Another underdog van . Bedford Cf tales

[Felly Magic]

A firm in the village where I lived in the 1980s had one of those Reebur CF diesels, they traded as Mini-Mac, I suspect the thing was glacial when fully loaded

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

 explaining that Blitzkreig was "Jerry for lightning strike".

 

 

Blitz - lightening.

Krieg - war.

[DodgeRover]

I can't believe nobody has posted up about these beauties

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Maurices Removals Of Croydon. Not my photo but this photo wasn't from the 80s. I used to see the 3 CFs all liverried up regularly but the last time was a couple of years ago now.

Id choose them for a move simply because of there choice of vehicles, I hope they were all petrol and didn't fall foul of the LEZ

[DodgeRover]

1980 Bedford CF 350 Luton Van by Jamie-A, on Flickr

 

1981 Bedford CF 350 Luton Van by Jamie-A, on Flickr

 

[Slappy]

Portsmouth is truly blessed with CF ice cream vans. Not only do we have the D'agostino ones visited by Eddie, FPB7 and DTCM, we also have a rival firm with these natty yellow and orange affairs

[mercrocker]

Cheers, Slappy - I couldn't think of the name of the yellow and orange ones.   If I did remember it I am sure I couldn't spell it.....

[Spottedlaurel]

Almost bought High Roller in 1985, it was a bright red and yellow custom van that had been in Custom Car and Street Machine only a few years before- it was fucked, wob falling off in big lumps and completely rotten underneath.

image.jpeg

 

Sounds like a "never meet your heroes" thing there - I thought that van was great. I always thought CFs responded better to the custom treatment than Transits, and as an avid Street Machine-reading teenager I used to daydream about how I'd modify one.

 

I don't have any exciting tales to tell about them. As a child of the '70s they were just part of the everyday street scene, used new and secondhand by all sorts of local business and as tow/transport vehicles for a variety of racing cars. The village shop had one for years and my stepdad had a dropside for a bit in his work as a builder - a bit bigger than the Mazda B-series pickups him and his partner usually ran and I don't remember it lasting long.

 

Some years ago Datman ran a CF2 recovery truck - he fitted an ex-Nissan 300C 3-litre V6 engine into it to make delivery/collection missions a bit more tolerable.

 

This one seen in 2010 had plenty of patina:

 

1974 Bedford CF by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

This couple of beauties were seen in Jaywick:

 

1974 Bedford CF Camper by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

1978 Bedford CF Camper by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

Do A-W still use this late one?

 

1987 Bedford CF2 350P Car Transporter by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

Custom job on its way to Latitude last summer:

 

1973 Bedford CF 3.0 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

Back in the early '90s some hippy/crusty neighbours used to go off travelling in one of these:

 

1983 Bedford CF Ambulance by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

How good do these look?

 

1977 Bedford CF 2.3 petrol box van Palmer & Harvey by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

1979/80 Bedford CF ambulance by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

Usually one or two seen in France each year:

 

Bedford CF2 custom van by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

Bedford CF2 350D Dropside by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

Yikes:

 

Bedford (?) CF280D Camper by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

Rather more attractive, and probably quite expensive when new?:

 

1974 Bedford CF Dormobile Debonair Motorhome by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

The inevitable ice cream vans. Do they still operate them on Brean Sands?

 

Bedford CF Ice Cream van at Brean by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

Bedford CF Ice Cream van at Brean by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

1987 Bedford CF2 Ice Cream Van + Talbot Express Motorhome by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

1972 Bedford Ice Cream Van EMA588K by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

This one is a bit of a beast, stretched with two rear axles. I think it's now out of use though, was accompanied by a SWB van with twin rear wheels:

 

1986 Nissan Laurel C32 + Bedford CF by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

Finally, is it just me or does the front end of this look somewhat CF-ish?

 

2004 Nissan Cube by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

[mercrocker]

That ambulance used by Spottedlaurel's neighbours is identical to the one we had, its a Hanlon.    Big enough to sleep across, fantastic van to sleep in but rather crap to travel very far.    The pink and white confection is a Dormobile Land-Cruiser which shared its bodywork with a PSV version (called Debonair IIRC).    Mrs Rocker's family used to go off touring in a hired one of these with about 8 people and three dogs although as she says, I often exaggerate.....  

 

Custom CFs work well, I think because of that Detroit styling look, this was always my favourite CF custom, it just had that Summer in the Seventies vibe about it.......Think the van survives, too.

 

 

[Retro_Auto]

 

Ex _MOD, very low miles, sold it about 18 months ago

[Noel Tidybeard]

I think Prince Philip had a CF2 electric bus on his royal 'fleet' too

 

oh no, no, no, no, no Phil the greek had the Lucas Electric Pullman

 

lucas did elecy  cf1s as well and before that there was bmc j2s

 

i remember my old mans best buddy taking us for a jolly around wythall in a brown j2 which he had brought home from work (he was the electric vehicles gaffer) unlike the cfs which had the batteries on a tray under the load floor the j2 had two boxes inside  the van

 

they did a taxi and a seddon single deck bus too

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuNyQ4Kb_HY

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/boblovelockflickr/25752093580

[holbeck]

 

I did not expect this on the school run this morning

[puddlethumper]

In the late eighties I worked with a rock band doing the roady thing, along with sound, lighting, coffee and erm other stuff. As none of them (4) had a driving licence I was entrusted with acquiring transport. Bought a w reg cf2 long wheelbase twin wheel for about £600. Diesel 2.5 five speed. Toured Holland, Belgium and Germany with no probs as far as I can remember.  Loaded up did 70 ok. When it was empty the back end bounced all over the place. Got 13 in it to go to a rave once. 

Bought it off the guys when they split up and after meeting a rather lovely Dutch lady we decamped to Portugal. Driving through Spain full to the brim, including about 2 tons of said lady's books, and an upright piano, with a  large trailer full of tat and a strong head wind kept speed to about 45 mph. Kept it until on a trip back to Eng to get married the engine went breasts up. Went back in a tranny. Nice but I missed that cf.

[puddlethumper]

Actually it could of been a facelift jobby. Memory isn't so good these days.