In The Cab - Rust Damage

Here are a selection of phots taken once we got the van back to my grandma's (where the restoration was done) after we lifted the carpet in the cab and took a hammer to the rust.

The final photo was taken after had cleaned up the driver's side with a wire brush and angle grinder.

My Old Man's Van...

One the reasons that attracted us to the Bedford, aside from it's original looks, it's size and what looked to be good scope for customisation, was that it kind of runs in the family.

Back in the day when my dad was just a young man, he and two friend's got together and took a Bedford bus around Scandinavia. With two home made bench beds build down the site and a UK flag painted on it they set off, and from what I have heard about the trip there were a number of humorous adventures.

My dad's role turned out to quite quickly be the mechanic for the van, so his skills and knowledge we hoped would come in useful when restoring ours. A couple of "qucik" fixes he had to do to his van whilst out there was rebuild the engine entirely using adjustable spanners, and also at one point I think the wheel fell off and they had to weld it back on apparently!

Here are some photos from the trip. If anyone knows if the van is still around, owned by someone else then I'm sure he'd love to know!

Introduction...

My first "blog"!

Let's see how it goes, I'll apologise in advance for all the spelling and grammatical errors!

So, what's it all about? What is this "Zen Dog"? Well to answer that we need to rewind a little bit...

For a long time I have wanted a van. The ideas and possibilies that open up from simply gaining a medium sized mode of transport, that one can live in, has always seemed an opportunity too good to be missed to me. Numeruos camping holidays as a child and the excitement of sleeping outdoors or away from everyone, listening to the ambient sounds of the wild being carried by the wind gave me simple pleasures that I struggled to find whilst living and working in London. The city and all the nonsense that comes with is were starting to get to me, something had to be done.

Whilst procastinating from work, my computer screen soon became no longer filled with images from the video I was supposed to be editing, but of images of houseboats, vans, buses and the like. It wasn't soon before the dreams where narrowing down into a small collection of actual possibilities. Whilst stumbling through ad pages and forums I changed up a lovely blue 1968 Bedford CA Romany for £500. From the photos it was in the best condition of ones we'd seen so far, so my girlfriend and I decided to go and see it. My parents came along as my dad has a bit of history with a Bedford van himself. (See next post).

We travelled to see the van which had been sitting in a field for the last 5 years. The engine had been started every now and then to keep it running, however when we were there it would turn over but not spark. The chasis was in great condition, and our initial inspection of the bodywork gave me good hopes. It needed some work (always more than you imagine!) but we were up for it and the opportunity seemed right. We settled with the owner and bought it for £250, and arranged to come back to collect it with a trailer in a couple of weeks.

We had it! Just realised that this didn't explain the Zen Dog thing at all but maybe that'll be explained later. Basically, we wanted a van, we found the van, we love the van! :D

This blog will follow the restoration and the customisation of it, and probably osme if its journeys I imagine.

The images show us moving it from the field!