ACH

Cheers guys for the photos, great help. There's quite a bit missing for mine. The wife has suggested a camper rather than me turning it into a period recovery truck, the likelyhood of me finding a rear box body which would look right would be pretty slim I suppose.

Oh that's great, I did wonder what that was on the side of the chassis, I thought it might be the fuel filter, I did wonder why it was the opposite side to the tap, are, another learning curve coming on!! Any chance of any pictures of the windscreen frame? It's the only bit I think I'm going to have trouble with. Thanks for your fast response Niels.

I've ended up buying yet another Bedford, this time a QL but I've got some questions. It's only a chassis cab but the cab is in remarkably good condition, no glass or rad and the grill is missing from the radiator, no lights, covers are missing and the seats etc. What's the likelyhood of being able to source parts to put it back to original? Where are the serial numbers on the chassis? Are there any useful modifications or conversions? I'm picking it up on Saturday morning so I shall get some photographs once it's back to the yard. I really wanted to put it back to original but I think it's going to be too costly, all the goodies have been sold off but the only reason I bought it is that he said he would cut it up otherwise. Just one more question: I have been looking on the net and I keep seeing QL's with Perkins badges on, I'm assuming the engine would be a P6, how the hell did they get it in there? I'd love to see some pictures just out of curiousity.

Fast and the Furious - Bagdad Drift :nut:

Admittedly I have gone over before, when they've been trying to load stuff and gave them a hand, before they killed somebody. The funny thing is it's the Managing Director of the company driving the fork lift. They had two Hiab lorries on site and an all terrain teleporter but they still chose to do the job with the Grose way with the smallest piece of inappropriate equipment they had! The company they are getting to demolish the building is the cheapest quote apparently so there may be some more footage, most probably of imigration turning up to arrest the workers!

Watched this unfold today, thought I'd share!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UR9RBLb2nA

cosrec - I saw the Unimog one when I was searcing, could be quite useful if it was in English, what would be handy would be a copy of the manuals for the 550. Dave - if I get a chance I'd love to come and have a look but I haven't got the time at the moment, but if you could measure from the back of the cab to the headboard that would be interesting to see how much space the crane takes. Yours is the speed loader isn't it? Was yours the one on Ebay not long ago? Tony - I don't know how it happens, I go and look for a truck, usually an ERF and somehow I always manage to end up with a Bedford so it's obviously fate and I'm going to end up with a succession of Bedfords.:-D

It's not fitting the crane, I was just curious about the military spec crane, to be honest by the look of that picture you can't fold the crane up behind the cab you have to leave it open, which isn't going to be any good to me. From the back of the chassis hard up to the back of the cab is 16'3" and the body I have is 14' leaving me with 27" to fit the crane which is going to roughly take about 30". My hiab has an integral hydraulic oil tank with a chassis mounting is welded to the end of it, I don't think there is an internal support so hopefully it will just be a case of cutting the tank down by 6" and re-welding the support. Obviously I'm going to need to replace the volume of the tank that I will remove and re-routing the hydraulic pipework round the kingpost as otherwise it will rub on the headboard all the time. At the end of the day I'm just trying to get it so it looks right ie as it came out of the factory and not like some nutcase has been at it with a gas axe. And then I can get on and find my Humber box, but as usual I'll most probably end up with another Bedford.:nut:

I'm just doing some research and wondered if anybody has got any decent photographs of RLs fitted with Hiabs. I've attached a picture from a book I have but it's not very good, it would be nice to see a side on photo to see how close to the cab and the headboard the crane has been mounted. I've had a look at my 550 and from the picture I think the crane bases are different, I think the army ones are narrower, I can quite easily loose 6" off the hydraulic tank and re-weld the end and mount back on, I just need to check there's no internal supports in the tank. The only reason I'm wondering about this is that I picked up an MJ body and I don't want a ridiculus overhang at the back, it would be nice to retain the 14' bed. Also if anybody's got any pictures of an RL with the later bodies I would like to have a look. I've looked on the pictures in the gallery of the RL but it hasn't got a cab on so is hard to judge whether it would look right with it's full width or if I should take it down to the original width. Rambling complete!!! Adam

Well this explains the curtain accross the middle and the dodgy caravan strip light!

Is that all it was for? I thought it was going to be something like 'no it's to stop people dropping bricks off bridges onto the top of the truck'.:nut: I think I've been suffering from an over active imagination. They do a winter lining kit for Landrovers, do they do the same for the trucks, not that I want one, I'm just curious.

I've picked up a Bedford MJ body off ebay for my RL, went to collect it today, whilst stripping it down for transport and noticed that it had mesh sheets on the roof covered with rubber and then a green nylon looking sheet and then the tarporlyn on top of that. Was this just to stop the roof sagging or to stop projectiles coming through?

Hi Chris I also live in Suffolk by the sea, and would be interested in two of those Nato hitches for my Bedford RL. Cheers Adam

Cheers Peter, I've managed to upload some pictures on LRUK, I've been meaning to reply on here but keep forgetting. Davie - thanks for the link, I think I might have missed out! Jack - just 'cos you've bit off more than you can chew doesn't mean you shouldn't persivier, unless of course somebody says something silly and you spray it out everywhere!

Oh yes it's definately interesting to repair! Still working on the passenger side but now have a problem with my MIG welder, waiting for a new part so won't be able to do anything until it arrives. I have taken loads of photos for reference on the strip down and I'm photos of the new panels but I'm still a bit stumped how to load photos on the new system, I'm sure it's very simple and I've overlooked something.

Sorry I thought that it's more likely that somebody with an RL would have replied as this seems to be a common place for corrosion. Please see attached.....or would if I could work out how!!!!!!!:shocked:

I've been trying to get some of the welding done on the Bedford RL. I had to cut the wing off on the passenger side where it had been welded on and the top of the wing flange has rotted away and is badly damaged towards the door end. I don't tend to do any exterior bodywork repairs, it's mainly welding up Landrover chassis, bulkheads and rad panels which are fairly straight forward flat surfaces, the RLs complicated curved wings are worrying me, I'll post a couple of pictures of what I've done so far but I could do with some hints on repairing the wing sections. I would like to get it looking right.

happy birthday :thumbsup:

merry christmas

I'd like to say after hours of carefull research I had come up with a simple solution for the starter motor, but I would be lying. The 330 diesel engine is sitting on the work bench, whilst changing the starter solenoid on a Landrover starter motor I noticed that the mounting holes were exactly the same as the RL petrol one. So I thought I'd see if it would line up, it does, it even meshes perfectly with the ring gear. OK this starter motor is designed to turn over a 2.5 diesel, you would have thought that it wouldn't have been capable of turning over a 5.4 ltr engine. But I thought what have I got to loose, I'll try it, I was absolutely amazed how quickly it turned the engine over compared to the CAV one on the original 330 set up. So if you want to fit a 330 in place of your 300 petrol you just need to swap over the petrol mounting plate, bell housing and flywheel and use a Landrover 200/300 TDi starter motor. Obviously it needs to be tested properly so a couple of months of service when the vehicle is back on the road and then we can see how it lasts. Equally if your starter motor packs up on you petrol engine I think it's a worthy replacement.

As I said Richard I only tried the petrol starter motor for a laugh, I knew it wouldn't be man enough. I think the TJ used the same bell housing as the TK except the engine mounts bolt to the side of the bell housing and there's a cross member underneath the bell housing. I think a bit more research, when I have a chance to work on it next it will be welding the cab up. LoggyDriver - they used the 300 and 330 in coaches and buses, I assume the R type coach rolling chassis used the same set up as the rest of the models, although I would imagine they centred the engine and gear box in the two wheel drive models, there wouldn't seem to be a need to mount it to one side to clear the diff and prop.

Cheers Richard Well the petrol bell housing fits and the mounting plate, unsurprisingly. I was hoping to use the diesel fly wheel and starter motor but the fly wheel was too large to fit the petrol bell housing so I fitted the petrol fly wheel. The problem is the petrol starter motor is not man enough for the job, I knew it wouldn't be but I tried it anyhow, for a laugh. The diesel starter motor is a no go, doesn't fit the petrol bell housing for a start, the gear is wrong as is the off set so I shall have to do a bit of research. Otherwise the only bit that needed moving was the fuel filter. I suppose the other thing which needs to be looked at is difference in mass between the two fly wheels.

Basil, it sounds like they used the petrol bell housing and fly wheel, which will just bolt straight onto the back of the engine as far as I can see, my only concern with this is what starter motor to use as I think my CAV diesel starter motor is too long and may foul on the injector pipes, also the fuel filter would need to be repositioned, I have a rotary injector pump. I've only just dismantled my petrol bell housing this evening and haven't had a chance to see if everything mates up. Is there any chance you could take some pics of the starter motor so I can identify it and what injector pump you have. Richard was it a 300 or a 330 in the RL recovery truck. They also used a Leyland engine, I think it was a 350 cu in. Out of curiosity I would like to see if one of these ever got fitted in an RL.

It was lifted fairly evenly with the pallet truck but the balance was out and I couldn't get it in any tighter because of the axle, but it's out and that's the main thing. The only problem is I'm having real doubts about putting the 330 diesel engine in, I don't think it's going to be that easy. The diesel starter motor is on the opposite side to the petrol one. The mounting plate on the rear of the engine doesn't look wide enough to use the TK bell housing and cut a hole in for the starter motor. I think that the bell housing would have to be machined to use with the mounting plate. The likelyhood of finding a bell housing and mounting plate to suit the RL from the earlier 300 diesel is going to be pretty hard if not impossible. I haven't been able to find anyone who has already done it and can tell me the pitfalls of the process. I'm beginning to wonder if I should just go out and buy a Cummins out of a DAF and a 5 speed box.

Yes it would have definately been safer with a forklift. The stand needed an extra 112lb of ballast on the back to balance it. :sweat: Definately will not be fitting the diesel this way, even if I have to borrow or hire a forklift.:cry: