Wanted Bedford CF, Zephyr mk3 or Vauxhall PA, maybe, sometime, eventually...

[alcyonecorporation]

Why would a man with a metallic rose Cadillac need a van?

 

If I knew someone with the former vehicle, I dare say that man would be content indeed.

[DodgeRover]

Holden 6 was a factory option in the UK not sure if it was the black 202 or the early blue motor. Normally found in the ambulances.

[eddyramrod]

Why would a man with a metallic rose Cadillac need a van?

 

If I knew someone with the former vehicle, I dare say that man would be content indeed.

You do, and he is.  However... don't you, of all people, read my columns?  I devoted a whole page to my love of vans!  You will surely have noticed that I'm deliberately NOT offering the Cadillac as a swopper.  I'm not that daft!  As I said on the first page, if it doesn't happen, it doesn't really matter because I'll still have a very nice Rover.  I just like a change now and then.

 

Holden 6 was a factory option in the UK not sure if it was the black 202 or the early blue motor. Normally found in the ambulances.

I didn't know that.  It comes as a surprise, in fact.  I wasn't aware of a 6 option in the UK, but had I been, I would have expected to find the 3.3 that Vauxhall used in the Cresta and Ventora.

[DodgeRover]

Definitely the Holden lump, there is/ was quite a bit of info on them on the Bedford CF forum.

 

I'm guessing it was easier to import them like Holden Camira Station Wagon shells for cavalier estates rather than tool up for a rather limited amount of production.

[eddyramrod]

There's a whole CF forum????  I'll be back in a few days...

[DodgeRover]

There was - I've not been on there for a few years now though, it used to have a rather odd membership arrangement.

You should be able to find it on wayback machine if it's defunct - I'm pretty sure I will be able to dig out the URL if needed

[eddyramrod]

Make that weeks, it doesn't seem to want to load the forum.  Anyway, the important bit, the Sales page, is only open to club members and I'm not ready to make that commitment yet.

[DodgeRover]

You just to be able to sign up for free which gave you access but only allowed you to post 5? times.

 

Have you tried convincing it that you are a google bot to get access? It works on some of the Vauxhall sites.

[Felly Magic]

CFs are starting to go up in value big time, and many 'projects' are being snapped up as parts donors for ice cream vans. Have you seen how much they are going for lately? Owt between £10 & £20k! Crumbs. I've driven a petrol CF1 with Morrison full cowl ice cream van conversion, and it was glacial, the diesel half cowl seemed faster bizarrely, and that had the weight of the Whitby direct drive & Carpigiani ice cream machine.  

[eddyramrod]

Seems the ice cream van is the RS2000 of the van world!  Closely followed by the camper.  Fortunately neither of those is a type I'm looking for, but you're right, it does drive the price up for the marginal plain-jane survivors.  

[DodgeRover]

Trust me a camper is worth LESS than the panel van in equivalent condition it was based on. Cheapest way into van ownership would be to buy a panel van type camper with a ripe interior and revert it to a van.

There's usually at least one person always after a roof for a transit to get rid of a pop top.

 

Ice cream vans have always been dear.

[AnthonyG]

VW campers are worth more than the vans. Every other camper based on a van older than 1985 or so will be worth a lot less than the equivalent van, because campers survive in reasonable numbers and vans don’t. I see Talbot Express campers on an almost daily basis. I haven’t seen a Talbot Express panel van on the road this century.

[Felly Magic]

A local ice cream man converted 2 CF2 petrol vans with simple GRP hardtops, and a single serving window on the nearside, and a big fridge unit he built himself, plus crude shelving, and bizarrely Ford 2.0 pintos & type 9 boxes. The second one he converted was a rare E reg'd example, must have been one of the very last CFs. I think your chances of finding a CF1 van are slim to zero sadly, even basket case CF2s are nearly a grand. I do remember a CF2 on the rally circuit that was immaculately restored, and it was fitted with a 2.2i engine from a Carlton CDi, apparently it was rather swift

[Felly Magic]

This was seen a few years back rotting in a garden in Ipswich, an engineless hulk, what a mess

 

[Zelandeth]

I know you're looking for the earlier version with the metal front - but C'mon it has to be said - the plastic fronted version had one of *the* coolest dashboards ever to be fitted to a van.  Purely because of the utterly pointless totally 80s red line work all over it.  Also, as I recall warning lights shared with a Dennis or Leyland bus of the same vintage...

 

I may have replaced a couple on a Dennis Dart owned by a mate which were missing their lenses with some out of half (yes, half) a CF I found in a scrap yard about 15 years ago.  I have no idea where the other half of the van was either.

[eddyramrod]

 I think your chances of finding a CF1 van are slim to zero sadly, 

I suspect you're right, but if you don't ask, you don't get, do you?  It's not like it's urgent, I can afford to be patient, but I do know it's a bit of a quest.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Err is someone setting me up for something?? First someone posts a link to a 4x4 CF2 project that I have been searching for for yonks,  then TT posts this above message.

 

I ask because the Reg of my blue CF posted earlier is D762 YLT!!

 

More history please. I bought it from Devon from a bloke who had used it to tow a historic rally car. 

I also bought a "Sun" newspaper from the day it was registered to put in the window (Headline: TVs Shelley goes into rehab...)

 

Small World !

 

Yes, I thought your van looked very very familiar. It was the body colour and the cream/white wheel centres that made me wonder. I used to see "D762 YLT" parked on the drive all the time - it never moved - since both my friend and I owned 635CSis at the time and I was a regular visitor to the place.

 

My friend explains that his oul man didn't actually buy the van. It was given to him by a wealthy Iranian client that he was doing a multi-million quid property build for in Mayfair in the late 1980s. It had - and I quote - "a crap roof rack" which, once it was parked on the drive, proved ideal for balancing the garage door on (protecting the van from the worst of the weather), whilst the van itself was used as a storage shed for God only knows what kind of materials the oul fella used to accumulate. I think the neighbours (this is a staunchly observant Jewish district here) considered it an eyesore on their otherwise wide and well-appointed street.

 

My friend would have used it himself but by the early 2000s "the clutch was seized, the brakes were rusted... the clutch cylinders shot, no power steering, slow as hell and crap on fuel....other than that....perfect."

 

I'd love to know what D762 YLT has been up to since it left from here.....and where does it live now?

[Tadhg Tiogar]

I don't think I have any photos of D762 YLT when it stood down here in Hendon, but I can always ask my friend if he took any.

 

.....I am still an un-discovered rock star (See also Les McQueen...).

 

Crème Brulee? 

[meggersdog]

It would be easier to buy a decent diesel and petrolise/ lpg it than spend a year looking for a perfect petrol - that's why it took me so long to find my mk2 transit.

 

If you live within the LEZ if the vehicle is logged as in trade they don't chase it, allegedly. Or you could just wack some foreign plates on.

the front suspension subframe would need to be swapped as the slant four has an engine mount slap bang in the middle of the subframe.

[quicksilver]

There were a few around with V8's back 'in the day'. was quite a common conversion.

 

The six (optional from the factory in either 186ci or 202ci) was a popular choice in the antipodies, probably due to the fact that that was the staple engine of the most popular cars.

 

Mine was a 186ci (3049cc) with an auto box. It was a really early (1969) CKD one.

Back in the seventies when my dad was into rallying, one of the other drivers had a CF with a Rover V8. Allegedly he was once busted for doing over a ton in it...while towing a trailer with his rally car on!

 

And if you really want to be silly, a supercharged Jensen Interceptor engine will (sort of) fit in a CF

 

1970 Bedford CF by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

 

Jensen CF! by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

[Billy - Medhurst]

MK1's are good money these days even as a scrapper - which is possibly for tax free tomfoolery. I know a cf2 pick up £1.200ish with no tax or test but outside of a car show or camper conversion I have only seen this cf1 and that's been static 10 years plus.

[eddyramrod]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bedford-CF2-Glendale-Camper-LPG-Unfinished-Project/263429931689

 

With 3 days left, this could easily double or triple in price.  Or, given the time of year, it could equally stagnate.  Either way, I don't have the cash, so it doesn't matter, but oh, what a saddening thing to look at inside.  And even outside, come to that.  I don't want a camper.  I especially don't want a coachbuilt.  I expressly don't want a stripped-out, leaky coachbuilt.  Naturally my soft heart leaps into action, shouting "SAVE IT!!!!!"at maximum volume.

Not going to happen.

[DodgeRover]

Wierdly there was a white CF1 with a Luton body behind the house I've just looked at in Horsham, if the agent hadn't been so rude when we rang to ask if the vendor would consider selling the land as well as the house then you could have had it without the body on for free assuming the sale went through.

[Asimo]

https://www.custojusto.pt/porto/comerciais/bedford-cf250-25099636

[Hertz]

/\ Blimey. Are CF's treated like VW's over in Portugal?

[eddyramrod]

Twenty five thousand euros and it isn't even complete?  What are these people drinking?

[Uncle Jimmy]

I posted a piccy of this ages ago, took a few more today. It's been there since about 1990 and apart from the caress of nature has remained intact.

[puddlethumper]

Twenty five thousand euros and it isn't even complete?  What are these people drinking?

Having lived in Portugal he/she has probably been on the Medronho which is distilled in the mountains from a berry that as far as I know only grows there. It has a slightly hallucinatory effect and having imbibed some I can attest to it.

[Mrs6C]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bedford-CF2-Glendale-Camper-LPG-Unfinished-Project/263429931689

 

With 3 days left, this could easily double or triple in price.  Or, given the time of year, it could equally stagnate.  Either way, I don't have the cash, so it doesn't matter, but oh, what a saddening thing to look at inside.  And even outside, come to that.  I don't want a camper.  I especially don't want a coachbuilt.  I expressly don't want a stripped-out, leaky coachbuilt.  Naturally my soft heart leaps into action, shouting "SAVE IT!!!!!"at maximum volume.

Not going to happen.

It has an MOT, so what are you waiting for?

 

Good bits:

• Drives (been standing for 6 months)
• Very low mileage, 75550
• MOT valid Until March 2018
• Been converted to take LPG
• Bursting with character
• Chassis showed very little sign of rusting (considering age) two years ago when I replaced the rear half of the floor, but I stripped it back to bare metal and painted it with Hammerrite stone chip paint while I had good access

[eddyramrod]

Get thee away from me, temptress!

 

I can't spend the money; it's at the wrong end of the country; it's blatantly a money pit equal to my recent Rover 213; I've got nowhere to put it.  I'd be found in a ditch, in pieces.....