Bedford

Hey! Here is my project.
It all started when I saw a photo in a shop, spoke to some people and went and had a look at the car in the photo. It turned out to be nothing like what I wanted and not good for any kind of restoration at all (maybe good for a top chop if you were building a FX Holden (Auzzie speak for old car).

After being a bit disappointed, my brother turns around and says "I know a guy who has a truck in his farm and wants it gone!" so a couple of minutes later he found himself on his friends farm showing me the car. What was there was a 39' (maybe, possibly) Bedford Truck. The body is in pretty good nick considering its been sitting there for 70 years (give or take a few) untouched and unloved. In Australia, we have much harsher conditions than LA It rains here a lot! and the next day it can be 25c and through summer its like 40c and where the car is sitting its been snowed on too... so for it to be in the shape its in is almost magic, and to be mine at the cost of a couple of bottles of bourbon for the tow truck driver is even sweeter!

The car is still in the paddock, I have a Morris Mini Panel Van to hide somewhere and a Ford Laser to sell to make some room for it. But when the truck lands in my carport, the plan is to salvage what I can and ditch the rest. Over here in Kangaroo Country we have bitch laws stopping us from registering anything fun. The Traffic Authoritys are like a missus. which means I am not aloud to register anything pre 1940. I have to do some road rule research before I get too excited, but for now the plan is to use a HQ Holden chassis or maybe a 70s F100 chassis to slide under it and register it as a re-bodied one of them

It will probably get some mat paint, v8 (351/308), manual, LPG and a small tray. Chop, channel and its still 50/50 on fenders staying or going.

Anyway, who cares right? heres the pics.

More pics

The last one is a PhotoShop Chop of kind of what I want to do to it. I probably could have done it better, I just wanted to see it chopped

I would start by putting the steering column back were it belongs ,on the other side of the truck , I like the look of it in your photo shop , keep us updated........24

24dodge said:

I would start by putting the steering column back were it belongs ,on the other side of the truck , I like the look of it in your photo shop , keep us updated........24

Click to expand...

I didn`t know if I was the only one to notice that, but dude .... your steering wheel is on the wrong side ...


Hey very cool project !

Good luck with your road laws .

Kool truck!

Joeb,
I love the photochop u did, the last shot! That looks really kool & I'm hopin' that will work out & u'll b able to proceed with it like that! Lots of truckers here so I'm sure u'll get *plenty* of encouragement!!!

BoB

Based on your photoshop, keep the fenders. That trucks is gonna look sooooo cool.

thanks everyone, encouragement is good.

and btw, your the one with the steering wheel on the wrong side!

That will be a nice project for you Joeb. I'm in favor of the chop as well.

By the way, one of my cars is Australian. I subsequently switched it from RHD to LHD although I did drive it around here a couple of times before I switched it.

RHD is how they are all meant to be! its just so much more natural.

There is a lot of potiential there Joeb.
When I was overseas I drove an ugly little truck that was RHD. It was a blast. Sortta wish I could convert mine to be the same.

I just love gettin dumb looks from people...

I just love that when you sliding around a right hander, your not the one closest to the tree

I don't think I would adjust too well to driving on the wrong side of a car. do you still use your left for brake/clutch and right for juice? and do you indicate with your right? and wipers with the left? I drive a few Range Rovers at work (pigs!) and I'm always putting the wipers on instead of indicating. and I would probably keep bashing the door when I go to shift gears!

I was joking a about that right hander thing too btw..

I brought the Bedford home today. The diff is seized so getting it off the truck proved to be a good challenge, and getting it into the car port was even more fun with 4 flat tires! But thats half the fun.

I have been talking to some mostly unhelpful Bedford people about identifying the truck, but they don't seem to keen in what I want to do to it or any of the parts left over. It's very trying dealing with people like this, being nice doesn't come easy for me

I think the truck is later than 39, maybe post 46. It has a holden badge on it on the side and a holden compliance plate. But holden didn't exist too much before then, so either I don't know my holden history (which I don't) or its a later truck than I thought...

OK, on to the good stuff.. The second pic is the truck and the donor chassis its my daily driver now so I will be buying another rough ute to strip to mock it all up. I will use the ute I have in the end because it has rego and will get me past a whole heap of laws using an already registered chassis.

sorry for the essay, here are the pics...

looks like your in for some fun.

Hi Joe, Love the old Bedford and your plans to cross it with the Ute, (old I never gave Holdens a 2nd thought when I lived in NZ but now i don't see them day in day out I miss 'em ... odd huh!).

Anyway back on track... your blend of old and new(er) is in the true tradition of rods I look forward to future progress reports.

Cool old truck. Should make a great buid

that truck is going to be cool. speaking of holdens, i had one not long ago. i bought it on ebay and for over a year the aussie i got it from bugged me to buy it back. he finally made me an offer i couldnt refuse, but should have, to get it back. mine was a 73 monaro GTS thats ben, 440shorty, next to it getting ready to take pics of it. it had a disc brake dana 60 rear in it. it was converted to left hand drive. that is the original purr pull paint including the stripes. the quality of the aussie cars is better than us gm cars of the same era. i loved it and wish every day i'd have not been talked into selling it back.

that truck is going to be sick when you get it done, I love the photo-chop!

rustywrench: I had one like that a while ago too, but it was a little later, with 4 doors and probably not as much power it was a HJ Monaro with a fairly mild 308, looked the bit tho that one is a HQ (I think from the side...) and looks like it had some balls... looks cool did you drive it on the street or race it? they are going fairly cheap over here now, you could probably get another one and put a bb chev in it... they fit and you wouldnt strugle finding one over there.

Thanks for the encouragement everyone, the tow truck driver almost scrapped it instead of dropping it off at my house... and he was talking about how much its going to cost be to blast it and get all the rust out and didnt quite understand me when I said "why get the rust out?"

work was flooded today, which is funny, because I got sun burnt picking the truck up yesterday. Our workshop was under 2" of water, we had no power which means no hoists, air or light so no cars can be worked on. After getting the water out and pulling a few cars out of puddles with a customers 4x4, I went home and grabbed some tools and my angle grinder and made a mess of the front of the car.

Do it your way

Luckyfasteddie says"no matter what you do to it , make it real low and keep it rusty". and of course mo pics and info.