Bedford J's

G'day,,
Just trying to find year models for my bedford trucks.
I have a J2 and a J3.
Sourcing parts is hard because I cannot find a register for the exact models.
I have a Bedford J3D that I intend to restore for taking my tractors and engines to shows etc.
The J2 Is for parts.
How do I read the plates on the firewall to tell me the year of manufacture?.
Parts are coming up on Ebay all the time but I need to know if they fit mine.

All the letter codes after the J2 or J3 simply indicate the body styles of manufacture. Nothing there gives away the year. You would need to find someone with a production list. I doubt there would be much difference in parts interchangability over the production run.

For something as popular as a bedford would anyone know how to date them?. In other words,,Does anyone have access to a build list?.I realise they are not that collectable.

I disagree that Bedford's are not collectable. True they may not be the high-dollar 'hero trucks' such as a B-Model Mack, R190, Peterbilt etc in the same way as my XP Ute will never have the value of a GT Falcon.

A lot of traditionally 'car people' are starting to think about trucks and to them the trucks they saw everywhere such as the Bedfords and smaller Inters, Dodges, Fords etc is what they are looking at for their collections.

In the future the high priced items will be the 'hero trucks' and those small enough to be driven on a car licence. Those in between (such as my Inter AR162) will be left behind in $ value but will still be collectable as they drive just like a big, underpowered, car.

Now how can we hide this from Deadly and Swishy?

Maybe ACW Bedford has access to this info ??

There are some Bedford forums, not sure how useful they are.

International1020 - I've never come across a build date list, or seen anyone with a build date list, for any early Bedfords.
However, the later "Australian content" Bedfords, from about the late 1960's, it appears, have a GMH VIN plate that gives the year of build.

The engine number often has a year of build in the number code .. but as engines get changed regularly, this is not an accurate method of identifying the build year of the chassis.

Post some photos of your ID plates, so we can read the numbers, and I'll see what I can find in my Bedford books, to try and date your truck.

The J series changed little between its introduction in the early 1960's to the end of production in the early 1970's.
The only real changes were when they started to get more "Australian content" .. i.e. - GMH-sourced components.

I posted a couple of pages for the early Bedford ID here .. www.hcvc.com.au/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1322216534/5#5
(up until the late 1950's, the ID plate only had a model number and chassis S/N) ..

And .. I also posted several pages of info from the parts book for the "E series" (TK - forward control) here .. www.hcvc.com.au/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1316573314/0#0

I know this isn't exactly what you're looking for, but I don't currently have much info on the smaller J-series.

Cheers - Ron.

hello everybody,

i just find this forum.

I am from Portugal, and here we love Bedford J, specially in the North.

I own a blog about them: bedfordportugal.blogspot.com/

the blog language is Portuguese, but you can see a lot of photos and translate all content using the googletranslate tool at the right side of the blog.

Comment and please help us to know more about the Bedford J.

Hope to hear from you all.
bedfordportugal

Thanks for the replies,,I too think that Bedfords are worthy of resto..I've copied all the details I can find on the plates as a picture of them is not clear enough,,,so hopefully here's pics of the trucks downsized to 400by400...

They read, BEDJ2LC2D
68-TJCAB-1139A
4 TON
CDJ3BCO
H129252.And on the passenger seat base is CDJ3B9T628405.

The other truck is BEDJ3D
TJCAB-34154
B091053
5TON
No seat tag on the green one but
Engine is 2/J1/2/3 257596.
I've emailed ACW but never got a reply.

Eyebrows over the headlights mark them as "early".1960-66
That only narrows it down slightly..........

And the turn lights above removes the first couple of those years, unless they were retrofitted.