A was for Austin, but now B is for Bedford

Great looking Beddy PDU, will follow with great interest.
My K Model floor was in a similar state & had all the loose nails as well!
That tray looks an interesting build especially with the angle frame rather than a special U pressing often used on the K Model.
what do you know about the ownership, was it originally from SA?
cheers
Pierre

Week 4: Lovely way to spend a Sunday morning, manhandling the Bedford into the carport was one hour of solo, sweated labour. For those who work on smaller vehicles, you’ve got it comparatively easy with lesser space and effort requirements! At least there is now room in the yard for the replacement chassis to come in.


After seeing B for moved on a car trailer the rolling chassis should be easy???

Made a start on getting into the engine to see why it was seized. Initially the plugs were removed - all clean, not oily or rusty. Then removed the rocker cover - also cleaner than expected, but then noticed too much clearance on number six cylinder inlet valve rocker, a broken valve spring and a stuck valve! :dry:

Sidenote: In hind sight I now know what investigations would discover, but this is giving you a timeline of how it went for me back in February - so you'll just have to wait! :huh:

The engine number on the block is different to that on the I.D. plate, which makes any decision to possibly buy a replacement engine easier, although I will still look at freeing this one first.

Plans to pick up the replacement chassis from Quorn were postponed for a week, with 2/3/20 being the earliest mutually convenient time to do so.

Pierre: As best I can determine the truck was owned by the Milne Brothers in Stone Hut, South Australia; although there appears to be the remnants of a logo on the doors suggesting previous ownership. Perhaps someone might recognise them? I will have to call in on you again next time I'm down that way, now I'm on a Bedford and not an Austin beat.

Rust to be addressed later . . .

Could this be the logo on the door?Or could it be Mobilgas ?

I dismantled a Chev head with every valve stuck,took it off first of course .The owner is antimechanical ,and hit one of the rockers with a hammer ,and it broke,and did not want to take the head off .Where hitting a rocker gets you ,I dont know.Anyway with the head off ,I could heat all the exhaust valves red hot with the oxy ,and they came free straight away......didnt care to heat the inlest that much,but they were only stuck with gum ,and came free ......so all the valves and guides are good enoygh to reuse .

That looked promising oliver1950 - although when I checked some of the letters may have been the same but others (or at keast the barely distinguishable shapes that may have once been letters) just didn't work, particularly the b. I have really struggled to read what remains and perhaps DISTRIBUTION might be closer to the mark? But even that is doubtful!?

As for the head job (!?) JOHN.K. - my other vehicle (the Austin 245F that is still for sale even though I haven't really tried to re-advertise it yet) was reluctant to run until I removed the head and did the hammer trick (gently :S ) on all the valves. I worked on them until I could bounce them open and shut. This was done without damaging the rockers and I wonder how he managed to break a rocker!? After that it improved the more I ran it, so I would imagine it was probably rusted valve guides needing some oil down 'em . . . :dry:

PDU wrote:
...As best I can determine the truck was owned by the Milne Brothers in Stone Hut, South Australia; although there appears to be the remnants of a logo on the doors suggesting previous ownership. Perhaps someone might recognise them?

Perhaps a perusal of Trove might come up with some ideas re the logo: trove.nla.gov.au/

Suggestion: Focus the search on a perusal of the advertising section of regional newspapers of towns near Stone Hut about the date the truck were made. Many ads of the day carried a logo so yer might get lucky..




.

And rounding off Week 4: Basically a fight with various size nuts and bolts, undoing some, shearing some, and finally hitting the rest with the disc grinder, MUCH easier and faster. Not forgetting an abundant amount of fencing wire too . . .
I'm feeling more like a truck wrecker than a reviver at the moment . . .

Also lantana jack, I tried but without any joy. Such is life.

Great progress. Must have been a Kiwi who oned it and from the South Island with all that #8 fencing wire holding it together.
The front clip sitting on the ground makes for a brilliant photo, may even be worth setting it up out in the open with a nice back drop and take another. It is stuff like that which can be a feel good moment for you as you reflect in time to come. It took one of the grill and lights of the David Brown after painting and it does that for me.

In reality this was all a couple of weeks ago and the current situation could do with some feel good moments cobbadog. There will be a few more installments before that will come to light in these progress reports though. Yeah, good times and bad times to come.
So on we move to Week 5: Ernie and I headed up to Quorn with a car trailer for the replacement chassis. Removed the remaining outside rear wheel to avoid it running up the outside edge of the trailer and then, when we put it on the trailer discovered it wasn't necessary . . . hmmm? Perhaps this was a bigger trailer?
The car was loaded with some other desirable pieces, such as a water punp, brake master cylinder and power vac unit, plus a second power vac - big buggers! Everything was tied down and the tow home began, slowly, anything over 65 kph induced some tail wandering with the trailer. It was mainly caused by the poor road surface, potholes, patching and the camber but after about forty kilometres we were able to increase our speed to a scintillating 70 kph. Oh well only 90 kilometres to go.
Fortunately the road surface and camber did improve and the last 40 kilometres was managed at a heady 80 kph, and after what felt (and was) a very long, slow trip we made it home in one piece and the chassis was unloaded.
Fortunately Ernie took a pictures of the chassis on the trailer, which fitted easily as you can see, while the others were taken the following day after some overnight rain.
The previously noted differences with the new chassis were now more noticeable . . . trouble could be looming?

Week 5 continued: With the chassis sitting closer to B for the differences noticed previously were now even more noticeable and it was obvious that measurements would have to be taken. Explains now why it fitted onto the trailer so easily.
After closer scrutiny, many measurements, and cross referencing with my Bedford handbook the results/conclusions were as follows: the second chassis was about two feet shorter than B for’s and was from a long nose M type Bedford; the front axle was about five inches narrower; the rear springs were shorter; and the frame rails narrowed slightly towards the front.
It was a minor concern, but initial measurements also suggested that, with a few straight forward changes, the cab would fit. The result would be a hybrid/phantom Bedford - and a short nose M type Bedford, that the factory never built, would have been created.
To allow body mountings and measurements to be transferred from chassis to chassis it was necessary to clear the headboard and remaining tray cross members, remove the engine and gearbox, and then lift the cab.
The headboard and remaining tray cross members were off by midday the following day. Another three hours and the floor panels were removed to get to the three cab mounting bolts, one of which was broken and the other two that actually came undone with relative ease (you’ve got to be lucky now and again) and following the steering link being disconnected the steering box was unbolted from the chassis.
More than enough for one days work . . .