Budget Bedford Shines

UK-based restorer Mick Austin, and his brother Bob and good mate Neal, have recently finished this superb O-type. Mick has written a little story below giving the background of the Bedford and how and why she looks so wonderful today. Proof of what can be achieved on a limited budget.

The Bedford was new to Co-Operative Dairies, Northampton, England, and was used for collecting milk churns from various farms for many years. She was then sold to the Perritt’s company (also of Northampton) and used in their scrap business making runs to London a couple of times a week. After she was retired, restoration was started and abandoned and the vehicle was sold on to a local garage where her condition quickly deteriorated due to being stored outdoors and vulnerable to the British climate.

We bought the Bedford in a rather dilapidated condition and restored her in the open over a six-year period. This restoration was the subject of an eleven-part series in Classic and Vintage Commercials magazine. The whole point of the restoration was to see another Bedford O-type based on our Dad’s old motor which he drove for Procea Products Ltd in the 1950s. Neither myself, Bob or close friend of some 45 years Neal Boddington are skilled mechanics or vehicle body builders and we purely made it up as we went along ... on a ‘shoestring’!

It’s good to see our Australian cousins have opened up such a great Bedford web-site, good on yer sport and success for the future!

Thanks Mick and a huge thank you for providing the wonderful photos. The magazine series is a constant source of inspiration for me. I’ll have to read it again when I finally bring our Bedfords out of storage. Congratulations again.

An ad from 1960 - market leader!

Here's an ad from 1960 broadcasting the reasons why Bedford was a smart choice. Fair to say this is borne out by the number of surviving examples. It's an interesting little read but apologies for the quality. It is a scan of a small picture included in the August 2009 issue of the Trafalgar Truck Restorers Club's excellent newsletter. If anyone has a copy of the original I will gladly replace the picture above. Click on the picture for a larger version.

New email address

Hi everyone

Just a quick post to let you know of my new email - aircrewbooksATiinet.net.au

We've just changed ISPs and although we had a connection on Thursday the modem/router has only just arrived. If I haven't replied to your recent emails, this is why.

Photographed a very tidy J1 on Thursday so will post her up shortly. I've also been receiving a great amount of photos of Bedfords at truck shows and Bedfords looking sorry for themselves. The manual list has been added to so I'll also get that posted. If anyone has old Bedford ads, I'd love to post some scans of them. I've got a couple of loaned Bedford magazines from the 1970s which are full of great ads and articles. I hope to be able to scan these in the near future before returning them to their owner (you probably all know him - Dave Horne).

Andy

Manual Library

I've had this idea to make available the manuals I have lying around. The plan is to scan these manuals and make them available to those who need to reference them. Sure, many owners/restorers will already have what they need but just in case a copy can't be sourced or only a section is needed, perhaps the scans will come in handy.

At present I only have the operator's handbook and the big manual for the KMO range; the handbook for diesel-engined TKs and several TK/TJ service training manuals for various components and sub-assemblies. I'll put up a list of the titles as an ad on the right-hand side. This will make it easy to update.

Through The Fence - a Bedford weekend

We did a fair bit of travelling this weekend and just happened to stumble upon several Bedfords. We were in Parkes on Friday and while Jodi was at the physio, I headed off to a yard in the LIA to stick the camera through the fence to record several trucks we'd found a few months ago. Had forgotten about this pre-1973 TK - note the old style clearance lights above the headlights. Doesn't look like she's been anywhere for a while. I also found a shorter wheelbase tipper but half of her was hidden behind a pile of dirt.

Decided to head out to Parkes airport for a sticky but noted the pre-1968 TK cab and chassis - note the 'ridge' above the grille and clearance lights - parked under a tree at a water tank manufacturer's yard. Decided to be cheeky and ask if I could have a look at this and a truck-mounted crane parked nearby. Fortunately, the owner was a pretty cheery bloke. The cab of the TK was totally stripped-out but it's only just occurred to me that I didn't look at the back of the rear wall on the left for the data plate. That's what I get for walking over sheets of tin in Crocs (shoes) and worrying about things that don't like being disturbed!

The D-type with the mounted crane (anyone heard of a Steinbock?) is a familiar sight from the highway as you head north out of Forbes. However she points away from the road so I had assumed she was a J-type. Imagine how chuffed I was to see her from the front! She actually looks in decent nick so I'm entertaining the idea of having a closer look i.e. seeing if the owner will let me into the paddock.

Finally, with my sister and brother-in-law visiting over the weekend, we did some sight-seeing and since the b-i-l is a car enthusiast we went back to Forbes to visit McFeeter's Motor Museum. Full of a surprising range of cars so not quite my cup of tea (hee hee) but, happily, housing a J1 fire appliance from 1962. On loan from the Forbes fire brigade - note the number plate - there's a surprising number of these still around and, according to the museum guide, they are bullet-proof. A couple of these live here in West Wyalong so I'll check them out. I was a bit cheeky and asked to hop the rope to see inside the cab. She's in original condition and I was surprised to see many cab features that were unchanged from the KMO range - even the 'vertical' pedals. Somewhere in the dark depths of my mind is something about smaller Js having the Bedford six-cylinder 214 cu. inch motor ... just like the KMOs. A cab and front-end change and ... was it that simple? If so, a good, long-lived basic design under the skin.

Sydney Tramway Museum's MLZ tower wagon

Andrew Blacklock - contributor to my other old truck site Australasian Classic Commercials - sent in this photo of a wonderful Bedford M-type tower wagon. The truck was part of the annual NRMA Motorfest held on Australia Day in Sydney's CBD. Looking immaculate, you can see she has an Australian-built cab by the curved section below the door. The fixed windscreen and wind-up windows are other, less obvious indicators of this type of cab (the English cab has a push-out driver's windscreen and slide-up windows). Good to see she's got a decent set of mirrors too.

Here's the details copied verbatim from the Bedford's placard:

Throughout the era of electric tramway operation in Sydney, road tower wagons were used to service the overhead trolley wire. Initially the towers were mounted on horse-drawn drays, from the 1920s motor trucks replaced the horse vehicles. This tower wagon is representative of the type used in Sydney in the 1950s. On the closure of the Sydney tramways in 1961 several tower wagons were sold to Melbourne. In 1980 the Melbourne tramways disposed of these vehicles, one was offered to the Museum, and it returned to Sydney in 1981.

A pump, driven from the power take-off, operates a ram to raise the work platform, this platform can then be rotated through 360 degrees enabling the workers to reach well to the side of the truck. The platform has a safety handrail that can be raised and locked in position.

Make: Bedford

Model: MLZ

Year: 1950

Owner: The Sydney Tramway Museum - Loftus (South Pacific Electric Railway)

Now, as part of trying to explain the various models of Bedfords (in an attempt to make this site useful!) that I actually understand, here's a break down of what MLZ means. Firstly, of course, she's an M-type of the KMO (read K-type, M-type, O-type ... lighter payload to heavy). The M-type has a nominal rating of 2-3 ton (2032-3048 kg). The L refers to her chassis. In this case she's 'Long' (as opposed to S for 'Short') with a wheelbase of 11 ft 11in (3.63 m). Finally, the Z is the code for her factory fitout. Z = Chassis only. In other words she would have been delivered as a rolling chassis with engine, controls and, I believe, bonnet and mudguards. Makes sense given she's got an Australian-built cab. The other ML designations are MLC (chassis with cab) and MLD (dropside). It makes a lot of sense when you discover all of the designations in the Bedford Shop Manual Models K, M & O and can then apply the details to an actual truck. I've used the manual to make sure the above is correct. There's a few more designations in the KMO range but we'll cover those when there's photos to illustrate them.

Bedfords at Sandown 2008

What's better than seeing a Bedford on the road? Seeing several! The Historic Commercial Vehicle Club's annual show at Sandown Racecourse in Melbourne had a good showing of Bedfords in 2008 (when I last managed to get there). Here's a selection of the majority as they arrived on the Sunday morning.

Above: I believe the cab of this fine, pre-1968 TK was restored by ACW Bedford. Note what appears to be their signature vinyl roof protection. Below: I first saw this J1 (?) at Sandown 2006 ... and it was just as shiny then (although her teeth were still white)!

Above: this post-1973 TK gets around a fair bit and will feature heavily here over the next few posts as I'll use it to explain my TK-ageing technique. Below: ACW's mobile workshop CDJ (not a TJ, note the Griffin badge on the bonnet) has a nice metallic green finish which might not be obvious in this sun-drenched (read slightly over-exposed!) photo.

Above: I've admired this little post-1967/pre-1973 TK on a number of occasions but have yet to meet the owner. He did feature over on the HVCV Forum last year but I've forgotten his name. Below: this J1 (?) was parked outside the venue but is a worthy exhibit in itself as it is still clearly working and how often do you see Bedfords with more than just a tray these days? A bit hard to photograph though...

Above: not really my cup of tea but it's a Bedford ... and it's not selling ice creams!