1983 Bedford CF2 camper project

[lord13]

We've been after a CF for a while and my good friend A3LTR pointed out this one on Gumtree, so off i went to Coventry to have a look, left a deposit and went to fetch it on the following wednesday.
It's a LWB twin wheel CF2, 2.3 slant coupled with a 5 speed ZF. I've been underneath and the g'box plate reads 4th as 1.1 and 5th as 0.81 so overdrive top ....and its noticable on the economy ( luckily )

so far i've ripped out the suspect homemade interior and very suspect ICE wiring and i've now got a fairly clean sheet to play with, the missus wants it ready for billing ...so i should make a start really
anyway heres some pics














and here's it all stripped out ready to start on the interior

[ianfearn]

What are these like to drive compared to others around this age?

My Talbot Express is pretty hopeless. Rear drive will be loads better for a camper.

[commervan]

I'm looking forward to seeing your progress with this I hope you've got lots of ideas for that blank canvases

[lord13]

Ianfearn - they're pretty good to drive, the 2.3 is an excellent engine. Although a bit thirsty, especially with a 4 spd. Also some 5 spd boxes are direct top instead of overdrive ( not sure which have these but the the direct top ones have a 1st gear ratio of around 6:1 or something, a 'crawler' gear ) they do accelerate quite well too, nothing like the Talbot, I had a autosleeper express thing, it was like a brick and very unstable in the corners, and sloooooow
The CF is a good solid van, and looks better than the talbot in my opinion

[vulgalour]

Oooh, a big CF. You've definitely earned a bookmark on this one.

[tineca]

Check out darrylwebb's Renault camper on here if you want any ideas. His looks factory.

[Dan P]

looking forward to seeing your progress on this one

[lord13]

hi all , quick update, had the glass out to rust treat the apertures, then spent the best part of the evening getting it all back in. bloody nightmare, i've fitted windows before and never had this much trouble, so now all the nice paint i put on around the windows is scratched and needs doing again
but i've made some nice pine panels to fit in so not all a disaster , pics to follow

[lord13]

ok, a bit of an update on this, I decided to take out the side windows and clean up around the frames etc, windows popped out easily and i rubbed down the metal, rust treated it and applied a quick bit of paint to tidy it up.











You'll note that there aren't any pictures of the glass back in and there are 3 reasons for that...
a) it was hell, i've fitted glass before, no problems, but this time it was a total nightmare, i warmed up the rubbers, used the proper lubricating stuff ( ok fairy liquid but thats what i've always used before) but there just didn't want to go back in... i also broke my trim roller trying to get the inserts back in after they finally went in.
b) i scratched the curse word out of my new paint, it needs touching up.
and c) ...it was dark when i finished

so... on to the interior

I made some templates of the body contours and then cut out in-fill panels out of hard board and covered them with....wallpaper, yep, wallpaper. was the missis' idea and it seems to be going well ( the insides of the van also have wallpaper on them, glued on, then coated with varnish, will dry to a 'wipeclean' finish, most of it wont be seen either its just a background to the rest of the interior...oh you'll get the idea, i feel like i'm defending myself already :/ )


I then made and fitted these panels out of old pine cladding and some other spare wood, to go under the windows, I'm no good with wood, it doesn't do as its told and i cant cut a straight line, but i did my best and it looks ok to me.
finally to make 'pockets', in the panels i fitted more old cladding across the front of the panels.
All this will be trimmed and 'made pretty' by the missis, i'm just doing the basic ground work, all the 'soft furnishings' are her department.





well, there's the progress so far, i'm fitting the seats today hopefully, which means i get to play with my welder, much better than messing around with all that dirty wood sawdust stuff

[vulgalour]

Wallpapering the inside of the van isn't as unusual as you might thing, quite common on caravans and campervans though usually not directly on to the metal as there's often some insulation between that and your interior trims. I feel your pain with woodwork.

[lord13]

ok so, yesterday, with a little help from my son, ( very little help + lots of moaning about it cos he wanted to play GTA) i got the seats in.
They're out of a mini bus and helpfully came with frames.



which i shortened down to this,



And then using i made some plates with captive nuts, marked up the floor, drilled the holes and welded them into position under the floor.



and voila! 2 seats are bolted in





I'm going to have to swap them over though, the idea was to have the curved side of the seat next to the curve of the bodywork but the seatbelt comes from the straight side and it just doesn't feel right.
I've fitted the other 2 seats aswell but i'll wait till i've swapped them round before i post pics, but you get the general idea.
We were going to try a run out to the beach today in the bus, but the starter has packed in
It's been making a clattering noise just lately, like its not quite engaging the ring gear, but as I've just been moving around the parking area I've not made time to investigate, it was still spinning the engine and starting ok so i left it. obviously i shouldn't have as its now not even doing anything
my thoughts on the matter are....
a) its busted.
b) the wiring was connected badly so hardly any voltage was getting there and now the cable has burnt out.
c) It's worked loose and has now jammed up cos its hanging out possibly (its a new starter and maybe the guy who fitted it did it wrong)
d) its worked loose cos its stripped the threads in its mounting.( cos its a new starter etc etc)
e) the flywheel has come loose ( thanks to john sharp for suggesting that one, 'cheers dude, way to go to make me feel better')

All will be apparent when i go out to look over it today...well not all because i'm only gonna have time for a quick look as we are still off to the beach in the trusty VecB

[optimusprime]

The Bedford CF has to be the classiest looking van we had in the Uk.
Watching this with interest. Good work so far.



Oh and i share your feelings with wood, i mean its ok,but you can't weld it .........

[shedvan]

I love the wallpaper, very evocative

[lord13]

I've fixed the starter, well...not exactly cos it wasn't any of the scenarios id thought of.
I went to disconnect the battery, i took off the earth clamp, and while i was doing that i shifted the battery a bit to get a better purchase on the nut, and the live cable fell out of the other clamp, it had just been jammed in the screws that hold it weren't even tight, so there you go. The cable had gradually worked loose, so i'm guessing the starter was getting less and less voltage so the solenoid wasn't engaging the gear properly, hence the clattering. job done
Also i've wired in the front seats properly so now i have fully adjustable electric seats

[joe90]

Nice van mate and a long wheel base van is a bit of a rarity now, I've had a few in the 90's when they were only a couple of hundred pound on the road and drove better than the transit.

Bryan

[lord13]

Right a bit more progress made, bit light on the pictures, but i was far too busy to take pics.

So, first off, tend to drivers seat mounts, as you can see, the captive nuts have torn out of the floor.

and the seat support is past its best.



I cut the rot out of the frame and welded new steel in, and set new captive nuts into the floor, no pics because,
a) i left my phone inside
and b) i was using a no-gas welder and did an awful job that needed grinding down a lot :/
anyway its done and nice and solid for the MOT man

Next job was to tackle the god awful 'big sheet of steel that was pretending it was a window'. I had been looking for the correct window, but couldn't find one so decided to use a bit of acrylic for now until i get the correct window.
Here's the window before i started... bit difficult to see through steel :/


Here's the inside...


and here it is now



Not a great job, rivets showing etc, bit its a damn sight better than it was.

in case you're wondering, that blue paint is 'sandtex "little pond" exterior eggshell'.. the local B&Q was selling off a load of paint, i got three 750ml tins for £3 each i thought it was worth a shot

[lord13]

heres the van after 2 coats ...rollered on

[mexicansteve]

I do love a CF. That blue looks good and long wheelbase is always desirable.
I might have to seriously think about another Bedford in my life.

sent from the '70's

[lord13]

There's always a need for a van and the CF is always favourite in my opinion

[vulgalour]

The blue and that temp window is quite an improvement, which is surprising because I quite liked the scruffy satin black until you changed it.