Spotted, an absolute gem of a classic 1969 Bedford motorhome for sale

[mistericeman]

One of my all time fave cars a 2cv....
I bought mine for £50 from a scrap yard (mot fail/electrical problems)
Chased it down to a incorrectly fitted stop and tail bulb....

Fixed bulb and flew through mot....
Fab to drive, cheap fun motoring.... Clever engine design too.

I'd love another but prices have gone daft.

 

[mr brown]

when i borrowed it , i sat in it for at least 10 mins trying to work out how to start it. never seen push button start before. had a few over the years , lovely drive and really comfortable

 

[2cv]

I’ve had mine 29 years now.

 

[Markd]

My first 2cv had a pull starter "button" with a wire that pre-engaged the pinion and then made the electrical contact to spin the starter.
Not a lot to go wrong there

 

[Phantom]

Each to their own of course but to me those Bedfords are both pretty fugly. For the price there are many far better campers to be had. They theoretically should no longer exist at all but are only rare because a dedicated few chose to revive them from scrap. Maybe a bit like when middle aged blokes buy the same model of motorbike that they first had when aged about sixteen, which seemed great at the time, but is just not now!

 

[2cv]

Each to their own of course but to me those Bedfords are both pretty fugly. For the price there are many far better campers to be had. They theoretically should no longer exist at all but are only rare because a dedicated few chose to revive them from scrap. Maybe a bit like when middle aged blokes buy the same model of motorbike that they first had when aged about sixteen, which seemed great at the time, but is just not now!

I’ve still got the bike I had when I was 18

 

[Barge1914]

What a coincidence, I read this thread just a few hours after seeing a dark green one of these in Portobello in NZ. Looked quite characterful, but what a lot of crap was splurging out of the exhaust!

 

[mr brown]

because they were cheap and plentiful i have owned many bedfords .they were all horrible, but fairly reliable

 

[GreggBear]

Love column change, cut my teeth as a kid on my dad's mk3 Zodiac. What a lovely drive that was, he could set off from Pontefract & once in top gear he could get to Bridlington without changing down once! Next was a Mazda b1600 pickup owned by a neighbouring farm. Thought that was the business. My uncle had a CA van when I was too young to drive & he liked his. Years later I nearly bought a Bedford midi but ended up with an automatic Renault tragic instead....

 

[wildebus]

As for the gearchange, I can recall the one that I once drove had a column change, was this standard on the CA?

I know we had several Vauxhall Victors at about the same time and they all had bench seats and column changes which were dire!!

My Dads Vauxhall Cresta with Bench Seats and a column change was the first car I ever drove. Slightly underage at around 3 years old (and was an a German Autobahn as well. Child Seats? Bah humbug)

 

[Millie Master]

My Dads Vauxhall Cresta with Bench Seats and a column change was the first car I ever drove. Slightly underage at around 3 years old (and was an a German Autobahn as well. Child Seats? Bah humbug)

My Dad had a PA Vauxhall Cresta from new in 57, brilliant, mechanically reliable car that he ran for almost 200,000 miles before the body finally disolved into a bright orange pile! 3 speed column change with overdrive on 2nd & 3rd gears.

 

[mistericeman]

This is more like it....

 

[Markd]

2 double beds a bath 2 sets of golf clubs and a folding table.
Doctor who must have designed the interior

 

[wildebus]

I say, jolly good, what!

I think part two of that video will show the "confused female" doing the washing up, don't you know.

 

[wildebus]

My Dad had a PA Vauxhall Cresta from new in 57, brilliant, mechanically reliable car that he ran for almost 200,000 miles before the body finally disolved into a bright orange pile! 3 speed column change with overdrive on 2nd & 3rd gears.

200,000 miles. good going for a vauxhall of that era!
My mum told me she and my dad had one of the original VW Westfalia Campers - not sure how many miles they did in that? could have been 20 or maybe just 2 as he drove in into a ditch on the way back from picking it up brand new from the dealers and it was written off.

 

[Millie Master]

200,000 miles. good going for a vauxhall of that era!

Yes, I can distinctly recall that the only thing it ever had go wrong with it mechanically was a burnt out exhaust valve when it had done approx. 130,000 miles. The reason being that he was ex REME and I at the time was an ever inquisitive 10 year old and we stripped the head off and I had the job of cleaning it up and then lapping in the new valves whilst "Pop" closely supervised my efforts.

 

[RV2MAX]

The op was a Bedford Romany by Martin Walter . Sliding or opening doors in any combo was an option , on the CA .
The first new car my father bought was a CA minibus There were 7 kids including two foster . It only lasted about 6 months , as a carthorse belonging to a local coal merchant was loose on road , late at night , and hit the van head on
drivers side . You could see hoof marks on side at rear . My father had a black and blue front to his chest /stomach , and was lucky to survive ! His front two passengers (he was giving them a lift) one had a broken arm and the other broke his colar bone , and nose . The gearchange when new was quite slick , but many who drove , damaged them by trying to force them where they were not meant to go . We went away camping , and drove thru night . All the kids were on a big mattress laid down in the back . Not much H&S back then

They were a 12 seater for tax reasons , same as landrover lwb station wagons .

A few years later my father had a perkins diesel engine version (terrible slow noisy bad starter in winter )
He worked at Cowley car factory , and used to take other workers in share the costs . One morning he was on way home and most were asleep or nearly so , he slowly slid his door back , his mate in front got a sheet of news paper , he lit it and threw in back same time as my father shouted , blew the horn and the braked, the door shut with a hell of a bang . One guy nearly had a heart attack . !!!

 

[Asterix]

Interesting thread which leads me to a conundrum that some knowledgeable person may know the answer to. Many early British vehicles had column change which has always made me wonder why the indicator stalk ended up on the left hand side of the column?
Until I came to the UK I'd only ever known the indicators to be on the right,presumably because most of our vehicles were imported from Australia,Japan or England before the UK joined the common market,when many were still column shift.

 

[RV2MAX]

The indicator stalk when it first appeared on UK cars was on right as gearchanging was on left . I believe it was changed over as a result of EU, which doesn't make a lot of sense as they drive on the wrong side . Australia was the right side as well , and IIRC they still are , eg Holden Commodore VX

 

[wildebus]

Interesting thread which leads me to a conundrum that some knowledgeable person may know the answer to. Many early British vehicles had column change which has always made me wonder why the indicator stalk ended up on the left hand side of the column?
Until I came to the UK I'd only ever known the indicators to be on the right,presumably because most of our vehicles were imported from Australia,Japan or England before the UK joined the common market,when many were still column shift.

I think when the vehicles became more "cross-market" and so built in RHD and LHD versions in multiple locations, the indicator moved over to the left "continental" side to suit the bigger market (The Steering Column set is built up as a whole and is just located in the appropriate place). The last car I recall owning with an indicator on the RHS was a 1969 Vauhall Viva - very much a RHD-only model.
I think the Japanese cars had it on the right for longer as they were sold into a primarily RHD market until quite a bit later?