Sound System March 8th 2017 I was given a sub and amplifier from Foreskin and Twisted Sister and was unsure if Id use it or not, but, after encouragement from a DJ mate of mine, I decided to put it in. The sub is right at the back behind the drivers side wheel arch…the amp is built into the paneling on the wall behind the driver. You can see them both in this video…both have breather grills over their faces…
Sounds pretty decent….had to turn the bass down as it made the heart skip a beat or two…I think the sound deadening throught-out the car helps a lot. – we will see how it pans out.
Centre Console and Dash.
I wanted to make the centre console fit neat and snug to the original engine cover and keep some of the curves, this would fit well with the curves on the rest of the dash. This was a simple enough job in the end. I covered the metal engine cover in glad wrap and just glassed over it, I could have release waxed it, but I was out of that so I used the film, because it was on hand….now I had a perfect replica of the original which I could add whatever I wanted to, too, in this case, drink holders and a place to put your loose stuff. I kept the curve theme going and added some aluminium and red vinyl to follow the colour theme through, and added some down lights above, and it was all done…came out ok considering i did it in about three days all up.Now I’m waiting on one more switch for the fan blower and a couple of chrome rings for the top of the cup holders and the dash will be complete.
Windscreen.I bought a complete set of rubbers from Rare Spares and this arvo Cusso and Steady came around to put it in...after a bit of thinking both agreed on the process and away we went....The two masters led the way with me just doing what i was told...after a short while Bones had a nice new shiny clean face, Thanks Cusso and Steady for your efforts, so gratefull for having such great friends...
After a cold beer to celebrate Cusso hit the road and steady stayed to fit the new Inlet manifold and the rebuilt carby.
Carby and Inlet manifold. The initial fitting of the original maniflold didn't seat properly and created a vacume leak which had the engine running rough. Steady wasn't happy so off with the maniflold, some adjustments to the extractor mounts to give us some more room, this required cutting about 10 mil of one of the mounts onto the head, Steady took the carby home and rebuilt it, he is a bloody marvel... So with bloody mozzies flying about in the back shed we mounted the new extractor gasket, put on some extractor goop and bolted up the new inlet and the extractors and mounted the carby onto a new gasket.
Steady heart beat. Steady fired her up...stuff me, what a difference,,,she just sat there purring smooth as,,,way better than the last time....Steady tweeked a few carby settings, and this made her even better, and she hasn't even been tuned properly yet..
Steady then gets all excited and says - - common move all that stuff blocking the door, your driving her out....I jump in and out she drives....I had no door handles, the windows up and no engine cover so things were a little warm, but she slowly went around my back paddock sweet as. It's the first time I have driven a Beddy in over 20 years, now I ask myself, WHY!!!
A big bloody thank you to Cusson and Steady for this arvo's effort...you don't know how grateful I am..
Door Cards
Today I changed my door cards. I simplified the design and went with the red vinyl as I have done on all the other doors. This time instead of fibreglass I used Alupanel...a composite, aluminium and plastic panel I use in my sign business...easy to work with, relatively light and waterproof. This time I rebated the area around the window winder so they wind easier...an oversight on my old ones. I still have to attach the arm rests, This time I also screwed them on rather than using the clips... a lot easier and also goes with what I have done elsewhere,, I like the look...simple and clean.
Painting
I finally made up my mind for the colour...I mixed it myself in the end out of a black and dark green, so i spent a day masking and priming the van
Then let that sit for a few days before rubbing back, then attacking it with the colour...
I ended up mixing my own colour out of dark holden green and black, not sure what it will look like out in the sunshine...now im ready to do some artwork to the sides and then it will be sprayed to a matte finish in clear...that should hide the few small dings that are in the sides...bloody things...if id spent a few more weeks chasing them id have it straight as...but it's a work van...so it's going to cop abuse anyway..
Artwork and Signs.
I had some fun over the last few days doing some artwork on the van...it's not airbrushed but hand drawn using coloured pencils....looks a lot better under natural light that like this with the flash... There is a theme...you can work it out.... I tend to get tired of things quick so sometime in the future I will probably repaint the van and do a completly different theme..who knows. \
Clear coat applied.
My clear coat finally arrived and the flattening base. the instructions say how to mix for satin or flat i went for something in-between. I shot a couple of light coats to secure the drawings. The day was cold and it suffered a small amount of bloom which was expected on the light coats applied in the shed in the cold. Next day was a lot warmer. i stuck her out in the sun to warm up for a while...remasked her and shot two full wet coats over ..came up pretty dam good really...way better than what id thought it would. The matt clear has made it appear almost black...you can't really see the green...but if you wet a part the green pops right out . I don't mind the look. not quite what i was after but it's only paint...so when i tire of this i can always do something else.
Seat Belts. Fitted new seat belts today – easy job all work great. Manufactured by, APV = part No – 511708301AL.
Fitted new door locks to all doors – so good having one key to open all doors....Ordered off ebay from the UK... Micro Switch – gear change. Blew my second one of those up, ordered from ebay.....bought a few spares..there cheap
Side Mirrors – finally made up my mind...going with what is the most practical, found two delivered from ebay for the price of one from Repco – there the same brand and seem fine.
Mirror update. After using them for a while, there ok, they tend to move about and vibrate a lot, so i might start searching for something else...and my wife has trouble backing the van...so i might do a rear view camera as well..
Blue SlipWell it's been one month short of two years since I picked up the old girl and started on this journey and on Wednesday night the Beddy was passed for her blue slip – yeee bloody ha to that.
You can see the green undertone in these shots with the flash...otherwise it looks matt black...
Blast from the Past. My good mate Pete sent me a shot of his Ford panel van from the 70's...we did quite a few road trips up and down the coast in our younger day, chasing clear water and new adventures looking for diving spots. ...great van... Diff saga. 8th July 2017. I finally sourced myself a highway diff, but all the brake hardware is completely different, with some parts missing.
So until I can source the parts the old diff will be staying put...the joy the joy..Registered. 12th July 2017. I registered the Beddy today, and by a bloody sheer coincidence it was exactly two years since my mates Cusso and Cads helped me bring it home to start the Beddy Rescue..I still have a few mods to finish but at least I can drive it legally on the road....yeeeefuckinghatothat!!!!
my original van...smoked in the 2001 bush fires....now I finally have another!
Rims. The rims became a saga of waiting for a bloke to get his act together, I finally recieved what i had paid for three months earlier ... Anyway they arrived in as good a condition as you would expect after sitting around for so long....I have always liked this style and they come from the same era as the van. I first sand blasted the crap off with my little sand blaster using local beach sand....this took most of the staining off. Ten i attacked the spokes with 180 grit wet and dry...then 240, 320 and finally 600, to rmove as much of the pitting as possible without going nuts all those because that is what i had on hand...did all the sanding by hand....ill do some polishing later...I became impatient and painted the rims the same colour as the car...they could still be better if one was so inclined, but they look a lot better now than before....so good enough for now.
Now just have to buy some chrome nuts to complete the look,.
Highway DiffWins and losses, and my amazing mate Steady. It's a bit long winded but has some useful info included.
Well, today was the day to play with the diff...the original one which came with the van was 4.55 or there about's so it was doing the annoying Bedford revving bullshit. I recently bought a highway diff off another Beddy fella which was 3.55...so it will be better.
'It should fit straight in it's off a Beddy!" - famous last words!~
Loss - First problem.
After deciding to pull the axels out we found the bearings were worn badly....Replacement Bedford bearings are only available from
the UK at 200 dollars a side plus postage...yikes that hurts.
What to do....
when I first bought the van I also took a chance on a cheap diff and tail shaft for 100 bucks...had no idea of the ratio.
Well, the ration was 4.55...the same as the one already in the van...so I put it aside thinking that was a wasted 100 bucks.
Brakes.
As I thought it would be a while before I secured myself a highway diff I decided to do up all the vans back drum brakes...so I replaced everything...pads, springs, cylinders.
Loss - Highway Diff.
The highway diff I bought didn't come with any brake hardware at all, only the backing plate and adjusters which were seized and had a nut welded on the back.
No problem I will use the hardware from the current brakes on the new diff......but low and behold the old one was 10 and the new highway diff the brakes were 9 inches...
Nothing bloody fitted...
Win - found some hardware.
So off I went on the hunt for 9-inch brake gear...This took a few weeks. but fortunately the Beddy Community pitched in and I bought myself a set of second hand
9-inch hardware for 40 dollars and a set of new shoes for another 40 dollars.....time to fit the brakes...we were hoping the cylinders would be the same.....
Loss- NUP! what was a thinking it's a Beddy!~
Win - Brake Fitting and modifying.
My mate Steady comes over to do the work on the diff, he had spoken to another brake specialist who said check the backing plates to see if they match or be close
enough with some modifying to use. So we stripped the original axels out of the van and stripped the brakes down...to see if the backing plate from the 10 inch would fit the new diff...
we were pleasantly surprised to find that two of the holes lined up and two needed a small amount of modifying so the 10-inch hardware would now fit on the new diff
Yee ha...now I can use all the new hardware I had already bought for the old brakes.
Win - Axels....I still hadn't bought the bearings, but as I was contemplating ordering them I remembered the other diff I first bought 2 years ago...I quickly ripped the axels out and
yee ha they were in way better condition and the bearings seemed pretty good...not perfect but they were way better than the other ones. So we decided to use these axels.
Win - Diff fitting.
We ripped the current diff out and measured up the new diff...all the mounts lined up and the tail-shaft already in the van was the right length....
Lose - BUT!
The tail-shaft mounting plate onto the new highway diff was completely different...F#$K!
Wait!........ I'll check the old tail shaft that came with the cheap diff...it was too long by over a 100 mm
but it had the right mounting flanges for the new highway diff...and after a lot of head scratching and trying to work out how to change flanges etc...
the only thing left to do was to get the flange cut off the old one and welded onto the original tail-shaft.
Fortunately, I have a very talented engineering mate who use to teach people how to weld and use a lathe and a quick call had him saying he could do what needed to be done...
no worries. thanks a mill Wassa...
Special thanks. Have to give special thanks to Steady today...worked his butt off...tore bark off his arm and bled for the Beddy cause.....above and beyond mate....thanks heaps..
Next Step
Once I get it back I will get the tail-shaft balanced, paint it and fit it.. yee bloody ha to that!
Shifter
I was given a shifter knob so i thought it needed a body...so yesterday i had some fun welding up a body..I'm a crap welder,,,I guess using an old stick welder and welding gal doesn't help...
Win - Tail Shaft.My mate Wazza did all the cutting on his lathe and welded the other end on the shaft, perfect fit....legend!
Lose - Diff.
I have been driving it around a while now and the diff is whining...annoying enough to be a pain and needs something done...as well the 3.55 ration is still to high and i am now looking out for another diff or some genious that might know what to do about putting a better ratio in - so the diff was a bit of a dud, still drivable but not the way id like it.
Motor The 202 I was given is a bit tired and I have just been given another one which over time I will rebuild from the bottom up....
Anyway I love driving it around and it gets some attention whether I like it or not...lots of smiles and thumbs up from passers, seems there are plenty of older gen that still love a Beddy...had a whole bunch of younguns drinking out the front of their place and they all gave the old girl a mighty thumbs up as i came down the road....cracker...so no hiding now!! haha...
Flares. I was undecided about flares and was quite happy without...but the new rims and tyres now stick out past the sides and are throwing shit all over the side of the van....so I have started making some bolt on flares...
First step - to make myself a form of the guard to work from. made from custom wood and coreflute. Step 2 – Glue some foam to the form and start shaping. after some fiddling and fitting to the guards I arrived at the shape below. Step 3 – put a filler over the foam to fill the holes and do the final shaping. Step 4 – sand back the filler. Step 5 – high fill the scratches with primer and sand Step 6 – spot fill any imperfections. Step 7 – start rubbing around 8 coats of release wax over the shape ready for applying some gell coat and then lay up some chop strand matt to form a plug so i can pop out my guards. the best part is all four guards are pretty much the same shape so one plug will give me all my flares and with a little tuning they all should be easy to fit.
That's where I'm up to...only taken a few hours to this point...been good fun.
10 December 2017.
Where has that year gone, I still havent done the flares yet...there all ready to drop out of the mold, but other things have got in the way. Ill do them over the xmas break.
My mate steady.
The van has been missing a fair bit mainly because it hadn't been tuned properly,,,well Steady came around last Friday night for a beer and a fiddle, He adjusted the brakes and tried out his brand new timing gizmo...Its running the best it's ever run...no where near as noisy, no pings, and the tappets sound quieter.
The Diff.Thats the sticky bit at the moment as I outlined above...Im on the hunt for a reasonably priced AU Falcon station wagon diff 3.27:1 ratio. I have another mate who can cut and graft on the bedford axels for me...anyway I just came back from a run down to Husky...it ran sweet....other than the noist diff...more radio volume required. lol!
I also glossed the roof to help keep it a bit cleaner. the gloss makes the metal flaked green stand out...considering the whole car is painter that colour,,, .now im thinking of glossing the bottom black panels as well...I like the idea of gloss and satin mixed...
Brake Resevoir update. 9th Jan 2018. Just realised i didnt update the saga on the leaking brake resevoir and silicone. the Wurth Special Silicone 250 has worked a treat...no sign of breaking down since we put it on..the test container i did is still holding after months of imersion in brake fluid, and even when i tried to pull the plastic off the bottom of the metal lid it held fast and wouldn't budge...so on these results I will presume this stuff works just fine...
Dash. 9th Jan 2018. I had some dramas with the carved top on the dash...when exposed to extreme heat it started to bubble in places...I did a complete fix only to have it do it again...Seems air is expanding out of the foam and causing the class to delaminate and lift...so i decided id use the existing top and reglass a new top using it as a mold. So now there will be no foam at all and a hollow reinforced centre....which i will incorporate some breather holes into,,,,this should solve the problem...
Diff saga. The screaming diff and need for another gear has been driving me nuts...So i have sourced a AU Falcon diff and a friend of mine is going to graft the AU onto my Bedford Axles so I retain the pattern....he has done it before a number of times on hot rods he has worked on. Cant wait until that happens so I can take her on a decent long run...
New motor project. 20 Jan 2018 As previously mentioned the present motor is a bit oily, smokey and tired so the decision has been made to rebuild another motor... I was given a partly pulled apart 202 and on first inspection it looked pretty good, but after a closer inspection we found corrosion in the block and the thing had two head gaskets installed?? no idea why....The head looks real good though, so Im keeping that and getting it done up.
UPDATE: The cam shaft is rooted and the head has been decked to far, hence the double head gasket, and once cleaned up the block had bad pitting, so one for the scrap yard.
192Today my mate Steady and I shot up to Bowral and I bought a 186 that has been taken out to 192. with a slight cam for 200 dollars...it looks in real good condition, but where going to put new bearings, lifters and the rest, to make sure it's all new. So the journey begins on a new project...Im looking forward to getting amongst it.
Bloody hell. The motor above didn't turn out to be a 192 afterall...Instead of it being bored out to 60 thou which would make it a 192 it was only at 30 thou, not what i wanted...the harmonic balancer screws were stripped making for one hell of a job to get that off...the cam bearings were shot and the piston bores had score marks which wouldn't hone out....a few other things were not what the young bloke said either, the only good thing are the pistons and the cam. So we gave him the option of taking it back or giving half the money back...he took the second option...
SO. we have decided to take the motor I have now in the van out...a 202...get it bored out to 40 thou as i have a good set of pistons for that...get the block decked, throw on the good head I have, which turned out to be a reco head, so no wounder it was in good nick, and stick the cam in, put all new bearings, new head bolts, new lifters, seals etc...I should have a decent unit by the time its done.....
4th Feb 2018. Motor Out. We started at around 10am stripping off all the parts, disconecting brakes, hoses and electricals and exhaust,,,,we did a run to Cussos place to pick up the block and chain and started to lift by 12.30pm...had the motor out, off the front end, onto the engine stand and partly stripped by 1.40pm....All is looking good..the motor is a virgin...original piston size and no decking, so a good base to start from...at last!!
Cant wait to start stripping it down and rebuilding...
The continuing Diff saga. Well I finally have sorted that out as well. I now have an AU diff which i will get my mate to graft onto the beddy axles housings. Then to retain the axles im getting them resplined by a fellow in Nowra to match the AU, hopefully without to many dramas...ye haaaa.
Centre Caps. I have been asked a few of times about my centre caps...well thats good for a chuckle. I was going to make some fibreglass ones as I couldn't source any the right size, but I was going through KMart and saw these for 5 dollars each, stainless steel juice extractors, then i bought some 110mm pvc water pipe from Bunnings, glued some tabs on the back which hold them in place behind the wheel, and there you have it.... I love the reaction when people look and realise what they are...brings a smile every time.
Motor Rebuild. 2 March 2018. The smoking red was pulled out, I had the block decked, the bore taken out to 40 thou, and new cam bearings inserted...Crofty did all the work in his local workshop, he is much respected amongst the hot rod and classic car community.
I now have new main bearings, conrod bearings, rings, gear set, and a complete gasket set. In about two weeks it will be put together and back in the car..
Mystro Steady has put the head back together as well.
Can't wait for that...
Motor Rebuild. April 5th 2018.
All was going well until trying to get the rings in and the ring compressor we had just didnt work properly, so progress has come to a stand still until we get a new one, Steady has been to busy to get over here....Steady did manage to get the new timing gear pressed onto the end of the cam shaft, so that is something.
Motor Rebuild. The motor has been rebuilt and put back in, now she has a cam, has been overbored 40 thou, and decked, new rings, bearings, seals, etc...the only thing not replaced was the pistons and crank as they were in good condition. Engine reinstall. 22 April 2018 Steady, and Cusso came over and helped reinstall the engine...this was a relatively quick and easy job. Good having mates that know what their doing.
Engine firing. She started pretty easy, but there was no oil coming up, so out with the oil pump, replaced that with another I had, primed it and reinstalled, kicked her over and away she went, but running rough.
Manifold Gasket. I bought a new manifold gasket and it leaked, went and bought another and it didn't fit properly. Took it back and they argued it was the right one, they have sold heaps and they all fitted, - well this one didn't, the holes didn't even line up properly. I went and bought another at another outlet, this time an extractor gasket as their wider. It fitted perfect.
Stuffed Carby. Fired her up again and it was still running rough, the carby had always has some little issues, the choke mechanism was stiff, and the throttle linkage kept slipping off for some reason, anyway we pulled it back off and decided to rebuild another one, which is happening while I type. Hopefully this weekend will see her back on the road.
Flares. 18 May 2018 While all this has been going on I have been finishing some small flares to bolt on the side. I made the plug, made the mould and popped out four flares. Well that's finally done as I only made one mould for all flares they took a bit of playing about to get them to match all sides, no biggy though, I grunged them to match the front spoiler. Bonnet Scoop. I made a bonnet scoop and carried the crungy rusty theme through with that as well. Repainted the bonnet, faked some rust stains, I like it., goes with the rest of the Van.
July 16. The ongoing motor saga... After the 1st rebuild and the lack of oil pressure the following is a very shortened list of what has been happening. No oil pressure – check the sender first, it's ok, check with a pressure guage, no pressure Mate says – we have to pull the motor back out, I reckon we have done a big end bearing. Motor out – On inspection we find one big end bearing has a big score from one side to the other, the crankshaft is undamaged. oil pressure problem found.
Buy new bearings, cam and grank bearings, new gasket set, and strip it down. Clean up – on pulling it down we found one small 1 mill piece of what appeared to be block in the sump, fitted the bearing gouge perfectly, we had cleaned the block after i had it bored and decked, but obviously not well enough. The cam - we knew the cam was lumpy but just how lumpy was unknown as it came with a block I had bought, mate says do i want to put the standard back in as it seemed pretty lumpy when we had it going.....after a bit of discussion we decided to leave it as is. Clean up – this time we cleaned the block to an enth of it's bloody life. reasemble and refit the motor. ...,.sounds so easy when you write it! Carby, manifold – After trying to find a good stromburg carby and stuffing about building one from all the bits we have accumulated, with the cam, the carby just wasn't performin I had a holley and manifold given to me 2 years ago, on inspection the holley was pitted and worn. The manifold looked ok, we should have taken a closer look. Through the local network I bought another carby, this one looked way better, so my mate puts a new kit through that. Fire her up – running like crap, suspected vacume leak. AGAIN! FAAAAAAAARK! Manifold – was leaking again! after taking it off and on two more times, requiring new gaskets every time , we still had a vacume leak, we take it all off again, run a ruler over it and find the plate where the carby is mounted is slightly warped. Manifold – I get another manifold, closely inspect it, we know where it came from and was off a hot running 192, sourced from another mechanic friend, same fella we got the carby from. Rebuild the caby, change jets and power valve, fit a better metering block with backfire protection, the previous one backfired on initial start and blew the power valve., it had no protection built in - "shaking head in disbelief" Fit new carby and manifold – runs way better, BUT! it wont idle below around 1500 revs, and it cuts out going into gear. Cam – now we have it idling and closely tuned, mate says "cam is way to lumpy and wont drive the car without some serious changes", eg torque converter, and maybe a different transmission. FARRRRRRRRRRRRRRK!@
Im starting to wonder why I stared...I should have just bought an i-van.
NOW WHAT!
Well after all this we have to take the motor back out, Im saving to buy a new cam...
So thats the journey to this point. - I NEED ANOTHER BEER, MAYBE TWO, MAYBE THREE!
AND Because the Holley carb is bigger than the Strommy, it now encroaches into the passenger side floor area, which required me to widen the engine cover and the custom consol i had made. I decided to cut the engine cover in two, add the 80 mills needed and leave it in two halves for easy removal. I made an overlapping join which only requires two screws to pull it apart...
I also made a carby cover which will match up to my existing air filter... I have widened the overlaying consol, which fits like a glove again...fun a!!
And I also made a custom dash fixture for a friend, John Grimma who is fitting a commodore dash into his Beddy....have to do something while im waiting on parts etc.
AND I have finished the windshield visor..... its out there! puts a smile on my dial. And I back lit it just for fun...
If all this doesnt work im burning the beddy as a sacrifice to all the other poor bastards that decided to start a project like this...
Motor update. 6 August 2018
The new cam and bearings came in and we put the motor back together for the third and what I hope is the final time. The old cam was rediculously lumpy...love the way eveyone is an expert after the fact...cars.. anyway, we put it all back together again and put the motor back in the van on the weekend, we ran out of time to do any more..so next weekend we will fit the maniflold and carby and hopefully fire it up. I was never a car person, so this has tested my enjoyment of car shit to the max. If it doesn't work this time, there might be a van on the market.
Motor update. 13 August 2018
My mate Steady (the Bedford wisperer) came over on Friday night and we put themanifold, carby and other stuff on, turned the key and she kiscked first go and sat there purring like a kitten...no knocks, heaps of oil pressure, running sweet and this was it had even been tuned. We were pretty stoked to say the least. Steady was very happy, I was almost to scared to be happy, after all the previous dramas.
There is always and issues. haha Since i have now put a Holley Carby on we have found to open the throttle fully the leave travels about 3 inches, but the foot pedal only travels about 2 inches. we played around with all sorts of adjustment but couldn't come up with anything at the time, it was getting late so Steady had to head off, leaving me to ponder.
I couldn't sit still so off back up the shed to play, I did heaps of drawings, nutting out ideas, I could have redesigned the space shuttle with some of the things I came up with. then at about 12 oclock it came to me.. it was so simple it was rediculous, by 1am, it was done, I had a carby with full throttle. Off to bed. sweeeeet!
Sunday I was up early mind racing, since i had changed the throttle leaver i wanted to make a better bracket for the cable to the carby connection, after about 2 hours i had that sorted, now i have a full opening throttle, with plentry of adjustment.
Steady came back over on Sunday morning to bleed the brakes and fire her up and do some more tuning, after fiddling about we cleared the shed, put Bones into gear and drove her out of the shed and down the back road, she ran amazingly well, I could feel the difference in the power the small cam and 350 Holley is providing. and that was just crusing. Now I am really excited. Steady still has some tuning to do, he isnt happy with the jetting so thats the next thing to do.
Tune
Went to Steady's and he did some fine tuning of the carb and now the Beddy is running a lot better, he still reckons he can get it better, but I need to get her running around a bit.
Wheel Alignment.
I went to JB Tyres in the Huskisson Industrial Estate and had the wheel alignment done, nice young bloke who had all the specs for Bedford on his computer. 02 4441 889, he did a good job and enjoys old cars.
I put together a little motor install video, which you can see below.
Thank You's I only started this rescue because my mates told me they would chip in and help out, since I was a numky as far as this stuff was concerened. And true to their word they all gave above and beyond n time and effort to get the Beddy on the road.
A big thanks to Cusso, with his do it the right way first time attitude, he managed to get some things sorted that would have held the whole rescue up.
Another big thank you to Cads, his help throughout has been fantastic and always provided some fun and entertainment, mostly at Steady's expense.
And Speaking of Steady, what can I say, he has done at least 80% of the rescue with me. Can't thank him enough really.
Wassa, the guru of welding and all things that need some fine engineering skills, top fella and solved a couple of doozy problems for me.
Foreskin for his generocity with parts and his time.
Then theres the other friends and friends of friends who have helped out.. Frank Fuge for his generocity. Franks son Peter, he's a chip of the old mans block, he helped me out when I needed some assistance and parts.
Paul Greison, another Beddy owner who with his generosity provided some much needed parts.
The wider Beddy community, anytime I ran into a situ I didnt know an answer for , onto the net, onto the Beddy FB page and advice would come in from people who have been doing Beddy's for bloody years.
Hope I haven't left someone obvious out in my haste to get this posted, Thanks all.
NEXT! If this and future posts look different to previous posts it's because the program I was using has now gone defunct. 15th October 2019
Ok, lots has happened since my last post. Bones now has a new diff, new tailshaft, new brakes and new rims and tyre.
Diff. I replaced the diff with a Falcon AU diff. It is one of the widest diffs available but still needed lengthening. This was done by replacing one of the short axels on the AU with another long axel. This requires the casing tube to be lengthened. This was done by my mate Wazza by turning down a solid piece of round steel on the lathe and welding the casings into that. Wazza didn't do it by halves, it is solid and strong and welded on a welding gig to get it perfectly aligned.
Tailshaft.I measured and ordered a new shaft through Daniel Engineering (02)42292381. Looks like a solid piece of kit, and only took about a week to do.
Brakes. Because I have changed the tail shaft to Ford pattern it left me no option other than to change the fronts to Ford as well. I ordered the conversion kit from Hopper Stoppers in Melbourne. They couldn't be more helpful. I also ordered the master cylinder through them which they said would link up to my rebuilt Beddy Booster. This proved to be wrong, so the booster was sent down to them and they matched up a brand new Subaru master, paying freight both ways...amazing. I put some new lines in and now I have discs front and back. Note: the inner bearings they sent with the kit didn't quite fit the stubs which would have meant a little bit of sanding. But we found my new original Beddy bearings fitted perfectly, We informed Hopper's.
Rims and Tyres. The
change in stud pattern meant my original Beddy hurricanes didn't fit
anymore, so I bought 4 new rims. I had 7inch all round previously, I now
have 7in front and 8inch back fitted with higher profile tyres. Fitting
wider rims meant I had to widen the back flares...no big one...I did
the adjustments on the van and finished it off in the workshop.
I also made up some grungy mud flaps from bits I had laying around.
"WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS"
Here are a few links to suppliers I have used during the rebuild.
Now I’m waiting on one more switch for the fan blower and a couple of chrome rings for the top of the cup holders and the dash will be complete.
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