Superb.. Possibly like yourself I have many memories of these as a child, from local council vans to ambulance but the all time kids favourite. The Ice-cream Van..
7:44 ...I remember selling tools to Bootham Engineers in the late 80's , they were an account customer of the firm I worked for. Founded in the 30's they dissolved about 5 years ago. I have fond memories of the occasional ride in a CF. My Dad worked for SWEB and the vans were a delicious chocolate and cream two tone. Thought the sliding doors were cool as a kid !
I've actually got a 79 Bedford Cf 280 pop top repowered by a Nissan LD28 auto gear box in NZ. I bought it last year, currently slowly getting it back on the rd as it has some rust, electrical, and mechanical issues. I've always wanted a Bedford, grew up with a Transit, buy always thought the Bedford looked better
A kind of tiny Dodge Ram with a 4 banger. Same exact configuration except for our steering wheel which is on the right side, I mean the left one, hehe. Astucious sweet van! Thanks for this nice share.
I had one of these as a daily driver when I was an apprentice for Frigidaire in 1972-76 (a GM company at the time). My CF was an M reg with sliding front doors & barn doors at the back. Light Blue with hand sign written livery. It had the 1.8litre slant 4 petrol engine & a 3 speed gearbox. It was quick around town but needed another gear when on the motorway. I was travelling all over London & the Home Counties in it fixing & transporting Frigidaire appliances. Rear was racked out with spares & space for at least 2- washing machines, a twin tub & a few spin dryers.
Thanks foŕ the Bedford CF presentation, I actually owned one of these in the facelifted front model still using the 2.3 slant 4 from the Victor, Viva, Magnum & Firenza range. Incidentally, my mother worked for a GM outlet out in the colonies (NZ) between 74-81, my late father had a CA with sliding doors as a bread vendor salesman back in the 60's as a job on the side. My CF was an 84 CF350 with ZF 4 speed manual. The auto would have been a Strasbourg unit, earlier models may have been a Borg Warner unit 35, whilst overdrive would have been Laycock De Normanville type J. I'm slipping into the eternal sin of waffling on. Biggest problem was the brake maintenance requiring so much emery paper. I understand the british military had a variant in the CF2 range as a 4x4 through RU-vid. A lot of those businesses in your presentation would have gone bust or amalgamated with other firms. As I mentioned in your Marina 2 presentation, I am out in the colonies (NZ), a few CF's had six cylinder aftermarket engines fitted from the Holden ( australian GM ) range, incidentally I drove these before owning a 4 cylinder model. Those 6 cylinder engines would have been 161ci ( 2600cc ) swb, 173ci ( 2850cc ) both from the Holden Torana LJ range that Vauxhall's Leo Preneau helped design in Australia after UK HC Viva production. Another Holden engine was the 202ci ( 3310cc ) unit from the HQ Holden car in Australia, this would go on to be the one that Vauxhall - Bedford would endorse, exporting the six cylinder lump to the UK then exporting back, in this case to the NZ market for the NZ Saint Johns Ambulance fleet in 1986. In NZ we only had two microfiche for aftermarket parts whilst in Australia, they had seven. Those engine conversions must have contributed alot to this. In the domestic Australian market, a lot of Vauxhall slant 4 were incorporated in their smaller capacity Holden Torana's throughout the 60's and 70's. Thanks for your presentation, sorry about the waffle 😂
It's crazy that even the most basic new van these days far exceeds the features of the most deluxe of this era. Really enjoyed looking through this brochure with you. Many thanks!
Memories.ihad a brand new one in 82, a 250 pick up, curtisey of the local authority. It came after a commer van, then a datson pick up...who's tailgate fell off in town-- rust😂
Bedford CF superb van, I repaired and serviced these vans for the local council. They were much better than the Ford Transit of that time, better fuel MPG. The CF2 was not as good as the original unfortunately, I preferred the MK1. Very rare to see one nowadays sadly.
@@quarterlight it’s a lovely thing and the rust preventions from the Vauxhall Bedford company did their job perfect . A Ford Transit was a bigger rusty crusty ;)
