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Some men are born MV enthusiasts and some have MV thrust upon them


alixcompo

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I probably am stupid but.....

Having bought a 1957/8 Bedford CA MK1 as a restoration project I now discover it is an ex Naval runabout.

 

I am aware that the rules of restoration are 1: Don't break anything and 2: Don't throw anything away. Now I can add to that, 3: Don't rub the paintwork down too hard or you can obliterate any previous serial numbers and hence history.

 

So where do I go from here? You are all Army vehicle types, armour plate and armaments with drab green in your veins.

Who cares about RN stuff then?

My missus was expecting two tone cream and maroon. How can I tell her that Navy blue will look great and that white lettering is historically significant

 

Is there some clandestine group who slink about at classic vehicle shows in a 'Naval Vehicle' area..?

 

I don't think that I have ever seen them. So where do old RN vehicles go if they don't float...?

 

Help

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If representing WW11 then they would be green or Mickey Mouse camo but post war then I have to agree with you, don't remember seeing anything RN so would be good to mark the CA up in it's original colours. Good luck with it.

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I, as a self confessed "pongo" type am quite happy for others to enjoy a different perspective. Royal Navy is just as legitimate as any of our "army" stuff.

 

Some of the RN vehicles are just as cool as any of the green stuff.

 

Welcome in

 

R

 

Amen to that.

 

I just see all services as our history.

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Mine's not green, and certainly stands out!

 

breighton17.jpg

 

I think a Navy vehicle would make a nice change from the usual.

 

What a good idea......... you can have a game of chess if things get quiet........ Its very nice, you are right, its nice to see something a little different.

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If you have the history of the vehicle then display her as she was, it is always nice to see something different, and by her being the original colour/markings you might even find someone recognizes her from when they crewed her.

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Alix,

given a choice of walking over to a line up of jeeps at a show, or walking over to your CA, the CA would win every time! I can't wait to see it, you need to take it to War & Peace and I bet she'll make it into at least one of the MV monthlies!

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Yes, it counts as work in progress :-) to be authentic make sure you leave the front bumper end fixings a little loose, so they make an annoying rattle all the time!

 

My dad had one and it started rattling almost from new, as does a restored one that I sometimes hear passing my house!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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As a bit of and update...... I have still been mainly collecting bits. Quite a hoard really. I have managed to get a full set of original glass bar the back doors, although I have a pattern to get those made.

While I was going to repair the OE doors I managed to get a full set of excellent repaired ones.

I think that I have located a 4th 16" wheel rim (which means I have 4 spare 15") which is especiaLLY good as I just love the way those big wheels fill the arches on the early CA's.

So I've got to the point of repairing the really hard bits..... Namely the center bar between the two windscreens and the very original metal front door frames.

I managed to get a very nice chap to cut the center bar out of his donor van and send it to me. He was concerned that it was very rusty but it was always going to be a lot better than mine which had rusted completely away; mainly I might add because someone had done a filler repair in the past, which had blocked any chance of damp or condensation draining away.

I have made the section after copying the supplied center piece.

I still have the frames which fit into rubber on the front doors. I am well aware that these really are unobtainium. I have managed to weld repair sections in. Next will be finding the rubber section. For a couple of hundred quid I can get a die made and the have all the trim I want at a regular metre rate. Hmm That may be have to be the route. Ouch.

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Are you sure this is War & Peace exhibit material...?

 

Yes, Definitely. As military vehicles go, yours will be one of the rarest vehicles there. How many other ex forces CA s do you think will be there? Probably none. How many civilian Land Rovers painted camo do you think will be there? Quite a few.

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As you may have realised from previous entries the van has no history other than the mysterious 94RN0?(7?) serial number.

As an up date the final digit of the sequence is missing. while I am fairly sure that it is a 7 someone on this site has researched for me and discovered that for the time period there was no 94RN07 or come to that 94RN08.!

 

There are no registration details at all; although Vauxhall Heritage have a manufacture date of 1958 on the chassis number. No month as it was part of a batch order. (presumably Royal Navy)

 

Each time I discover something another mystery seems to pop up.

 

So this afternoon I cleared the back of the back out and discovered two small voids, gaps between the rear fold up 'Utilicon' seat frame, wooden locker and the original wheel arch.

Blow me it it isn't full of newspaper and stuff that some enterprising rodent has been home making with.

 

Oddly enough (pehaps because I am odd) this gets me quite excited because newspapers have dates and information relative to a particular location.

 

Carefully I worked my way through the surviving detrious only to discover the newspapers are foriegn (i.e. not English)

 

and dated as recently as 1997

 

img015.jpg

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img018.jpg

 

A rapid bit of 'Googling' identified the newspaper as 'The Torch' which is published and read in....... Malta.

 

This does make sense, the van isn't too rusty though every piece of rubber trim is shrivelled like it has been torched, that it has stood somewhere very hot.

 

The Royal Navy had a long association with Malta so why wouldn't the have CA van runabouts there.

 

But why a newspaper date of 1997. There was only one paper and no other dates.

 

All theories are welcome. Don'cha just love a mystery

Edited by alixcompo
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I probably am stupid but.....

Having bought a 1957/8 Bedford CA MK1 as a restoration project I now discover it is an ex Naval runabout.

 

I am aware that the rules of restoration are 1: Don't break anything and 2: Don't throw anything away. Now I can add to that, 3: Don't rub the paintwork down too hard or you can obliterate any previous serial numbers and hence history.

 

So where do I go from here? You are all Army vehicle types, armour plate and armaments with drab green in your veins.

Who cares about RN stuff then?

My missus was expecting two tone cream and maroon. How can I tell her that Navy blue will look great and that white lettering is historically significant

 

Is there some clandestine group who slink about at classic vehicle shows in a 'Naval Vehicle' area..?

 

I don't think that I have ever seen them. So where do old RN vehicles go if they don't float...?

 

Help

 

Well the Royal Marines are part of the Navy, so any Royal Marine machinery would technically be 'Navy' rather than 'Army'.

 

As to the newspaper, no idea ,,,,,,,,,,

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Down here in the sunny south I took full advantage of Good Friday to play with toys. I guess it took an hour or two to shake off my conscience about everything else that needed doing but hey the Bedford CA beckoned.

 

Having spent some months welding bolts to dented bodywork in order to effect some straightness I am pleased to show the stage I am at

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Both side of the front windscreen panel were badly perforated. So many forum have statements like 'I had to remove all those bodge repairs' when actually those bodge repairs were what saved the vehicle from the fate of it's kin.

So one side I did a filler repair and the other I spent ages cutting out andc welding in new metal

 

DSC00562.jpg

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A smear of filler and this will be wonderful. I don't suppose one of the repairs will last longer than the other. That is the beauty of having a chassis.

So I next turned my attention the the severly corroded windscreen center section

DSC00545.jpg

Some kind and decent person on the Dormobile website had sent me the center section of their donor vehicle; apologising for the poor state it was in. So first I repaired the repair section and thenfabricated a whole new piece from scratch.

Which to use.

No time to deliberate..... I laid the scratch built section over the reapired piece, using it as a template

DSC00571.jpg

A moment of a MKI becoming a MKII

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And then tacking in the hybrid section

DSC00573.jpg

DSC00572.jpg

 

I am booked in for the War and Peace show in JUly. Not sure what stage the van will be at but it will be there holding up the Royal Navy corner that didn't sink

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