a combination of a grinder with a flap disk, side cutter with a 3mm disk and a pencil grinder with a tct tip. If it goes well I enjoy this bit





With them looking better Its time for in the door shuts, here..



and here...



weld, weld....



Weld, weld....



And then in with the grinders again...







Thats about as far as I got last night so through some primer over it to give it some protection and to get an idea how close it is...









All in I'm quite happy with the finish, it may need a bit more work in final prep but thats a long way down the line!

Todays job was to sort the lip for the door seal, or rather the lack of one over the wheelarch. this is just a quirk because ive changed the design of the door but would be nice to get a factory finish look to it so that no-one will realise its even been done. Theres two ways to do it, the quick way of welding a bit of angle in over the top of whats there in line to hold the rubber or the other way in which you dig out all the grot and blend the repair back into the van and spend hours more than you have to on it..... guess which I chose?

So heres the missing bit over the wheelarch....



Theres a few crusty spots showing up here aswell so best replaced..



Stripping off the paint its better than I thought it was going to be...



I decided to cut a fair chunk out here. Mainly it makes sure i get all the rust but often its easier to work with a larger section aswell

First up though I needed to start forming some plates and mark out roughly where I'm gonna cut, so a bit of zintec...



folded....



And then out to a pretty special bit of Kit.....



Which does this....



and this....



Which gives us this.....



Which will eventually fit here.......



A bit more work and that'll be a nice fit

There will be three plates make up this section eventually and the second one is the actual lip itself, I folded another bit of angle and took some measurements for it to fit here.....



A bit of fettling and a few minutes with the shrinker/stretcher leaves us with ....



And tried in place....



I also made up a back plate at the same time, heres all three bits..



The center section will be plug welded to the other two so its out with the punch and holes put at 40mm centers, yes I do measure them out because it makes a huge difference to the look of a job. Guesswork always looks amaturish to me and its espescially important to have them uniform on sill bottoms etc. OCD? maybe ;D



And onto chopping the rot out of the van....



This lip is becoming major surgery now lol

after a bit of measuring, trimming and tacking we have this....



One plate welded and dressed the other still only welded....



and some plug welds, I run a really strange setting on my plant for these in which I have my amps way up and my feed way down, its impossible to weld anything else with those settings but works beatiful on thes giving a huge melt, good penetration and a pretty neat finish




After a bit more grinding it gets a coat of primer and turned out pretty well...



Close enough to factory for me



After that I still had some time to kill so figured it was a good time to finish the bottom of the door, cutting the bottoms of them leaves a gaping big hole!



So out with the tape and after a bit I have this plate which will fit inside the bottom of the door....





Heres a thing, doesnt matter how experienced or clever you are, no-one enjoys welding the full length of a panel skin. with the best will in the world if it decides to warp its going to warp and theres little you can do about it. Ive welded loads of skins and generally they turn out well but they still make me nervous! lol
One of the reasons I put folds on the base panel was that once tucked inside the door, I can aim more heat at that corner and allow the weld to wash onto the doorskin... every little helps to keep the heat out of that main panel.
Theres a few methods for doing these but this is how I do it, first up a series of tacks to keep the skin tight and keep the heat even...



Then a series of tacks between these tacks and so on.. once you get this many on go and have a cuppa or a fag and let all the heat out of the panel.....



Then its time to join the dots jumping from one part to another but trying not to heat one particular area to much, this can take alot of time but don't be tempted to rush (and you will be tempted lol ) don't worry how the weld looks, just be sure you have no holes or missed edges and watch the heat, that cant be stressed enough. (don't mean to teach granny to suck....eggs but I'm putting this on several forums and alot of folk want to know the methods we use )

Eventually you will have this....



Which after a bit of sympathetic dressing will look like this...



And luckily (given I'm photographing this one) theres no distortion at all

From underneath...





And how I left Murv tonight...





Thats that part pretty much done for now, I think next up is that sill. hopefully get onto that this week sometime.
Sorry for such a long post

[Mamba]

Good going!! Alot of work and terrifically executed! Which, given one of your comments is exactly what we'll get if we criticise!! LOL ;D ;D ;D

Nah, but seriously, very informative and useful info on welding panels. Cheers

Looking forward with interest to the next development.