Bedford CF Camper
Ben’s crusty camper comes back from the dead
They say that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. How very true; it’s much the same with Bedford CF reconstruction. before I first raised an angle grinder to its decaying hulk, it was clear that my 1972 Dormobile was ridiculously rusty. I knew that that it would take an eternity of cutting, grinding, metal-bashing and welding before it would even begin to look like something capable of rolling down the queen’s highway. I could even see that – and whisper this bit quietly – swapping the glassfibre rear body onto a better CF chassis-cab would have been a much smarter thing to do. But hey, where would the fun have been in that?
And it has been fun. No, really. Three years of replacing rust with steel, one awkwardly-shaped piece at a time, has proven to be very satisfying. Replacement CF panels are scarce and expensive, making home-made fabrication the only way forwards. I’m no panel beater, but fashioning inelegant but strong repairs using scraps of salvaged steel seems to be doing the trick.
Every freshly-painted repair is a mini victory, every rejuvenated panel worthy of pride and admiration. Never have refabricated chassis outriggers, seat belt mounts and scuttle repairs looked so beautiful. Maybe I need to get out more.
Life is a cab array
Due to the Dormobile’s lifetime of inactivity – it has only covered 18,000 miles from new – all of the corrosion was due to rain, rather than road salt. This meant that the cab had rotted from the top down, going all floppy and misshapen as a result.
First, the outer wings were pulled off and the sagging A-posts were repaired and reinforced, allowing the driver’s door to be re-hung, while a better passenger-side door was offered up. The iffy inner wings, engine bay floor, wheelarches and chassis legs were carefully rebuilt, before the outer wings were welded back on.
The bonnet and grille panel were swapped for less decrepit alternatives, with the front lip of the replacement bonnet rebuilt. The ruined front valance is horrible, though. Trying to weld up its lace-thin skin has proven to be a fool’s errand. I haven’t encountered a suitable replacement, so I may have to give in and buy a GRP replica.
‘The cab had rotted out, going all floppy and misshapen’
Meanwhile, the steel beam that spans the gap between the chassis legs at the very front of the van – providing a firm mounting point for the bumpers and radiator – has been usurped in favour of a home-made creation. Pre-facelift CFS like mine have this beam welded in place, but later versions received a bolt-on front end, massively improving engine access. Just in case the engine has to come out at some point, I have adapted the chassis leg ends to accept a sturdy, bolt-on bar. Onto this fit new bumper irons, made from scratch using second-hand steel from an old table, plus a pair of quarter bumpers found at the Beaulieu Spring Autojumble.
Scuppered scuttle
The most depressing damage had occurred beneath the windscreen. The scuttle panel just wasn’t there anymore and neither was the lower lip of the windscreen surround, or the edge of the dashboard panel. Even if I had cut an unscathed scuttle from a scrap shell (assuming I could have found one), there were absolutely no reference points to aid fitting it. My solution was simple, but painstakingly slow. Leaving the windscreen and its rubber seal in place, I folded a 1in strip of steel to roughly the same profile as the absent scuttle, using an element of guesswork. The top lip of this strip was carefully tucked into the windscreen seal, as the scuttle would have done, while the strip’s lower edge was tacked in place. This was repeated along the whole lower edge of the windscreen, building up the shape of the scuttle piece by piece. Once the windscreen was removed, all of these pieces were welded together, smoothed with filler and painted, before the windscreen and seal were re-introduced. Despite agonising over this repair, I was astonished at how well the glass fitted into the gap; I’d got it right. Huzzah! Now here is just the small matter of the disintegrating rear body framework to sort out. And the brakes and electrics, plus the inoperative engine and seized clutch. Not to mention building a new interior. Oh well, at least I’m enjoying myself.