1978 Bedford HA Van

[havanman]

Hi folks, first post but been reading loads of threads here for some time now, so thought I'd introduce myself by way of my daily driver.
I use her for my buisiness of Water Fed Pole Window Cleaning. And by the way I'm known as SPEEDY over on vauxhallviva.com forum.

Heres my Van as she was when I picked her up from leicestershire last year.







Time to alter a few things......
subtle little mod, straight from mini stockist is clear indicators


Set of lovely SL Viva Clocks, much nicer than standard black van ones and with extra 20mph on gauge up to 100! ;D



Next is full Powerflow Stainless big bore from manifold and get rid of that nasty tow bar set up


Next, found some grot, so out it comes

Extensive repairs to chasis leg underneath at this point too, so filled it with underseal while floor is up.

Partially repaired


Filled over and ready for paint


Similar on other side


Also had to weld inner wing where front bumper bracket mounts on drivers side.

Had this hole on both sides above rear bump stops to weld too


But all in all not bad for a 31 year old vehicle, and straight into service she went for a while without anymore changes.
Oh yeah and I bunged a lumenition kit on it too to do away with points and condensor.





Then I got bored of the wheezy single choke webber and stuck this Webber 28/36 DCD on instead, which coupled with the big bore exhaust gives a reasonable increase in power for a little 1256 low compression engine.


And then I finally got around to fitting these wheels with some nice low profiles at the front to prevent rubbing.

Trial fit


All nice and painted


And then







Notice how much better my ride height looks when van is carrying water tank. ;D

And thats how my HA Van is at the moment. Plenty planned for the old girl, like some nice black leather seats, still got to put my mountney steering wheel on, upgrade the front drums to disc (got a full set of stub axles, discs and callipers from sl viva) and ultimately would love to stick a bigger engine in like rtlkyuubi

Oh yeah, and I also got 1967 Viva HB, 1971 Firenza V8, 1978 Kadett C Coupe (no engine or box, soon to be for sale) 1966 Vespa 90 and finally a 2000 Astra 1.8 Coupe to keep the the missus happy.

[devilishdesigner]

big fan of the white rims/black van combo. very nice!!

[grizz]

LOVELY !!!!


Are you going to do some old school signwriting, or vinyl transfers for advertising ??


Love the fact the van is working, and I am sure she does too.

[havanman]

Jul 17, 2009 8:03:14 GMT grizz said:

LOVELY !!!!


Are you going to do some old school signwriting, or vinyl transfers for advertising ??


Love the fact the van is working, and I am sure she does too.

Well I really do need to get some form of advertising on there, cos when I had my last Van I used to pick up work from the signwriting.



Just not really figured out what would look good yet on the black. And also I'm trying to get away from the quaint little van look now to more of a meaner look and not sure what style of signing would look the part. To be fair I just haven't got around to thinking about it yet. Suggestions welcome.

[owen]

The little viva looks brill, if u want power increase put a nice redtop in to it or get your hands on a good seh 130,lump,, or do what my son has done with his astra saloon and whack a stonking v6 in it, his astra is on here, keep up the good work,,

[havanman]

Yeah yeah deffinitely, plans are already floating around. Already got myself a Type 9 gearbox waiting in garage. Will probably go down the red top route having owned a mk1 astra with that engine in previously , I used to have a lotta fun with it. Just unsure how insurance will be with it being a comercial and used for buisiness.

[Neil]

that looks great - nice to see one still in use as they were intended. what happened to your previous van, that looked nice too.

[craig]

Was looking at this on the Viva forum only yesterday. Very nice, think i prefer the vans over the cars. Painted slot mags work too.

[havanman]

Jul 17, 2009 11:35:58 GMT Neil said:

what happened to your previous van, that looked nice too.

Well that van did 4 years of very faithful service, before I finally sold her on to a friend locally who carried out quite a bit of resto work - lots of welding painting etc and replacement of a cracked valve on the engine and here she is now all de signed and with new chrome bumpers and overiders.

Jul 17, 2009 11:59:30 GMT craig said:

Was looking at this on the Viva forum only yesterday. Very nice, think I prefer the vans over the cars. Painted slot mags work too.

Nice one craig, I think I'll second you on that , I think the Van wins on styling over the car for me too. Although to be fair, there are some great Viva HA saloons about.

[pbottomley]

Yooo speedy you mad so and so, i am always amazed that the van doesn't break in two knowing how many zillions of litres of water you carry around ;D

[havanman]

Hey Paul! Good to see you on the other side ;D
Yeah I do give me Vans a bit of a hard life don't I. I'm a bit of a git for thrashing em aswell. But I did make sure my last Van carried on living after I put her out to pasture without a broken back.

[Rob M]

Love this!
Had one of these about 27 years ago!!!!!
It was an ex BT van ( well before I actually went to work for them) and was as basic a HA as you could get.
Yellow with silver painted steels it actually looked the part.
Ive driven many, many light vans but the HA, considering it was designed in the early 60s, handled just as good if not better than the majority and had a beautifully slick and short gear change.
Very nippy too.
Your mods are very tasteful and hit the spot.

[Anglia68]

Got to love a HA van.
My first 2 cars were these after I passed my test.The first cost me £35 and the second £40 and they never let me down once even making it to Brighton and back and giving me somewhere to sleep when I got there.

[havanman]

Jul 17, 2009 19:08:22 GMT Rob M said:

Love this!
Had one of these about 27 years ago!!!!!
It was an ex BT van ( well before I actually went to work for them) and was as basic a HA as you could get.
Yellow with silver painted steels it actually looked the part.
Ive driven many, many light vans but the HA, considering it was designed in the early 60s, handled just as good if not better than the majority and had a beautifully slick and short gear change.
Very nippy too.
Your mods are very tasteful and hit the spot.

Believe it or not, my van appears to have been an ex leicestershire police van with blue paint visible here and there where the black is chipped , a siren still under the bonnet, a rear seat and a hole in the roof where the light must have been. I've always thought they handle pretty well considering they have a transverse leaf spring up front, but then so does an Opel GT.

Jul 17, 2009 19:20:34 GMT Anglia68 said:

Got to love a HA van.
My first 2 cars were these after I passed my test.The first cost me £35 and the second £40 and they never let me down once even making it to Brighton and back and giving me somewhere to sleep when I got there.

So many people have good memories of these vans, its great. Never have slept in mine yet, but theres always a first time eh.

Cheers guys.

[rtlkyuubi]

That looks very smart! I would love to paint mine gloss black. And I'm glad Ive provided inspiration with my engine swap ;D

[MartinC]

I have a friend who specialises in Period Signwriting and Hot Rod inspired Pinstriping/artwork etc in both paint and that new fangled vinyl stuff.
Quality work, if you're interested send me a PM for his details.

[trigger]

I agree with the other comments, What a great looking van, Love the wheels although I'd go for a rear bumper back on it but i guess it wouldn't look so mean then!.
Shame you don't see many about anymore.

[carmad]

cracking wee van

love the white wheels

[triumph2000uk]

A mate of mine was given a ha van 6 or 7 years ago i drove it to his house and have to say it was a great little van i found it was quite nippy to .My mate had the van less than a week when someone knocked on his door and offered a 100 quid for it so he sold it .

[havanman]

Jul 18, 2009 16:55:47 GMT trigger said:

I agree with the other comments, What a great looking van, Love the wheels although I'd go for a rear bumper back on it but I guess it wouldn't look so mean then!.
Shame you don't see many about anymore.

Well I actually was going to put a rear bumper on, but haven't found one yet and the van didn't come with one. I do have a brand new black bumper , so I enquired about getting it chromed but that was just a ridiculous price.

I think now though that maybe I could rig up some kind of quarter bumpers maybe. In which case I don't really need original bumper.

Thanks for all the comments everyone. ;D