Bones.

 

Contact Rob – signs2008@hotmail.com

The Journey

Why did I want a Bedford ? – I have always loved the look, I bought a white one stock standard around 1996.  I loved it,  so did the kids,  I used it to take the crew surfing up and down the coast.  My daughter drove it to school and her friends thought she was cool.  I eventually resprayed it,  and she shone,  I was offered money for it a few times over the years. Destroyed by fire. Unfortunately it was destroyed on Xmas day 2001 when the south coast was hit with devastating bush fires, the poor girl,  it was a sad day.  -  Since then I have always had the desire to get another.

Why now?  - 15 years later. I have turned 60,  my days of surfing are behind me, the family has grown and moved off to raise their own families,  leaving the missus and I with some time….We just went away on a trip sleeping in the back of the Commodore station wagon for some of it – we loved it -  we came home all enthused to get a camper van,   I mentioned it to my mates,  who are all classic car enthusiasts and have been on my case to get myself a project,  I also mentioned I liked Beddy’s and that was it,    they got more excited than me,   I was a little scared as I’m no mechanic and mechanicals are scary things,  but they all assured me they would help and nothing can’t be fixed or modified…  the hunt was on and so here we are now. I eventually found one in Wongawilli, a young bloke had bought it as a project,  but other things came up so he decided to shift the old girl on,  he had spent many months trying to find one without much rust,  which saved me a lot of looking as he managed that just fine.  It came from Vico originally and might have been an Australian post van,  apparently she was used to carry eggs before she was retired….

From the front  - Cads, Steady and Cusso’s cars.

The plans.

What am I going to do to her?  well not a lot…I'm to old for tricked out punk vans and complete custom jobs…I have always just loved the way they looked straight off the shelf,  I might do a few mods,  thing that will improve the running, stopping and comfort, I may do a very subtle graphic.  I have done plenty of airbrush work in the past,  but generally It will be pretty subtle.

My last airbrush work on the boot of a 65 Ford…

Ultimately she will be used for drifting around the country side on short trips…who knows…time will sort all that out,  when you reach this age it’s a day by day proposition.

Pick up the old girl - 11th July 2015

Cad’s and Cusso came on the run to pick up the old girl,  she was sitting on a property at Wongawilli looking pretty sad, surrounded by long grass and old abandoned houses,  the fellas helped load her on the trailer and brought her back to the South Coast at Woollamia.

First look

12th July. The first close look revealed she was in pretty good nick, most of the body panels were reasonably straight, the inside paint was brand new,  with one fairly major ding in the front drivers guard,   The passenger side had been stripped back to bare metal and undercoated…that’s going to need some attention as the weather has gotten to the thinner areas with fine mild surface rust poking through – the drivers side rear quarter had been repaired before and they must have sprayed the undercoat and left it exposed before the top coat was painted as the paint is pealing and cracking  -  The drivers window was all over the place and didn’t work.  There was some rust as expected in the lower panels but nothing showing in crucial spots,  Beddy’s are well known for their rust,  so who knows what will be found once the work begins..

Into it.

13th July Next day I was into stripping out the inside seats, old metal cargo barrier, motor cover and old timber floor panel’s their pretty basic in construction,  so dismantling is a relatively relaxing job…

I stripped out the old floor coverings and this revealed some small rust holes,  nothing major, and an easy fix – a  good wire brush job,  some rust converter and she was looking pretty good to start with.

The Shed - a home for the old girl.

Now before I start work on any body work or mechanical,  the old girl needs somewhere out of the elements to rest her weary bones,  so a new/old shed will have to be built. The Kiwi. How fortunate,  a few days before I’m about to start the shed I receive a call from a young Kiwi mate coming back from Germany looking for somewhere to crash for an unspecified amount of time…he happens to be a carpenter, and his first words are,  “"do you have anything you want built while I'm there’'”…”silly question”

The old shed had been there for 30 years – held up with a few sticks and a prayer,  I have used it to do my graphics in…I'm a signwriter and graphic artist. So we slung the new part built out of mostly reclaimed timber and iron that’s been laying about the property for years, to the old part.  My mate Stapo “ head of the Woollamia Speedy building company”  turned up with a dirty great beam which allowed us to rip out the old back wall opening up the whole are.   We had the shed all built and ready for the Beddy in about a week and a half.   I threw some old lino and rubber mats on the dirt floor,  built some shelves and was given an old steel work bench that fitted perfect,  a few tubes of silicone completed the weather sealing  -  and pushed the Beddy into her new home - we have just been through some  major flooding,  the worst rain in 30 years and it didn’t leak,   -  the old girl was looking happier.

Body Work

August. Time to start the journey in earnest,  a closer look revealed lots of superficial body damage…,  The side opening door was the worst, it’s a common problem with the door being subject to swinging open and slamming against the side mirrors and the so called “bump stop”. The body work for me is pretty enjoyable,    so getting stuck into that was fun.   After a few days at it between other commitments it was showing signs of coming together,  once you start you just keep finding things,,,small depressions, small dings pushed from the inside…all good though and easy to repair. I'm not going nuts on her,  she won’t be a  show car,  just enough tho make her tidy. The lower regions have some rust holes….that’s a bit more of a challenge as i can’t weld for shit,  but that’s where mates come in,  and i have  great crew of mates who are into classic cars and have heaps of experience,  and are willing to help…

September - early The body work is progressing  - all the superficial dings are just about squared away, the major dent in the front drivers guard has been pulled out  and teased back into place. The front screen is out revealing some surface rust but pretty dam good otherwise.  that won’t take much to square away.

I made my own dent puller out of bits hanging about and fashioned some dolly’s out of an old boot-makers anvil.  worked a treat….by the time it was done the panel was pretty straight and required a small amount of fill…   Told you a was a shit welder. Puller made from old plumbing fittings, continuous thread, and a steel screw, Dolly’s made from an old boot maker anvil were great for the panel beating.

September – mid Work has been progressing between other commitments,  my policy of trying to do a least one thing a day where possible is working,  my policy of not rushing and giving myself a headache is working,  so the journey is still enjoyable. I stripped the paint off the join between the roof and the gutter – not one bit of rust,  all looked great,  that was a huge relief.

The Motor September -  late The one thing I’m defiantly not is mechanical,  so this part of the journey is a full learning curve for me starting at the bottom. As advertised the old girl “ Started – Stopped – and Ran”  -  but that was about all.  She ran pretty rough and blew heaps of smoke,  suggesting what?  like I said I’m a numky when It comes to mechanics – so Cusso came over,,, he’s a bit of a whizz,  engineer and all that.  First thing lets check the compression  –  in this part of the journey we found a broken spark plug, stuffed points and the dizzy was pretty much rooted…but some tweaking by Cusso had the old girl purring like a kitten, – well not quite but at least it was idling and responding to some pressure.  The compression was pretty good but down on one cylinder. My mate Steady turns up as Cusso is about to leave after his good work. Steady is a whizz mechanic of all things as well as professionally.  He and Cusso confer like too old doctors and Cusso leaves.  Steady arrives carrying a complete gasket set and decides it’s a great time to pull off the head. – My fears start to rise!  - “No worries mate,  It will only take 30 minutes” – 50 minutes later covered in crap and the heads off and on the bench….time for another beer! A quick look and it seems ok –  Steady says  -  “I have the means to pull out the valves and springs etc, lets do that” OH SHIT OK I GUESS.!

The Verdict.

Not good,  but not to to bad…one of the valves is buggered and so is the seat…no amount of honing is going to fix that

A new head is required, everything else looks ok, the pistons look good with no movement… Steady leaves after a few beers and dinner,  giving me instructions on how to clean the water from the block, drain the oil and empty the tank. Cleaning the block etc – what a bloody shit of a job – in this case the old girl has thick oil everywhere,  mixed in with red dirt,  making an almost cement like glug,  suggesting she may have been out west for some time…hence the lack of rust…who knows?   - Red back webs full of egg sacks abound. The water from the block came out like brown lava, spraying me everywhere,  a few showers later see’s me looking pretty clean again,  other than the fingernails – they look like I have been a mechanic all my life – all good fun.

Heater dismantle. The heater when turned on made some horrible noises and sounded strained. I pulled it out and it was filled with a rats nest,  they had used some stuffing as the nest and packed it in nice and homely,  the fan motor looked dodgy and wouldn’t spin freehand,  I dismantled that,,,cleaned out the crap,  lubed it up and whoo ee!,, she spins like a top quiet as a mouse with heaps of blow. – but the heater core is totally rooted – rusted and falling apart… Options have to be considered!

The  nightmare window glass realignment puzzle. Now that was fun – I’m lying,  it was painful and frustrating,  the glass was out of it’s track and all over the place…I tried to realign it but all attempts failed…take a blood great deep breath – further inspection which I should have done straight away – learning by ones mistakes - revealed the small T Piece neoprene spacers that align the window in the mechanism were shot.  I had been trying to do it without removing the whole mechanism – a mistake – I took the whole lot out,  an easy job, pulled it apart, an easy job,  went and snavelled one of my wife’s neoprene chopping boards and went to work fashioning myself a couple of new T Pieces – must say it worked a treat – put the mechanism in and carefully replaced the window using timber wedges to stop it falling inside the door…replaced the track that someone had unscrewed and let drop to the bottom of the door,  which I only realised was there after taking out the mechanism. and “woo bloody hoo” ! the thing works almost as smooth as new…don’t know what the long term outcome of the T Pieces will be  but for now at least it’s working fine.

Bucket Seats Eddy (Foreskin) don’t ask! has given me a couple of decent bucket seats – when he get’s a chance he will come down and fabricate the bases for those and do some welding – another whizz.

Weekend distraction. Sept 26-27

Spent the weekend in Sydney helping Foreskin with his project – here are a couple of pics,  One of his mates turned up in another FJ,  this one had a V6 Commodore engine and other mods. Working on Foreskin’s car just made me anxious to get back to the old girl…

Dash Board. Sept 29th 015 With my policy of trying to do at least one thing every day where possible,  today I took the instrument panel out of the van – after taking off the back cowling it revealed a huge wasp nest made out of mud wrapped around the wiring harness some of the wires were corroded and others snapped right off their connections….it was a total mess….

This is just some of the nest – I should have snapped a pic before I demolished it,  but I was up to my ears in it by then and keen to finish what Id started.

My plans for the dash. I’m intending to build my own using new instruments and getting  the whole lot rewired…Can’t be that hard can it ? I’m going to make the dash emulate the original but in a 50’s –60’s style.  stainless steel, resin, padding and paint. Looking forward to starting that…something like the concept below – but not these colours ?

October 11th 2015

LET THE SPARKS FLY

Saturday – Foreskin ( like I said “don’t ask! )  arrives, he finally had a chance to get down the coast to do some welding,  Fortunately there isn’t much rust to cut and weld…just a few spots on the usual areas,  along the bottom of the side door,  back lower corner panels and a couple of spots near the rear of the guards…all small holes and reasonably easy to do.. It still took a few hours with myself following Foreskin around grinding the welds flat, then slightly depressing the wounds in preparation for the fibreglass fill. We finished off the day with some of the FIFO Gang under the stars, a B.B.Q and of course a few beers to the sounds of Rockabill coming from the Moonshine Room…

Thanks Foreskin for your great work.

The head saga continues. After finding out one of the valves and seat was shot, I was given another head for free,  it proved to be worse than the one I had, then the opportunity for a 161 fully reconditioned for nothing came to me,   but I decided  not to go this way,  as I'm loosing what power I have….then a 202 with electronic ignition became available,  it came  out of a young blokes Torana -   well! -  I can only think that it might have had some punishment as I know the blokes he hangs with. So what now? For now I have decided to stick with the 173 – get the head reconditioned,  or investigate getting a new Yella Terra head, either way it would be done so i can run unleaded petrol,  at least I don’t have to pull out the motor.

Front Spoiler. While I have been waiting on other things to develop, decided to play around and make myself a fibreglass spoiler.  whether I use it is still up for discussion and thought,, I had the materials on hand so why the hell not have a play around…

Early stages – still stuff to add and vents to cut out – I'm not sure if it’s the right thing…time will tell.  But it was fun to do…Foam, Ally panel and fibreglass..

October 15  - 2015

Cads Project

Got away from the Beddy and went and visited my mate Cads today  -  “arrrrrr! -  the frustrations”,  and I was thinking I had taken on to much,  ha..no chance, -  Cads has decided to put a bigger engine in his Caddy,  this endeavour has led onto all sorts of other resto problems.   Cads will have it sorted very soon then it’s off to the engine fitter and on the road again.

October 19th 2015

Not a great deal has been happening Unfortunately I have been away working in Sydney,  thank god I don’t live up there anymore!  - anyway!,  since Foreskin did his welding magic I have,  (when the chance arrives)  been squaring away his handy work.  Most of the fill is done and sanded and undercoated - I have been covering any exposed metal with primer and am about to attack the windscreen area….but first a trip to the Rock and Roll festival at the Entrance called ChromeFest, lots of classic cars, Rockabilly bands and sights to behold.  Probably no Beddy’s though,  wish there was,  as i haven’t even seen a live one for many years. – funny thing is mates have been seeing a few around the area.  just not me. hopefully they know what there looking at.?? Once that’s over I will get stuck into the screen area. Here are a few progress shots. P’S - If there are any Beddy owners travelling down the South Coast near Huskisson,  feel free to let me know…Id love a chat. -  details below.

The screen needs some attention,  but not much.

Priming.

October 28th 2015

Not one Beddy!. Just returned from a rock and roll festival on the Central Coast. Hundreds of Classic cars and hotrods, thousands of hours and dollars involved in the restorations, cars and trucks and bikes of all types,  but not one Beddy,  I will hopefully address that situ next year., haha! -  probably get run out of town!! -  hehe.., Grille out. Came home all inspired to get stuck in,  so today with a couple of hours to spare i ripped off the grille and support bar,  going to take them to the local  chrome guy tomorrow for a quote…took off the break booster and attachments and rubbed the crappa out of the engine bay = this created heaps of room to work,  reckon I could pull  the motor out through there without to much trouble – maybe? Also played around with another simpler spoiler concept…more inclined to go this way if at all….one never stops playing and thinking does one!  The Beddy dilemma,  SO MANY OPTIONS!

Also squared away one of the weld patches. That was the biggest piece of rust in the old girl so not to bad for a 37 year old lady.

November 5th – 2015 Rain Rain go away. If this rain would bloody stop Id finish spraying the primer…ahhhhhhhhhh! Diff feedback. I have been hunting for info regarding the best and easiest way to do the Diff thing! the alternatives so far are. 1 - An early Chevy Impala diff. – still trying to find out details,    almost impossible to find. 2 - A HQ Holden sedan diff – have to get the rim cut and re-welded inside out to accommodate the extra width,  but are left with two different stud patterns leading onto more changes…. That’s what I use to have in the original old girl….it was a pain in the butt having two spare wheels to carry around. 3 - An AU falcon sedan diff – change the short axel to a long axel to get the extra width I need – have to get my head around that one,  and are left with the above problem. 4  One of my mates had a HG Holden diff in his – probably the same as a HQ really  - So not sure about that alternative – more info needed. 5. get the Beddy diff centre changed via cutting and welding the original axels onto a different highway diff…..sounds expensive…Ill let you know!   At least Id end up with the same wheels all round…. Gavin Davies  - Rob,You"re looking for info on Diffs - I'm not sure how a 6 would handle it but I have an 8 with a 9"diff with a 2.7:1 ration, purrs along the highway at 1700rpm @100kph a comfortable combination Wheels Gavin Davies  - Rob-contact Exclusive tyres they're the American racing wheel agents,they purpose built mine with the specs I needed and did the hole spacing to match, took about 12 weeks from the USA but worth the wait

4th November 2015. The Ignition. Live and learn. went to move the old girl and the steering lock was stuck on,  tried fiddling with the key and this eventually broke. so my next adventure was to get the ignition mechanism off – simple enough me thinks,  except the apparent bolts down the centre have been sheered off…tried to drill them out…broke two drill tips and didn’t make a dent…got onto the BUGA forum and asked for help!  Gunning and Marishka both gave me valuable suggestions.  trouble was I didn’t quite understand the answers correctly.

Marishka - “Yeah when fitted at factory the screws sheer at the heads when fitted. I just use a 4 " grinder with a 1mm disk and cut a slot across the screw, Then use a flat screwdriver to get them off.” Gunning - “I recently had to do the same on my Subaru, I had trouble trying to cut slots in the bolts as it was still on the car, I ended up using a punch and hammer to start bolts turning, then could use fingers to turn, I replaced with a standard bolt, make it easier next time” So I'm still thinking its just the centre bit that has to come out,  tried all and sundry and still no luck,  so I cut the whole thing off with the grinder,  only then on closer inspection i found out the whole shinny part was a bolt and not just the smaller centre bit…so for anyone having a go check out the pics they should explain what I'm trying to say. New door locks. My new door locks arrived from England this week – so that will be an interesting little project to tackle as well. Master Cylinder oil container. My new / second hand,  oil container arrived from the banana state this week as well – their rare as hens teeth and I was lucky enough to find one on fleebay…

I did put a cut in it as suggested,  but then tried turning the very small centre bit with a small screw driver instead of a large one that would have turned the whole bloody bolt. One step forward - one step back.

The Motor Well after much procrastination I have finally secured myself a motor,  it’s a 202 with electronic ignition already attached,  apparently only driven to church on Sunday’s by a old nanna. Now this means only one thing!  - getting the old girls front end in the air – this should be fun!  - stay tuned. Motor arrived – looks decent so far. The usual oil, nothing a clean and some new paint wont fix , took the rocker cover off,  looked a lot cleaner than the original 173 – no glug,  Next step to replace the gaskets and get her in the beddy.. Water pump – appears to be brand new. Even the ignition coil looks in great nick.

The Motor Yes the motor again – Steddy hit the shed this arvo, I slapped a Fat Yak in his hand and we both got stuck into it. We throw it on the engine stand,  after the last 173 pull apart and the 179 rusted heap,  I wasn’t going to get to excited about this motor.  But..after pulling the valves out and checking the rest visually,  it’s looking pretty sweet,  no rust,  valves all good and ready for a clean,  pistons clean as a whistle,  chambers free of any corrosion,  so fingers crossed this should be the donk for the old girl to get her purrrrrrring again.

Despite being old and decrepit,  Steady does a good job,    I’m learning heaps    Old school rules apply,  take 6 valves out and have a beer, take another 6 valves out and have another beer.  The septic Tank. Now after a couple of Fat Yaks Steady needs to get home,  Google is waiting.       Me -   Steady,  when you  turn be careful you don’t hit the septic tank it sticks about 6 inches out of the ground.       Steady – Yeah no worries  –  see you tomorrow  -  he throws a u-turn in the dark paddock and runs straight over the Septic Tank.

Polishing the head. 24th Nov 2015 Steady arrived this arvo armed with a small air driven head polisher and went to it – of course the apprentice “me” didn’t get a go,  bloody hog,   he’s like a spoilt kid that won’t share his toys! It came out great and here are some riveting shots showing the frantic action.

That’s Steady hogging the toys. .

28th November 2015 I have lapped all the valves-  Steady polished the valves and she is ready to be re assembled and installed.

30th November 2015 Getting ready for the motor removal. I put an extra beam through the shed and an extra brace to accommodate the lifting of the front of the old girl…it should be well and truly enough to carry the weight…I reckon it would have been ok with the one hardwood beam,  but the other hardwood beam was donated,  so up it went…probably better safe than sorry…. I’m into stripping down all the connecting bolts etc next week…yee ha…can’t wait to get under the old girl… My poor old offsider “Steady Eddy” has pulled a muscle in his back,  so he is laid up at the moment,,,so progress on the motor has stalled….until he’s able to bend again…

Dash update. Well my initial idea as can be seen above,  has gone out the window…tried it.  didn’t like it….so now i have done some carving and some aluminium fabrication and totally changed the whole way I was going about it initially…just have to epoxy the  high impact styrene with a couple of layers of 6 oz matt and clean it up and give it a spray or even cover it in vinyl…to be determined. Anyway here are some shots at the almost fabricated epoxy undercoat stage…. colour and finishing to do of course.

Has a very slight retro feel,  and i have always loved ‘curves” and the old girl has curves,  so couldn’t help myself…

December 5th 2015

The Motor. Bugger me,  finally had a chance to strip the motor down,  I spent considerable time cleaning every part. We had to replace a leaking main seal around the crank as the old rope seal was pissing oil – off with the balancer.  all went well. almost!

I asked -  “Steady give us an action shot!”          this is what we get – very riveting!

We took out the crank to replace the old seal and cleaned all the bit’s – learning more.

We flipped her over and started on the head re-assembly  We replaced all the old leaking gaskets with new, we then started to put the head back together,  set the torque wrench to the right setting for the head bolts and proceed to break two,,,fortunately  there was still some stud showing so that was an easy fix.  after closer inspection we could see why,  some of the old bolts looked warn and fatigued,  we replaced them with the best from the old 173 engine and all torqued up fine.  all good until another bolt broke…a closer look showed more wear,  but only on the middle ones,  “WHY? - Steady - because that’s where their exposed to the water jacket”.   OHHHH!! I’m learning!……… So now we just have to do the sump side of things.

Corrosion on bolts from exposure to water.  .

Anyway all went well from there, new seals,  new gaskets, we cleaned her down,  dried her off and proceeded to spray her with the high temp engine paint – “Randy Red”

Header score. 10Dec 2015

Scored myself a set of headers and some exhaust from a rusting wreck not far from our property – the rusting heap has been there for quite some time,  so i thought id have a look at what it had to offer…the rest of the ute is totally rooted, but low and behold it had what appeared to be a decent set of headers and exhaust pipe including a muffler. I bought them home and cleaned them up and there as solid as!….a quick steel brush job.  some rust converter and their ready for a coat of stove pipe black…

Motor stage,  whatever. The old girl has been readied for the front end lift, all the connecting things have been disconnected and the bolts loosened…I made a gear box trolley out of some old roller skates I have been hanging onto for years,  despite the constant harassment of - ”you know who!  - “throw them out ‘'” their rubbish,  what will you ever do with those?” – you get the drift hey fellas!….

Wiring.

30th Dec 2015 I made the decision to re do the whole wiring – after finding corrosive wasp nests from one end of the car to another most of the wiring was pretty shot. I ordered a Universal 22 Circuit Wiring Harness Kit, by Procomp Electronics, reading the blurb it seemed like it would handle the job. ”Advertising Blurb” It’s a bit long winded but worth a read if your considering buying anything that comes from Procomp Electrics. “Procomp Electronics Universal Automotive Harnesses can be used in just about any vehicle where basic or more wiring is needed. Ample wire lengths make this kit especially suited for everything including trucks with long beds and extra cabs heaps of wire,  enough for a large tray truck,  clear instructions,  anyone can do it!!  Yeah right,  the kit came incomplete,  on inspection we found connections coming apart which would lead to problems down the track,  the wires to the back weren’t long enough to reach the lights, plug in connections that didn’t match anything, parts missing, no rubber grommet for the fire wall,  no main fuse, no brake light wires, being an American wiring harness we came to the conclusion that they wire their brakes through their stop lights,  -  but we don’t! -  so you would think they would have provided the right wires for Aussie regs…”very poor” , no wiper washer wiring, .  to say we were disappointing would be an understatement,  I wish Id done a bit more homework. Update. 9th Jan 2016 The manager of Sydney Speed Supplies ran me about the negative review on their eBay site…I outlined all the probs…he seemed surprised by what I had to say,  he was very apologetic and offered to do something for me to make up for the problems…his main concern was the negative review and what we could do to change it off the site, I told him I was willing to say that he had made and effort and had at least tried to address the situ. But!    -   He then sent me a reply for me to upload onto eBay essentially saying Id made a mistake in giving it a bad review… [ speedmasteraus is requesting that you revise the original Feedback you left for Universal 22 Circuit Wiring Harness Kit (191623837873). Reason for request: You confirmed to the seller that you had accidentally left the wrong Feedback. So essentially he just wanted me to take the blame for them supplying a sub standard piece of equipment that would cause nothing but problems for anyone silly enough the buy one…like me… I was trying to do the right thing by this supplier as i relise he is a middle man,  but after seeing this request where they take no responsibility for what they are peddling,  I'm leaving my original review on the eBay site… The solution. Luckily I had my son in law coming down for a xmas break – he’s a  whizz at wiring, A sparky - he installs complicated communication and computer systems into large buildings and is in the process of doing his own car project. Steady came over for the day and with his valuable assistance and some head scratching, and some purchases at the local MOTO store to stock up on missing parts,  the wiring is finally making good headway. If i was doing it again Id definatly source from a recognised loom company, but persistance prevailes and where getting close. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/191623837873 – this is the link to the offending item. I contacted the supplier and he showed concern by directing me to another supplier.  Guess he’s just the middle guy making a few bucks,  so no real concern to him.  I haven’t followed it up any further,  other than sending him a review I intend to post on his ebay site..so if this is what your intending to do, be a bit wiser than me and do your homework. Result. Well after some initial hickups the wiring is in and ready to hook up to the verious components…. I wasn’t ready for Ben,  but couldn’t let the oportunity to get it underway slip by while he was here…now the next step is to buy all the guages and switches and get the dash sorted…. Guages. 6th Jan 2016. I have ordered a Dolphin 5 Gauge set from Parts for Hot Rods located in Queensland – hope this experience with ordering off the net is better than the last. In the mean time I have sourced some switches and been playing with the dash. it’s all in undercoat at the moment and will be pulled apart and painted once I decide on the final design… here is a shot of the progress so far,  bit of a retro feel….why not I say!. The gauges arrived this morning and i went about fitting them in to their position in the dash….they look pretty good…seem like  a decent set,  nice and clear and not to big, and they add a bit of bling….the whole thing is just sitting there at the moment,  now time to work out the fixing. The lighter grey area is where Im thinking the radio will sit…? Still some switches to add. For all those interested, I will post some images soon of the process I went through to create this dash… I still have some ideas regarding an overhead consul,  these are things I can do while Im waiting on the mechanical side to move forward… The Mind has been working overtime…everyone who comes into the shed has the same question…”what colour are you going to spray the old girl ”?…….I like curves so this is what Im thinking….but theres a while to go so I may change my mind by the time it’s ready to do…Satin black back…Gloss black front….with a dash of colour thrown in…. ha…sounds like an exotic drink.

Dash Update. 29th Jan 2016 Bloody hell the years pumping by. Anyway been busy with Christmas and Family stuff but managed to do a few things. The Dash is just about squared away – all the elemnets are in other than the stereo. Finally figured out how to fix the top part of the dash with secret bolts – the top has had 2 coats of epoxy and one coat of 6oz polyester resin all over – been filler coated and sanded and a fine roughened texture added,   just have to finalise the painting once it stops raining. Here are a couple of shots of the dash construction. ”High impact foam” for the carved top. Has to be layed up in Epoxy as Pulyester resin will disolve it.. Blinker Mechanism. Bought a new wiper blinker arm from T.R Spares in Padstow – it’s out of  a  “Series 3 Landrover”  and is exactly the same as the original for $75 delivered – “Thanks Wendy and everyone else for their advice from the Bedford Community” - Great people. I have a HZ steering Column that I may put in at a later date.

Roof lining

Having family down over christmas and the multiple tourists we name “the plague” decend on the poor village of Huskisson, combined with the constant breaks in the good weather with rain,  it’s been a bit slow on the Beddy restoration. I also lost my best mate. my dog Sasha over the last week – A sad time felt by the whole family, knocked the wind out of me…she had a good life and a decent run to the age of 16,  she is burried under a tree next to the dam in the back paddock…R.I.P Sash. But on Monday I made the decision to do a new roof lining for the cabin area as the old vinyl one was stuffed. I decided to do it out of fibreglass in one piece, over the last few days it’s all but finished,  all I have to do is line it with something,  that hasn’t been decided upon yet… Here are some progress shots. The Process for those that might be interested. Stage one – make an accurate template out of cardboard,  in this case a freezer box scrounged from Harvey Norman…thanks Harvey! 2 – lay up a single layer of 6 oz fibreglass, in this case chop strand as that was what I had on a flat smooth sheet of laminate treated with surfboard “wax in styrene”  to act as a release agent. 3 – now you have  a flexible but reasonable strong sheet of glass,  mark out the outline off the template and cut the shape out,  as it’s only thin a stanley knife did the job easily without mess. 4 – Floppy test fit – all good. 5 – Make some accurate templates of the curves in the roof, cut out those templates and lay the sheet over them and weight the sheet to conform to the shape.  I started with the biggest curv at the back corresponding with the strengthening rib in the van across the roof behind the driver position. . Back has already been shaped to the template laying on the table in front,  by laying up strips of glass. 6 – Time to lay up some strengthening strips of glass to make the sheet conform and hold the shape. This process was repeated for the side curves until the shape was self supporting. 7- I  cut some alloy angle as can be seen below,  to form a reinforcing rib and a fixing mechanism to the formentioned strut behind the driving position.  This was pre fitted to the roof rib, then glassed onto the sheet. fits like a glove. The alloy angle cut and bent to conform to the shape and glassed onto the head. 8 – more strengthning ribs were added and the front above the screen was reinforced to make the shape sit flat across the front as can be seen in the pic here you see the front about to be strengthened, thereby flattening in the process as the previous strengthening rib process had caused the front to have  a few small wobbles – but this will take that away and make it sit flat. 9 – A stiffening and supporting rib was made by overlaying 3 to 4 layers of matt down the centre.  this should be all that is needed to stop any sag – probably not needed as the structure was bloody strong anyway…  You can see the strengthening and anti sag supporting rib layed up down the centre as well as the other strengthening and supporting strips. I used a hot mix for the resin.  for those that don’t know,  a hot mix is adding extra catalyst to make the glass go off a lot quicker - so the whole process was fast.. Now all have to do is line it with something and it will be done – fitted like a glove on the first try so pretty happy with that… Looks pretty sweet when fitted.. can’t wait to line it… then add some sound deadening and insulation above for a snug as a bug fit. Contemplating a simple roof consul next – and thinking of doing the door cards the same way. Oh yeah! over xmas I worked on the dash,  all undercoated and ready for the final colour choice.it’s still missing the polished alloy bling,  that wont go on until after it painted.

Dash 8th Feb 2016

Decided on doing the dash grey and white – not real adverturous I know,  but i can always change it.

The Head Lining. 14th Feb 2016

Bought some black velvet like material from Spotlight,  it was on special, dirt cheap,  and lined the roof panel,  Finished the centre roof console, it houses a swivel light setup from a ford,  covered the lot in vinly and test painted the vinyl – laquer paint sticks like anything,,,so painted some red for drama,  mixed with the grey and white,  the black roof liner makes it all pop,,,the white is sign panel a plastic aluminium rpe painted gloss panel.  easy to cut,  light and rigid,,,,eventually going to line the back out with this material… fun stuff,

Door Cards 15th Feb.

Attacked the cards today the same way as the roof lining,,,but a lot easier and esentually their flat with one little annoying change of direction towards the top. Step 1.  make up a door template care of Harvey Norman again. Step 2 . cut some  chop strand matt….Id normally use woven for flat layups as it lays down better and the finished side is smoother,  but I was given a roll of chop strand so Im using that. Step 3, wet it out,  I used a cheap Bunning pink wooly roller,  cut down to match a small 4 inch roller arm…I get 3 out of a 2 dollar roller and trow the lot away after use. This time I layed up two layers for a bit more stiffness. Step 5, Once dry cut it out, test fit and prepare for that annoying little kink in the panel. Step 6. score the panel with a knife almost through, and carefully put the kink in. Step 7, make up a couple of kink templates and clamp the sheet to make it conform to the kink. I have a possum in the wall of my workshop scratching itself right now,  bloody annoying little bugga - anyway where was I. ? Step 8, layup another layer of matt over the kink score marks. Step 9, Cut the shape out using your template. I have made fake stained glass panels using this techinque,  and this is generating some ideas for the back..the thinking never stops does it! Step 10 – thats still to come – some reinforcing to do in a few areas and try to come up with a design for the panel.

Roof Ribs. 20th Feb 2016 Being as Im stuck at home because we have a 1000 bloody bikeriders going past our front gate all day,  they have decended on Huskisson for the Huskisson leg of the Australian Triathelete Series,  and our road is used as the bike leg… mmmmmmmmmmmm…stay calm. Anyway back to it. I have used the time to make myself some ribs. I liked the result of the front cab area roof so much I have decided to do the roof in the back the same way. But it will need supporting ribs as the gaps are to wide for the fibreglass to span without excessive glass. I didnt want to run length way timber battens as I have seen other do,  I want the lining to curve with the roof at the sides and blend into the wall lining, when I get around to doing that. So I decided to make some fibreglass ribs that match the existing steel ribs in the old girl. I won’t bore you with the process as I have done that above already…but escentialy it’s the same process. Made the timber form and popped out all the ribs in about 4 hours so quite a quick process.  Now some fiddling to do to get them in sweet.. Timber mould sealed in release wax and resin and I applied some vasso as added help to help get the layed up glass out of the mould.

Easy job and I have test fitted the first rib and after some adjustment to length by taking out a bit in the middle and using that oportunity to lay up some reinforcing on the join which will stiffen the whole rib,  it fitted like a glove. test sitting in place but still some finishing to do

Distractions.

Huskisson had it’s annual White Sands Easter Parade over the long weekend and some of the gang had their cars in the mix. Hopefully next year the Beddy will be there with all the other Fifo gangs cars. She Bird and Cusso had their sweet red award winning  T.Bird leading some of the old classics down the street.

Door Cards.

While I have been waiting for some of the major things to get off the ground I have been playing with some of the little enjoyable things. I put together the door cards…using silver/grey upholsterers material and used some red vinyl on the top where your arm is to save dirt on the material. I put a bit of aluminium tubing across the door for some bling and to match the dash…Im going with a cabin area of black, grey, and red,  with a dash of white here and there,,,the back who knows?…the outside who knows, I keep changing my mind..

Arm Rests. I shaped up some arm rests out of polyurethane, threw some glass over them and padded the top.

The black on the door is photoshopped because the door is still  orange  as below at the moment….i will be using satin black on the inside,  not gloss.

Door off – ready for painting. Test fitted the buckets now Cusso is going to do some special fabrication at his leisure so they sit sweet..

Front End troubles.

Well old Steady Eddy who has been suffering from post shoulder surgery blues,  finally had some time to direct me into action taking the front end apart…all good until we get to one of the wishbone sections and find one is well and truely seized and refuses to release…the other side almost fell out.. A bench full of bits. Then to make matters worse the long shaft threaded on both ends that goes through the frame is rock solid and won’t come out of it’s inner tube…..after much swearing and me taking a nice chunk out of Cads knuckle,  ‘I  didn’t feel a thing”  we gave up until I can find someone with an oxy to apply some heat… the before mentioned sleave will be pressed out… The offending wishbone bit – no idea what they call it? some sort of sleave. The offending shaft – no idea what they call this either – I gave it  a few names i can’t repeat though… And Cads gave me a new name I can’t repeat after whacking his knuckle and taking some bark off!! But it’s all good,  still on a steep learning curve and still enjoying the journey…

Roof Lining

April 6th 2016 Been pluging away at the interior - I finished gluing the black material to the f/glass panels and screwed them up…made up some trim cover strips between the ribs, think they look ok, just have to finish the half circle cover trims along the outer edges…and the roof lining is just about all squared away…other than the cab area the rest of the van interior will be a lot lighter in colour to make it brighter inside.. Cusso is working his magic on the seat bases for the buskets…can’t wait until i get them in and fitted…

Door Card

Finished the passenger door card, different shaped holder on the door to accommodate more things for the passenger. maps etc. Have to concentrate on getting rid of all the orange from the van next…

Seat mounts

My craftman mate Cusso and his able side kick the Pest have been busy making my seat bases…stoked to see the progress on facebook…can’t wait to see them live and fitted…Id have done them but I can’t weld for shit…and Cusso is the man when it comes to doing fiddly fitted projects…. Thanks you pair….greatly, greatly, appreciated. And to Chrispy and Twisted for donating the seats to the Beddy rescue – thanks a million.

Gearbox.

Im going with a trimatic which I have secured from another Beddyfile way up in the hinterlands of Byron Bay. It’s suppose to have been reconditioned 5000 k’s ago and built strong,  so Im hoping that will do the trick, my daughter and hubby did a day run down from Brisbane to pick it up and will bring it down when they come down to finish off the wiring….. I picked up a couple of Torque Converters and a flex plate cheap from Callala Bay a suburb on the other side of the bay…so things are progressing….now the big job of doin the whole front end so I can get the motor ready to fit..

Gear Change looking for a floor shift to go with the trimatic – if you have one hanging around and want to sell it at a resonable price,  Id love to hear from you…

Roof Lining. The two back panels are covered, I decided to run a strip down the centre for extra support and to run some LCD lightings strips as well…should be funky, ha! cover strips are in and test fitted, fit fine….

Did some embosed flames to break it up.

Bucket Seats.

“Cusso” the master of all things metal came over today with his trusty helper ‘The Pest” for a test fit of the seat bases he has been doing…he cut and shunt the original passenger side box to make the pattern match….they fitted like a glove forst go. He will now do some final design work and they should be ready to fit soon…getting there… Beddy’s are the ultimate chick magnet – this one needs a feed though..

cant wait till that orange is gone… thanks “Cusso” and his trusty offsider the “Pest” and of course Eddy and Twisted for giving me the seats in the first place.

Stuck Pivot Pin

22 April 2016 Pulling the front end down was all easy going until one of the pivot pins refused to budge,  it was rusted fast into it’s sleve and no amount of persuading was having it out.  That was until Cusso took charge and worked a bit of his magic,   it’s now out!  but buggered, and a replacement will have to be installed. thanks Cusso for your determination and eventual success…stoked! That’s one long wrench handle…tools of choice – angle grinder, lump hammer, WD 40, stillsons with a meter of heavy pipe attached….every man should have one in their kit. Brought the front end back home and started immediatly into getting all the ball joints etc out – easy job with a press,  cleaned, scraped and wire brushed every component,  treated with rust connverter, cleaned, epoxy primed and now ready to paint. Next step sourcing suspension components – still undecided about using either rubber or nolothane bushes,  opinion is devided and that doesn’t help the cause….nolothane are cheaper so thats always an arm twister when your on a limited budget, but there suppose to be harsher and can squeek I was told….don’t want that, aHave to hit up the Beddy community for some feedback.. ..

1st May 2016 Front wind shield visor. While all the above was happening I decided to make myself a front windscreen visor – I sort of like the look, and I use to have a metal one on my original beddy for a while, and it worked well in keeping the sun out.  Since Im ratting the van out, I decided Id make my own, out of fibreglass with some added “features” that I wont show until it’s done…thats if it looks ok….if not it will be one for the scrap heap!!  ha.

Polyurethane foam – starting to be carved out and shaped. a way to go yet. 9th May 2016 Well like I said Im having some fun with this project…what the hell…have to put a smle on ya dial some time… think ill be calling the old girl – Bones from nowon..haha. anyway whether I use it or not who knows…been good fun making it up anyway… If you haven’t guessed Im going to rat out the van on the outside…make it like an old signwriters van,  but the inside will be customed in a,  for want of a better description. “slicker way”. in other words not ratted… Now the mad push to get the suspension done and the motor in by the beginning of July as my son in law is coming down from Brisbane to finish off the wiring…

Suspension Bushes. After some positive feedback from the Beddy Community I have decided to go with SuperPro bushes. They seem to have been the bushes of choice for most people. I will let you know how it all goes soon. 10th May - Ordered = about two weeks away. Front lower ball joints. I managed to get myself two lower ball joint for half price of feebay – there Roadsafe products so should be good,  the last two he was carrying.

Side Windows. After much thought I have decided to make my own panels to replace the side windows…Since Im going in totally the opposite direction to what I first said about “not punking out the van” Im to old for that!”….35 years of creating fake scenes and props for a job means I can’t leave ‘Bones’ standard as first stated, …. Im going to have some fun with “ Bones”……I have a couple of ideas and can’t make up my mind about which one I like…stay tuned.

Front engine cradle has also been wire brushed and scrubbed to an inch of it’s life,  single pack epoxy undercoated and now hit with a couple of layers of chassie paint…

Engine Bay.

Today I put a big effort into cleaning the engine bay and throwing some black paint on…fiddly job but the bay’s looking good,  need to fill some holes later once I have put everthing back.

Undercarriage. I have also been removing surface rust on the undercarriage.  Plenty of elbow grease required – I have decided to go with a product called Rustbuster - Epoxy Mastic 121 – After much research this stuff seems to get the ants pants award from people that have used it…looked at POR 15  but to many steps involved for such an undercarriage. This stuff has been extensivly used in all sorts of industries and should fair the Beddy well. Ill let you know how it goes once I use it..Over this Ill be using a sound deadening coating….Ill let ya know! http://perpetualcoatings.com.au/ – there in Sydney and their prices are competitive from what I see. .

Bed Base. While all this other stuff has been happening i went around and saw my mate that makes up Tray Back Campers for some advice on how he does his beds…couldn’t be simpler,  CD ply,  I made a frame after stripping down some old timber I had to 50 mil square.   I made it in two halves and bolted it together so I can remove it anytime easily. He suggested drilling some holes in the ply base to let the moisture out,  It’s what he did when he was constructing yachts and also in his campers…nothing high tech here. Plenty of room underneath for storage bins. etc. What a Coincidence - Just now while I was writing up the latest info, Al sent me this image of his rig and said he just sold the whole rig and needs new signs for his new car to come… traybackcampers.com

Been trying to find shots of the old beddy but no luck – this is the best i have so far, I know I have some,  but where?

around 1998

Distractions.

On top of all this poor old Steady blew his head..After fitting the new head and driving around for some 500 k’s the head blows…poor old dear was not a happy camper…So I went over last night to help console the upset bugga…to find he’s sourced another head off another mate and had stripped it down and started to reassemble it…so all good…so far!….here he is hogging the toys again..look familiar? – before this beddy project I didn’t have a clue about heads…now I reckon I could pull one down and rebuild it with my eyes shut… climbing the learning curve.

Update – 26th May 2016. Well Cads and Steady came over to help me put the new ball joints, bushes and tie rod ends on etc,,,,all started well we managed to persuade one lower joint in,  but ran into trouble with the others…after much swearing, shit bagging, a few payback personal injuries and much laughter,  it was decided to have a beer,  enjoy some home made vege soup and let Steady take the parts to his work to use his 20 ton press to get them in…

Lining the van. 26th May. While all this has been going on, I stripped all my roof linings out and tricky bits, secured any exposed scratches with rust converter, epoxy undercoat and paint, I have then been busy lining the van with some insulation I was generously given by Cusso and The Pest.  It was left over from their new work shed erection and they thought of me before disposing of it. After a bit of research the stuff came up trumps with a insulation rating of R5 ansd some sound deadening qualities as wel as human safe. I also lined the back walls and wheel arches with a Butyl product that will help with both the formentioned. I also made some wheel arch covers out of ply,  painted sound deadening paint, and lined them with the insulation material as well… It has already made a difference to the sound in the van,  just the application of the insulation material glued to the wall deadened the tinny sound when wrapped with you knuckles,  and you can hear the difference just speaking in the van… The panel on the right is a mock up of the fibreglass window panels and slots Im going to make.  Still some thinking required there.

I have lined the floor with ply and used the same insulation below that after treating all scratches with rust converter, epoxy undercoat and top coat I  also had a change of idea when it came to the bad base – since I made the wheel arch covers it became easier to make up the bed base using those to support the sides and a simple piece for middle support…way less material and fiddling about to assemble it…

Steady just rang and all the ball joints etc have been assembled and is dropping them over….yeee ha!…Legend! – on the march to getting the old girl back on the ground…

Front End 28the May. Well today it all came together, good mates Cads and Steady turned up to finally get the bits and pieces together. have to say the front end is like a piece of art…Steady directed the proceedings and Cads and I supplied the muscle and occasionally some inspirational problem solving….only took three beers, lots of laughter and shit loads of bagging and the front end was together, almost – have the breaks, bearings, etc to do, and it will be ready for the motor to be sat in the frame and rolled under the bare front end.

Steady eyeing off the front end wheel alignment with Cads supplying the grunt.

Cads doing some fine tuning to the steering.

Part of the FIFO crew at work – thanks fellas – where would you be without ya mates – very much appreciated. Just waiting on the bearings now – Steady is on the case and after quite a bit of research found out that the original bearings for Bedford are no longer available – so with the skill Steady has he found alternatives. Those will be fitted this weekend and the motor put in the frame….

Steering column cover.

1st June 2016. Because I have had to take the original mechanism and give it the heave ho, I ended up with something the normal cover would’t fit…and I didnt have one anyway,  so today I made myself a new cover.   Timber and fibreglass – I undercoated it tonight and  tomorrow at some time I will top coat it and fit it.   Took a bit of bugger arsing around,  had to allow for the wiring and mechanism movement,   but now it fits good. I could use it as a template and throw a mold off it, but I don’t intend on making any more so this will do the trick…and I might change it later anyway if I get tired of it…who knows.

Just have to make a small soft cover for the mechanism hole and it’s just about done. Looks ok, simple and as small as I could make it.

Diff recovery.

Had the wreck of the HZ layinmg up the back so today we decided to rip out the diff,  First off though was to drag the rusted heap of shit over on it’s side….Cads and Steady hooked her up and with a bit of dragging about and reshaping off the bodywork as the rusted panels gave way we dug some holes next the wheels…dragged it into the holes and without to much fuss dragged it onto it’s side…A few beers,  a bit of cursing and some more blood spillage and the diff was out and rolling towards the shed… Now to take the 4 speed box out and the disc brakes off… The rest will be trashed.

Interior. 19th June 2016. While I have been waiting for the mechanicals to unfold I have been playing with the interior – red and black, white with a touch of grey… Lighting strips to be added soon…all coming along.

Seats 6th July 2016 Another little milestone in the rescue happened this week,  I know seats big deal!…but for me it is,   Im a complete novice at this type of stuff as cars have had absolutly no interest to me in the past,  that was until my first Beddy,  but that was a lifetime ago…but this old sheila has me interested,   so every stage is just one more step to see her cruising down the road. And the help from my friends has been amazing, without which this would not not be happening at all. So this little step was done by my good mates Cusso and the Pest,  there a duo on all things, Cusso designed and put together my seat bases…..taking the old duel seat base cutting it in half then crafting the two pieces back together to match the drivers side…he than cut out the heavy metal support peices to make the new buckets fit the original bases using the old fixing points…..I threw some epoxy and paint over them,  with very minimal filling as Cusso’s welding is so good and put the jigsaw puzzel I created by pulling them apart and not marking which bit went where back together,  which required a few in’s and outs and some undoing and redoing of nuts…”I will learn one day” -  but I got there in the end. There sitting in position and they fitted perfect.  Cusso’s anal bubble as The Pest calls it was spot on….absolutely stoked – can’t thank them enough… And a big thank you to Foreskin and Twisted for giving me the seats in the first place…another dynamic duo..

Side Windows and Inside lining 20th July 2016.

Been steaming ahead with the windows,  after much to’ing and fo’ing, head scratching and drawings i finally made up my mind and went with what I been thingking for ages…Slot Windows,  for lack of a better description. I used Aluminium’plastic composite panels for the overlays, Originally i was just going to glue them in place and make up some clips on the inside to avoid drilling holes around the edges….But I wanted the bolts to show so I drilled out each hole and rustproofed and primed every last one of them…then sikaflexed 227 them into position and used stailess steel nuts and bolts to squeeze them up…I laminated strips on the inside to form a recessed lip around the slots so the perspex/glass had a rebated lip to be glued into…this worked a treat. | Then used the inside protruding bolts to fit my timber surounds to, killing two birds with the one stone,  this gave me something to screw the inside lining neatly to. I used a super strong silocone adhesive called Soudal to frame the sloted area…let this dry and fitted the inside carpeted ply panels…sweet as….used some bronze 20mm angle around the inside of the slots to trim it up and to help secure the ply snug to the frame…came up about how i had imagined it ,  so happy with that.|

Aluminium composite panel – pre painted both sides, light, solid and non rusting.  this was my first template to give it a try. I laminated strips around the slots to form a lip inside so the perspex/ glass had a snug rebated lip to sit in. the Perspex was glued in using window frame sikaflex. I back sprayed the percpex black where the glue was going to be so it covered the glue from the inside.  I then used a window frosted vinyl on the inside, to give me the frosted look…I might change this later…still deciding.  very easy to change and repair Once the panels were all cut and slotted I used Sikaflex 227 to adhere them in position,  then used stainless 25mm bolts and nuts to squeeze the whole lot together and give me the bolted on look i was after… the panels were already strong but with my inside plan they would be solid as a rock. Im yet to trim the silicone around the panels to make it neat… I framed the inside using timber and used the protruding bolts to secure the timber…I rebated the back of the holes in the timber so the protruding bolts with their nuts didn’t make the timber sit proud of the composite panel. In this shot the small flat braces are still in place that I used to secure the timber in position around the slotted window forming a  frame. these were removed when the glue had dried. I also insulated the panels with bits of left over insulation material. I used this supertack glue to secure the frame around the slotted window. I use this stuff in my sign business to fit signs to walls…it sticks like shit and is good outside, inside and on wet and dry surfaces…you would be hard pressed to get the panels apart once this stuff has dried. This is the rebated hole on the inside with the 25mm stainless bolt protruding through and the nut and washer applied…this made the whole thing solid as.. Once i lined the inside with ply, I contact glued the carpet to the ply and screwed it to the inside timber frame. I like the look – a bit industrial and that will suit the van. Bronze coloured aluminium strips screwed to the inside slotted window sill…this helped to clean it all up and also fix the ply snuggly to the window slot. Slotted windows.

Motor Transplant

30th July 2016. This has been a long time coming, we have been waiting a few months for my son in law Ben to be able to get down to do the wiring and to bring the trimatic box Id bought, down from the north coast, The family arrived on Thursday arvo after a 14hour drive from Brisbane,  two kids, a dog and my gearbox all packed into the highlux 4x4. I decided the day before to build an extra bit on the shed with a couple of dirty great hardwood beams so we could hoist the motor aloft….it was suppose to just be a lifting frame but ended up a whole little extension… The Box. …it was suppose to be a good box, reconditioned strongly only 5000K’s ago – we pulled off the torque converter and the first thing we discovered was a badly chipped centre gear…oh o! ….so my mate steady wisely decided to investigate further and all the inside bit were stuffed…it was hard to even pull them apart as they had worn ridges right along the splines, there were chunks of metal in the box and the gear thingies were binding which are suppose to slide freely, …I was bummed,  the thing is totally rooted. I was feeling a bit down and my bottom lip was quivering…but the fellas soon had me chippa again – with statements like – that’s customising mate, that’s mechanics mate, you should have seen what happened when I did this and that to their own projects,,,so yes Im not stressing,   because me old mate Cads has spent a packet on his project and still has unresolved issues…so wake up to yourself was my own call….,and on with the show. Anyway, we couldn’t stop here,  we still had a motor to fit,,,so that Ben could run the wires to the right points in the coming week before he had to go back to Brisbane…so we threw the old box  temporarily back on  to help us roll it under the beddy.  Lots of josteling around…a few timber blocks a couple of beers each and it was time to lower the body back onto the chassie…this part,  with a bit of push and shove,  went reasonably smooth….we pulled away the chain block and there she was back on all fours….yeee ha – those 7 months having her nose in the air evaporated. Did someone say lets have another beer!!!…… bloody oath. The boys were on a mission to see if they could fire her up if only for  a split second…on with the electronic ignition, alternator and the rest,,,fill her up with oil, whack on the extractors Id snavelled off the wreck, rig up the approproate wires temporarily,,,,it was just going to be a quick little hit…battery gerry rigged with a couple of jumper leads,  Ben rigged up a conecting wire from this to that….,,,cross the terminals on the starter motor with a screwdriver,  hold ya breath….sparks fly, whiring sound……….nothing happens….bugger me the starter motor won’t throw out,  a few hits with the hammer,,,still nothing….frustrating considering this starter motor was working fine… Well it had been a big day and it was time to pack it in….the boys have been there all day,   working their butts off, and we have  a party tonight around the fire organised…with a few relaxing ales, some dance music,  lots of friends to celerate my 40 years and another couples 40 years of marriage.   I think Ive served my sentence,,,ya can let me out now! Overall a bloody great day – the gearbox was a major dissapointment and now I have to go through the whole process of finding another box..be great if money wasn’t a hinderance – id just go out a buy a new one…but that’s not going to happen. So thanks Steady, Cads, Cusso and Ben for such a bloody amazing effort,,,we had lots of little issues, had lots of fun,  but the boys past experience got us to where we are now,,,absolutly stoked with that. Memeroble moments. Steady is now sporting a nicely sun tanned right ear.   Steady asked to get some light on the subject so Cads puts the 500 watt spotlight right next to his ear…Steady engrosed in what he was doing started to sweat, then the smell of skin cells burning had steady waving his hands around like a maniac,  the radiation burns should heal without to much of a scar. 10 minutes later Cads does his other ear….at least the scars will look even now. The simple 5 minute job of removing a brass sleave in the back of the motor turned into an over an hour job as expert after expert offered their suggestion…lol….more beer…it kills the pain – just ask Steady! Cads paying out on what Steady decribed as his “expensive  high quality American made”  gear puller especially designed for the alotted purpose – that wouldn’t work on the above sleave no matter what we did……….only to discover it was made in Tiawan… We finally got it out with a hacksaw blade, a drill and a cold chissel. The sure fire old skool compression of grease theory didn’t work either,  just sprayed grease everywhere. Steady having his nuts adjusted a few time when he was under the car with both hands full,,,,the spanner adjustment on his nose.  Steady copped a lot off Cads,    but what are good mates for! did I hear you say it was time for another beer. – TOP DAY, TOP MATES.

Wiring 4th Aug 2016 Well the dodgy wiring harness from ProComp Electronics  as outlined above has proved to be an ongoing hassle. Wires in the wrong position,   wires not long enough, misslabled wires,  inadequate instructions that you need a degree to fathom.  As I stated above…save the bucks and get yourself a decent kit…it will pay for itself just in heart ache and time spent.. In the end we downloaded the manual for another more expensive brand of Harness…it was 45 pages long with very detailed illustrations and info that ended up relating to the harness I had pretty well,  that was compared with 6 pages of dodgy hard to fathom instruscions that came with the PC kit. Anyway lucky I had my son in law Ben here,  His previous experience  and never give in attitude has been invaluable, without it I would have been stuffed. He has spent three days so far battling with the wiring, a day and a half of that wasted on figuring out the bloody fuse box,  rearanging wires….But finally he is well and truely on top of it now. The Motor itself is all but wired,  tomorrow the ignition and blinker stalk will be finished as well as a the added relays and fuses….

Ben up to his ears in wiring the dash gauges.

Test lighting the guages.

Back of the Dash. Glad he knows what he is doing,  Cause Id be buggered here.

Still some work to do.

The final stage. 5th August 2016. Ben surffered but won in the end,  there was some confusion earlier but eventually Ben finished 99% of the wiring before he had to jump in his truck on Saturday morning and drive back to Brisbane.. I can’t thank him enough for what he has achieved. I have a few simple tasks ahead,  stop lights, blinkers, radio, overhead lighting etc,  but the rest is done and dusted. . Ben wrapping up the final piece in the puzzel the blinker stalk.  this was solved over a few beers.  Wiper Motor. We thought the wiper motor was stuffed so I pulled it out and low and behold I shoved it on a battery and it worked fine …..so Ill put that back in and work out which wires go where?

Trimatic Gearbox Update. 4th Aug 2016. Well I have secured myself another box,  hopefully it’s going to be better than the last,    It’s still in a well functioning Torana at the moment and should be pulled out this weekend… The fellow I bought the other box from offered to give me the money back,  but I wasn’t hastled by that,,,It’s the chance you take….But I appreciate his offer.. Trimatic Update # two. 10th August 2016. Must have run over a Chinaman – the great soon to be box was in the process of coming out last weekend and someone on thier team forgot to undo one of the bell housing bolts and then applied to much force and the bell housing was shattered….Back to the drawing board!. Looks like a reco box will be the best option!

Distractions. Recently I did a  tailgate signs for a 1927 Chevy truck and Rob bought it around today to show me how it looked.  Great truck,  and a nice bloke….he bought it 30 years ago as a rusted heap with all the timber piled on top of the chassis. and has spent plenty of time and money restoring it to what it is today..

A bit of bling. September 15th. Been a while since I updated…been doing heaps of fiddly  bits and  interior stuff…..more wiring,  finishing off setting the radio up,  interiour lights, overhead consol, toggle switches for independent cabin lights,  rear lights, etc etc….pulled the brakes apart and am ready to send the cylinders off to be rebuilt with stainless sleaves. But first the bling! I bought a 5 meter length of LED lights for down the centre of the van both sides of the red flamed overhead panel…they do all sorts of things…glow, pulse, flash, strobe, all in an array of colours…disco lights in the Beddy…stuff me what was I thinking,,,does look pretty trick when there on though…and should put a smile on people’s faces… purple bling. red bling. put in a swivel reading light for the missus and a utilities charger near by out of sight,,, I  was given a 12 inch sub and amp and wasn’t going to use it because it was so dam big,,,but after talking to my DJ mate he convinced me the sound would be great and told me to pull the two components apart and put them in seperate…so I found a place for the Sub and the amp…can’t wait to hear the doofff, doffff music, arrrrrg! ….…should go great with the bling lights…struth it’s not getting any better is it! Must have been all the drugs in the old days! ha….Ill post some pics of that as well once i shoot a couple. now all i have to do is avoid punching a hole in them – wonder if they sell a cover??? Amp is behind the checkered grill – figured it probably needed some air flow to avoid overheating.?..

Side Cupboards. I also built a side cupboard and mounted one speaker and a couple of openings as well as a top shelf…I have since done the doors,  I didn’t want hinges as they break to easy so I  worked out a way to hold the doors on without hinges……..an easy solution and works a treat,  just a chrome dome nut done up to finger tight locks them in snug as.

Gearbox. It’s been decided – Im getting the dud box I bought from Qld reconditioned…so at least buying the box gave me something to get fixed up, which will be the best and safest option anyway, so that worked out a resonable investment afterall..…

Beddy Art

After saying I was to old to punk out the van…well guess what…I just can’t help myself…graphics are in my DNA and the Beddy is a blank canvas…So as you can see I have been test fitting the bonnet and grille and added a bit of art…and some modelling…sun visor and spoiler…I redid the skull on the visor.  didn’t like the first one… I sprayed the bonnet and added the hand drawn artwork straight onto the bonnet…threw about 5 coats of clear over that Id matted out….I used and old signwriters trick for matting down the paint…we use to add talc in the old days.  I added micro balls…a synthetic fibreglass filler…microscopic hollow spheres….did a decent job and left a semi matt look…add more spheres and it would be completly matt…Im doing it in acrylics as painting it in two pack without propper precautions is bloody dangerous….and it will probably outlast me anyway…like I said it will be no shinny show car… Im going to do the whole van this way…no airbrushing all hand drawn…no idea if anyone has ever done it before…will look different to the norm,  that’s for sure…I have done a lot of artwork on surfbaords this way and they have been on there for years without a problem…

Front Spoiler…sort of made to look like rusted matal with rivited panels…goes with the sun screen above.

Windscreen Visor. 3rd November 2016 Well i changed the skull again…this time I made it more Rockabilly skull type and flatened it out a little….added some rusty bolts and made up some polished resin eyes.

Brakes 3 November 2016 Im keeping my drum brakes so that has created a bit of a saga…after finding out my front brake cylinders were stuffed completely the hunt was on for an alternative….that was like looking for a DODO Bird…until my mechanic mate Steady with the determination of a blood hound found a set of reconditioned ones….Problem solved…..Then I find out the Master Cylinder is totally rooted and off we go again…the Beddy Blog Brain Trust gave me some leads and were most helpfull and this led Steady to Power Brakes in South OZ https://www.powerbrakes.com.au/shop/index.php/page/shop/browse/category_id/82c69eb7501d9d41cd162de036511c0a Paul was very helpfull and has been stuffing about with Beddy owners for 30 years… can’t thank you all and especially my determined blood hound mate Steady,  AKA “Miles” enough.

The first firing. Bones comes alive. I was wondering if this day would ever happen…My good mate Steady came over with a bag full of goodies,,,He sourced all new brake components,,,,brand new unused rear cylinders,  stainless sleeved rebuilt front cylinders, new rebuilt master cylinder, rebuilt brake booster, honed drums and brand new brake linings…I was looking forward to getting into it.   But Steady had other things on his mind…he wanted to breath some life into Bones,  with no radiator, it was always going to be a short mission, but he connected the rebuilt carby, rewired the battery, connected some petrol via a container, checked the spark and cranked her over,   but she wouldn’t kick…he found the problem to be the fuel pump was buggered…we pulled out an old one from one of the other dud engines i had,  gave it a clean, and without any tuning except by eye,  no vacuum at all,  we manually chocked her and worked the throttle…switched the power on and bloody hell she fired up and idled for a few seconds….Me being the no mechanical pleb i am, was shocked and stoked.   ye bloody ha…I need another beer.

Breath..

BRAKES 24th Nov 2016. The next faze on this journey are the brakes…I have all new rear brake cylinders and pads and had the drums machined to match the oversized pads.  I have decided to stick with the Bedford front drums for the moment and have had the cylinders resleeved in stainless,  new pads and the drums machined. I had the brake booster and master reconditioned and brand new brake lines made. next step is to assemble the lot….can’t wait.

Brakes 10th Dec 2016

The case of the extra cable? - My bloodhound mate Steady came over and today was the day to do all the brakes…first off we had to assemble the rear brake cylinders as they arrived in pieces with new rubber seals and stainless components, thats where we ran into the First problem. Back Brakes. The rubber seals that fit over the pistons were the wrong type….this could be a big problem if we can’t find any…might scupper haldf of todays efforts…….Steady get’s on the phone to his many brake contacts,  one fellow has three…we need four and he is 2 and a half hours away in Wollongong…bummer….no one has any others it seems…so a road trip looks likely….Steady decides to try the local most unlikely place to get these parts and bloody hell the fellow has one set…$10.00 for four…sweet,  can’t believe they have them, a quick trip to Nowra 20 mins away…yeeee bloody ha to that, while where there buy some battery leads and trans oil and some battery terminals…Battery cable is expensive…bugger me… Steady gets to it and starts assembling and teaching me how…There easy but difficult when it comes to stretching springs etc…but we finally get the back ones assembled on the car, balance pipes attached after much swearing and adjusted up nicely. 12 am - Time for a beer…it’s hot and dirty work. Front Brakes. Second Problem These were one of the first things taken apart way back when we pulled the front end and motor out of the car…that day everyone was having a go and parts were coming off everwhere, after checking the containers  I have been storing things in it seems we are missing two springs and two small hold down pins….i go crazy trying to find them for an hour, I had bought another cheap older diff and it has a couple of springs that will do the job,  but the hold down pins are way to long. Well steady battles on and assembles the drivers side…trying to fix the balance pipes was a right pain in the neck,,,but we eventually get it done…adjusted and looking sweet. Steady makes up a new brake pipe with a kit Cusso leant us,  thanks mate. Took a couple of practices to get the procedure right but worked out well. Flexable brake lines. I had 3 new flexable brake lines made up and Steady after some tinkering and head scratching works out where two of them went and how they were fixed to the body.  Problem 3. He looks puzzled! – ‘WHERE THE HELL DOES THIS THIRD FLEXIBLE HOSE GO!!!”   Don’t look at me I have no idea! - - after looking all aver the truck he still can’t find a place for it to go,,,,’it just doesn’t make sense” he says!  Im just standing there bemused by his frustration….’'” Don’t worry Ill find out where it goes” ……..I still just cruise around unconcerned as I know he is the man for the job……..AHHHHH,  SHIT I SAY………I know where it goes…….’WHERE ? Steady asks!….NOWHERE!…….WHAT!! ……. It’s off the HZ wreck up the back…..I  now remember pulling it off when i took off the discs and thinking it might come in handy for something,  and somehow it got thrown in with the beddy brake lines….SHITTTTTTTTTTTT…Steady shouts out….It’s been driving me mental all day trying to figure out where that bloody thing might go!!!…..heheheheheeeee have another beer mate,  calm down…..so I had a useless line made for 40 dollars I didnt need!!! hhehehhe….. Problem 4. We try making a coUple of hold down pins but that wasn’t working so the passenger side brakes will have to wait. Steady ever ready to get as much done decides to assemble the foot pedal components,  and since I have made it an auto we don’t need the clutch pedal.  so that gets cut off and the rest cleaned, painted and re-assembled without a prob. Master Cylinder and Brake Booster. All reconditioned and new,  they go back in place without a problem,  relocate the brake pedals and attach the shafts etc…no problems…..Fit the throttle pedal no problem…..find the trottle cable,  attach and adjust that….we have full throttle….all good… So that was it for the day and early evening….it was a big day and lots achieved,.  and for me heaps learnt….can’t thank my mate and absolute ledgend Steady enough….have another beer and relax.

Brakes, Radiator, Springs and more. 16th Dec 2016

Another big day today. Had trouble sourcing two small brake shoe holding pins...there only about 12 mill long and no one carried them....put out a call on the beddy hotline and Paul  said he had a set,  champion fella with a mean orange big long wheel base Beddy he has done up himself. Anyway Paul also had a genuine trimatic shifter and kindly donated that to my cause as well...like I said champion. How we spent a few hours today. Put in the reconditioned radiator. Finished off the front brakes with springs and holding pins. Bled the brakes and now I have working brakes. Took out the back springs, removed a leaf and re-bushed all the pivot points. Fitted the shifter - works a treat. Wired up the oil sender. Sanded back the rims and fitted the front ones onto the van and sat it on it's front wheels. Fitted the air filter bracket and filter housing. tried to take the top back hanger pins out....Thats going to be a painfull job as there not budging,  so that was it for the day,  heaps done and very gratefull to Steady and Cads for their assistance.....

2017 January 2 Another day of wins and losses.... The wins....we plumbed up the whole car today...starting off with new vacuum hoses and connections...we plumbed up the oil cooler as well we filled the radiator with water....hooked up a fuel line to a container....and fired her up....took a few attempts to get her humming and considering she was running on 2 stroke and hadn't been anywhere near tuned,  she sat there purring and belhcing out smoke from the new exhaust paint cooking itself in place. And speaking of exhausts that will be one of the next things to get done...at the moments she is only running on the extractors...so she is gurgly and noisy,,, Master Cylinder. – Here’s a tip! After fitting a newly refurbished master cylinder and booster we had a constant oil leak coming from under the plastic reservoir,  we tried tightening it down as hard as we could but still it leaked badly….we thought it might have been the old container so I went on a deep, and unfruitfull search for a new container….no one will supply the container by itself anywhere!  they wnat you to buy the whole master cylinder with bottle attached…rediculous, you can by the bloody cap but not the body of the container. Desperate i started to try and find some sort of sealing silicone for brake fluid….seems it doesn’t exist anywhere in the world…I then contacted the English Bedford CF. ORG page and posted my problem hoping somone over there might be able to help and I recieved some advice via their forum from a Phil Bradshaw..he said you have to put the seal in the container before you push it into the master cylinder….this way it should seal….we did it the other way around ….nothing to loose,  today we gave it a go and so far 4 hours later not a drop has appeared….hopefully this has solved the problem…a simple solution hopefully…fingers crossed. Oil leak Update. 9th JAN 2017 Been over a week and still not a drop…Im pretty stoked with that… Silicone Tip. After much experimenting trying to find a sealant that didnt disolve in  brake fluid look like we may have found one… My mate steady gave me a tube of Wurth Special Silicone 250. I set up the same experiment that failed on every other sealant…this one has been going over a week and there is absolutly no sign of failure…the seal is holding strong and the lumps submerged in the fluid itself are still intact, flexable and intact…so Id be pretty confident in using this stuff to seal a leaking master cylinder reservoir. The test. This is how i did the test…glued the plastic spool to the tin lid, let it go off and then filled the centre..all other sealants I used disolved after a  few hours or days leaving me with fluid the same colour as the sealant and leaking into the outer rim area, and the plastic spool just fell away…the Wurth 250 special is still solid as, no discolouring fluid is clear and shows no sign of disolving at all…and the bond of the spool to the lid is strong and shows no sign of coming apart….. The losses. We are having some issues with the new wiring,,,,things just arent quite working as they should and it's way beyond my knowledge and Steady's,  so someone with some expertise will have to have a look as we are all out of ideas.... Next stage. Door and window rubbers and get the windscreen fitted... The second firing today….no tuning.  50 to 1 fuel fed from a container and no exhaust other than the extractors…and she purred like and angry kitten.. Thanks Steady for you valued time and effort mate… Steering Wheel. I decided to keep the original steering wheel, I use to love driving around in my old van with the big wheel. The old wheel was full of cracks and the old hard plastic was looking very sad indeed….I did a heap of youtube research on the best way to restore the wheel, this is the process I have decided on. First thing i did was buy myself  the cheapest Dremel grinder I could find,  you need something like this to hack into the cracks and take thme right done to the steel skelleton of the wheel. Im using epoxy Araldite…not the 5 minute version….being epoxy it will be flexable and expand and contract better than just about anything else out there…time will tell I guess.. The wheel ends up quite a mess by the time you have cut away all the deep cracks and sanded it back. I cleaned it off very well with brake cleaner I have now started the filling process…it will take a few applications because it’s imposible to fill the cracks in one go,  but using tape to create dams around the gouges and filling then wrapping the tape over the top while its wet seems to be working fine. This gouging was all over the wheel and usually right around as most of the cracks had travelled right around the wheel.. Back Suspension. We decided to take two leaves out one of the longer ones and one of the shorter ones.  One just didn’t seem like enough,,,she has settled down a bit better now…so hopefully that will be enough.. We couldn’t get the top rear hanger bolts out so we decided to leave them in there for the moment…and see how it goes….if they start to squeek ill put in a more concerted effort to get them out…

Temporary Exhaust. 6th January 2017. The last couple of test starts have run straight on the headers and she sounds like an old noisy truck.  since the whole exhaust from the extractors to the tail pipe all came off the wrecked HZ i found and dragged out of the bush i decided to have  ago at rigging up a temporary exhaust to see what it sounded like. I went and saw the local exhaust place just down the road and he bent me up a bit of pipe about a metre long and gave me two pipe clamps for 20 dollars...I came home and with some cutting and bending and welding of my own i managed to get it on and reasonably secure.. I can't actually believe it but i had a ball today rolling around under the van and making this fit...so hopefully this weekend Ill do another test fire and see what she sounds like..

My welding still sucks Im only using a stick welder, but at least i didn’t blow holes in it like my past efforts so im getting better,  and it’s all a temp fit until I get the van on the road and done properly.

Wiring Joy. Sat 7th jan 2017 The last couple of days have been very productive...and today was a rippa. We have been having problems with the electrics,  things weren't working properly the dash light wouldn't go out unless we pulled out a blinker relay and we had power coming through one of the earth points...lots of frustration trying to figure out until we rang my son in law Ben in Queensland a couple of times....he gets a little concerned and says he will fly down and sort it out,  Im thinking no Ill go pay some electrician to come have a look,  then Ben says it would take another sparky 4 hours just to sort out where the wires are as he had to completly strip everything out of the fuse box and rewire it his own way to get it right......shiiiiiiit!!!    but then mentions he made notes in the back of the instruction book. This had Steady excited and about an hour after and doing some elimination tests he finally had it all sorted... Ben had left out a wire from the ignition switch and had included a hazzard warning circuit which the van didn't have and this had the power looking for somewhere to go...and the blinker lights on the dash were in reverse... Well she is purring now...still have to do a proper tune up and get some proper fuel in the tank instead of two stroke out of a can on the floor with a siphon to the carby...ha... The temporary exhaust I moulded to the exrtractors worked a treat and it sounds good... It fires everytime without a miss.....hope it stays that way! anyway a big thank you to Steady and Ben. Not a bad effort from Ben...it was his first full car wire up and having to work with a defective harness that was completely in reverse, with totally inadequate instructions and missing parts as outlined in a previous post above....he did an amazing job...two wires is all it was and she is humming along with all lights a blazing..... And a huge thank you to Steady...fuck Id be lost without his determined great work....well actually I wouldn't have taken it on in the first place without my mates chipping in with thier expertise.... So not far to go now......tick tick tick...

Steering Wheel Update. 9th January 2017 I have been busy restoring the original steering wheel as above…It has taken a bit of filling and refilling…so many little angles and sides…you don’t realise until you start… it’s almost there, and almost ready to paint…

Steering Wheel Update 2 13th January 2017 Well after a bit of filling and sanding and undercoating and topcoating and sanding and polishing the steering wheel is finally finished. Came out pretty decent…Of course you could have spent another few hours fine sanding through the grades but It’s a streering wheel afterall in a Bedford…And after all that work the missus comes along and say’s “Ilol get you one of those steering covers to put on”  bugger me…

Before the wet and dry.

Test fit after a small amount of polishing…added some red to match the rest of the interior.

Overhead Consol. 14th Jan 2017 After cracking my skull and taking a couple of chunks off the top of my scalp and almost knocking myself out I decided to take the middle section of the overhead consol out and do something else...I could have rearranged it but I now like it this way...

with some lighting bling…You can have every colour in the rainbow if you so desire.

Wiper Wiring. 21st Jan 2017. My wiring for the wiper motor and switch were stuffed and had been cut off before I purchased the van. I now have a EZ Wire universal wiper switch and have been having troubles getting it to work. The Beddy brains trust have given me some hints and an illustration of the Beddy wiring harness. Today I had a sort of win....I found out the wiper motor itself has to be earthed on a GM machine...and that explains why I couldn't get the motor to work...I found the earth wire just floating about in the breeze..connected it up...and added the red/green and blue/green wires to the new EZ switch and I have a working high and low speed wiper mechanism. BUT! I don't have the self parking feature,  that makes the wiper return to it's start position automatically,  and there were still unconnected wires I couldn't figure out where they went. Phil Bradshaw from Bedford cf .org in Britian has given me some valuable info and that is outlined below....Now all I have to do is figure it out.....tomorrow!!! .....hopefully.  Red+green - Motor low speed.  Black - Motor ground and ground for self parking switch.  Yellow+green - Current reversal feed for self parking switch. Green - Feed for self parking switch.  Blue+green - Motor high speed. Black wire exits the motor harness part way between the motor and dash and should have an eyelet terminal on the end.   This terminal should be under the nut securing the wiper mechanism bracket above the engine aperture in the cab - Two green wires from the harness are supply for the wiper motor and screenwash pump. Normally the two wires are in the one bullet terminal and should be connected to the ignition fuse junction behind the dash supplied by fuse 5. At the ( ORIGINAL ) switch  - The wires connected to the windshield wiper switch are numbered 1 to 4 and should be located as shown. 1. Yellow+green. 2. Red+green. 3. Green. 4. Blue+green.

This is how the original wires come out of the wiper motor.

Original beddy cf wiper wiring details.

Air Blower. 27th Jan 2017. Not a great deal been happening lately,  the wiper switch is still causing me a headache….just can’t seem to get the self park mechanism working….anyway on to something I can get my head around… A recent post on one of the Beddie face book pages showed a fan blower used in a van called "Spal Radial Blower."     My original fan, core and housing are completely stuffed,  and I have been looking to find a replacement so I can get the screen demister to work,  mainly for the upcoming blue slip as it's one of the requirements. The Spal Radial Blower was quite expensive and on closer inspection I saw that the fan was exactly the same as out of a Holden which I just happen to have a HZ wreck off in the back paddock...stripped it out...threw it on the battery and it worked,  quiet as,  and blew heaps of air,  cleaned it up, painted it and started to think how to make a simple housing. Below is the result of a day's mucking about....using stuff I already had hangong about...I could have spent more time getting evey little imperfection out but it's all I need and pretty neat without to much more labour.. Cost me a few dollars for the resin and glass, If you had to buy it which I didn't as i already had it...it would cost about 30 dollars all up for the lot,,, I reckon I used about  a litre of resin without being to careful,   the rest was, like I said, hanging about the shed and yard...the blowers are pretty cheap brand new and easily available from a wrecker... Now all i have to do is make another box on the inside to distribute the air to the existing vents....that should be just as easy....

It just so happens a 4 litre paint tin fits straight over the existing fan and matches up well to the fan plate…this was the first stage….I put some wax on the inside of the tin as a mould release, gave it a polish, the glass won’t stick to the metal tin anyway,  but this made it very easy to get apart later…I then layed up bits of fibreglass matt making the base around 5 mil thick…and the sides around 4 mil thick…

After getting the top mould out of the tin by carefully spliting the tin down the middle the glass came out easliy and was smooth and strong…at this stage if it wasn’t thick enough it would be easy to laminate some more glass…but it was fine.  I have missed a few stages here.  First I cut a neat hole in the base leaving a lip so the plate on the blower had something to be screwed to….then I turned it upside down layed it on a sheet of glass and glassed through the hole making a solid lid for the other side…I then cut a hole in that as well for the fan to draw air… Cut a square hole where the fan will supply the air, layed it face down on the glass and layed up some resin to make a flat fixing plate for the firewall…this was also around 4 mil thick…

added a bit of aluminium mesh to keep out the bugs,  Glued the housing onto a round piece of Aluminium Signboard that was cut to fit the existing hole in the beddie., sprayed the whole lot black, fitted the motor….neat…

screwed in position temporarily with gal tech screws….these will be replaced with stainless bolts.  Looks pretty neat and now I have been thinking I could easily adapt a heater core into the inside box and turn it into a heater….my wife will like that!!!  …

Heater and windscreen demister

Well i wasn't happy with the one above....it worked ok but just didn't seem to blow enough air. So up the back yard and tear into the VB Commy I have up there....what a prick of a job....but some dash demolishing and smashing bits had the blower out housing and all....I damaged the housing plastic but easily fixed. The housing and the repair job to the plastic…. I was stoked to find this blower came with it's own housing...meaning I didn't have to go an make another one like the last. But it still needed a cradle to sit in and a way of bolting it down...after some head scratching I made a cardboard temp of what I needed and jumped into the glassing bay.....a few hours later I had what I needed....I used one of the air filter houses from the vb as my means of getting the air into the box.....after some mucking about with templates it all fitted neat as a pin....I made some rubber gaskets and painted it all up.  treated the small amount of surface rust on the blower cover plate and it was done... Made to fit the plastic shroud and to use some opf the existing screw hole fitting points. As well as fit into the beddie nice and neat… The VB air filter hose works a treat….made some glass flanges and it all fits tight as!! I bolted it in...sweet fitted nice and easy,  and solid....connected a battery and nearly blew the windscreen out...that's if I had one! Heater Core. My old core was totally trashed but at least the housing on the inside of the car was ok....Id played around with an old HZ core from the wreck up the back and made it fit the old housing....so then I bought a new HZ core for 60 dollarsof fleabay and went about fitting that to the old housing...the core sits in a totally different spot to the old core but it fits fine...and suits my new blower perfectly...and the air direction flap still operates. Next stage rig up the heater hoses and give it a trail run....but im betting it will be good...can’t see a reason it would not work.

Not to scale diagrame of how it’s set up…The VB blower is a lot stronger than the old fan….

Shocks. 18th Feb 2017 Last night was a very productive night, Steady came over and decided to get his hands dirty….now that he’s a company executive and sits on his butt in airconditioning talking on the phone all day in his collar and tie, he has this thing about not getting dirty or spilling blood…But as soon as you get him near new parts that need installing and some twigging about,  he quickly reverts back to his greasy monkey best. I installed Monroe shocks from Repco,  and they went in pretty easy. Part numbers – 15-3034 and 15-0162 Heater Core Plumbing. We  also plumbed up the heater core to the flow control valve and to the motor…the bottom hose from the core went from the heater core to the water pump and the top hose to the thermostat housing…   Im changing the air cleaner to a different style that will give me more room.

Master Cylinder Update. I thought i had a winner as stated above with stopping the leak in the reservoir….but it started to leak again. The testing i have done on different silicones has paid off with the  Wurth Special Silicone 250 still holding up without any deterioration after over 6 weeks…so last night we cleaned the plastic reservoir and master cylinder and put the silicone around the joins and screwed it all down….I will now leave it for a week to completely set and hopefully this will solve my leaking problem….otherwise a different type of master will be used..

We had some wins. 25th Feb 2017

Today my old amazing mate Steady came over to do some fiddling.. First we tackled the Brake Master saga…poored the new oil in and within a few minutes it was leaking despite the sealant…so we emptied the container and realise we might not have had enough sealant on there…so we have repeated the process with more….I will let you know the outcome. Shifter detent switch. Next it was onto the wiring for the shifter to stop it starting in gear…this took some nutting out and one new fried switch…in and out went the switch mechanism but the determined Steady’s hound dog persistance paid off and it’s working like a charm. Transmission pan. The pan was leaking on the transmission so we took it off and replaced the gasket and used some magic sealant for extra security. Tuning the Motor. Steady came armed with his tuning kit and a good dose of hands on, age reinforced knowledge,  Im impressive to say the least…we put fuel in the beast via the tank and not a bucket…switched on the gauges and presto there was fuel registering on the gauge….”Thanks Cusso…another “master craftsman”  I’m very appreciative and lucky to have as a mate”… We found out the fuel pump was working good and within a few minutes Steady had it running.  He perceived a miss…straight away…..out with the plugs to have a look….back in with the plugs and a bit more turning of the dissy….still missing……AHHHH!  we checked a few leads,  first thing he notices was a vacume leak on one of the pipes…mmmm…I put that bit on!!!   oops!         he soon has that fixed….now it was running better, but he still detects a miss…..Sounds good to me!….  He grabs a can of brake clean and sprays it at the base of the carby and he gets really excited,,,,hear that it evened out!…….Sounded the same to me!! Steady gets busy and after some closer inspection he decided it’s not the carby sucking air…this time he aims it at the inlet manifold behind the carby….Bloody hell….instant smoothing,   even I noticed it this time……THAT’S IT! I KNOW WHAT THE PROBLEM IS…..the inlet manifold isn’t seated in the right position and he pointed out where it was sucking air…..We will have to take it off…NO WAY! im thinking…all that stuff…na easy he says I have a brand new never been used one at home….Ok lets get started…so in we dive spanners in hand….HOLD IT HE SAY’S LETS TRY THIS FIRST!………we lossen it slightly and he sticks a pry bar under it and up she came…neat as,  right where it was suppose to be….tighten it up! ….Fire in the hole….and there she sat purring like  a new born baby, he does the timing and twigs the mixture and the motor is smooth as!!!~    ye bloody ha….excitement reins. General observations. He runs it for quite a while,,,,thermostat works as it’s suppose to,    Volts perfect,   once the thermostat works the water temp drops down to 60 degrees and stays there….heater pipes not doing what there suppose to…but everything else checks out good…Steady’s a happy man!!! Funny for some moment: When we first tried to start it it wouldn’t fire,,,,steady wants to check to see if it has spark….hands me the little light pointy thing and says poke it in the end of the lead….I grab the lead and the poker and stick it in leaning on the car in the process…he kicks the thing over and i almost get thrown through the shed door backwards…F&%^K ME….the whole top of my body gets belted,,,,running right down my spine and across my sholders….Steady breaks into fits of laughter….bastard of a mate.. Primed the heater. Steady soon realised we had the hoses around the wrong way so if your looking at the diagram above reverse the hoses coming out of the Heater core. Time for the wiper park saga. After much testing and blowing fuses we still couldn’t figure out how to make them park,  at least they work so that will do until I get it to an auto electrician. So a hearty thanks again to my mate Steady…..He never ceases to amaze me with his knowledge and determination…

CONTINUE THE JOURNEY ON PAGE TWO

One step at a time. If the spelling goes down hill,  it’s because there is no spell check on this new open source version of this program Im using at the moment,  and being a signwriter Im a crap speller…

P.S – If anyone has information about which type of highway diff I can put in the old girl Id greatly appreciate the information. I have looked through the forums pretty well and they have a lot of mixed information. So to get some direct info about what people used would be great - Rob @ signs2008@hotmail.com

 

Posted by Rob Slater on Saturday, 19 November 2016