For those interested in old cars.

[jcredfer]

 

Typically parked, too, on the pavement and over the double-yellows.

 

Julian

 

Edited December 2, 2020 by jcredfer

[alastairq]

I had one of those!!!

 Or, very similar..the 'Workobus'...!!

 

Lived up to its name on the Hammersmith flyover, by dropping a split pin out of the gear shift ....thus leaving me stuck in 1st gear until I could find somewhere to pull over?

Fear not, youngsters, this was in 1973...the thing cost me 20 quid with ticket left.

 

Discovered a split bellhousing, which was what was causing the clutch problems [it wouldn't!]..  Replacement bellhousing fitted at roadside, real bricks and planks job.

Eventually conked itself out in the middle of Salisbury Plain....in the middle of the night too..

It was like the photo, the 'big wheeled' version...

Later hired a Bedford CF [with twin rear wheels]....my, that was a rocket ship in comparison [to almost everything on the roads of London, at the time]

 

Especially alarming when used to Bedfords, or Morris J types? Or Transit diesel Luton's?

[Rugd1022]

15 hours ago, Kickstart said:

 

Technically not a Maserati Biturbo. The Biturbo got a bad name (BuyTrouble) hence they renamed them when they did some major changes (heavily redesigned front suspension, switch to 5 stud wheels, power steering, diff, fuel injection, etc)

 

All the best

 

Katy

 

 

Thanks Katy - managed a hastily grabbed snap of it earlier this morning whilst out and about, it's a RHD example too....

 

 

[Jol Wilkinson]

15 minutes ago, alastairq said:

I had one of those!!!

 Or, very similar..the 'Workobus'...!!

 

Lived up to its name on the Hammersmith flyover, by dropping a split pin out of the gear shift ....thus leaving me stuck in 1st gear until I could find somewhere to pull over?

Fear not, youngsters, this was in 1973...the thing cost me 20 quid with ticket left.

 

Discovered a split bellhousing, which was what was causing the clutch problems [it wouldn't!]..  Replacement bellhousing fitted at roadside, real bricks and planks job.

Eventually conked itself out in the middle of Salisbury Plain....in the middle of the night too..

It was like the photo, the 'big wheeled' version...

Later hired a Bedford CF [with twin rear wheels]....my, that was a rocket ship in comparison [to almost everything on the roads of London, at the time]

 

Especially alarming when used to Bedfords, or Morris J types? Or Transit diesel Luton's?

My father had a Workabus as a company vehicle for a while in the 1960's. Built/converted by Martin Walter in Kent it had two front seats and two wooden slat longitudinal benches in the back. Driving it was a bit like low flying, the steering being a bit slack.

[Kickstart]

25 minutes ago, Rugd1022 said:

 

Thanks Katy - managed a hastily grabbed snap of it earlier this morning whilst out and about, it's a RHD example too....

 

 

That has been played with a bit I suspect. Those look like later bumpers. Don’t recognise the spoiler (but Maserati had loads of different ones so entirely possible it is original). The badge on the back looks like a far more modern one, rather than the original Zulu shield shaped one. However bumpers and lack of chrome around the windows might mean a later car than the registration plate suggests.

 

The 2.8 litre engine was in a few different specifications, but think most uk ones were with inter coolers, no cats and a claimed 250hp (the convertible was generally lower power - short wheel base meant they gave very little warning of disappearing backwards off the road hence they lost a bit of power to discourage it a bit).

 

Quite a few lhd imports would be Italian market 2L cars (back then any car over 2L or bike over 350cc was subject to a luxury level of vat of 38% rather than 19%), which were pretty powerful.

 

All the best

 

Katy

[Rugd1022]

Driving past yesterday I only really caught a fleeting glimpse and the rear spoiler threw me a bit, at first I thought it looked like the indented Shamal style bootlid, but they're completely different anyway. The more photos I find of the Biturbo era cars, the more subtle differences I notice, some as intended by the factory but plenty of owner's own mods too, particularly regarding the various badges, or lack of, and their positions. I've noticed three distinct variations on Ghibli bootlids, some just have the trident in the middle, some have the Maserati script underneath and some have 'GHIBLI' on the right hand side as well. It's strange how the shield badge appears and disappears on some of these cars too, as far as I can tell all of the Shamals had one on the bonnet but most Ghiblis don't, I suspect that those that do have had them added by their owners at some point. 

 

John Price Williams' book on the Biturbos is making fascinating ready at the moment!

 

A nice comparison shot between the Ghibli and Shamal....

 

 

 

 

Edited December 2, 2020 by Rugd1022

[MrWolf]

2 hours ago, jcredfer said:

 

Typically parked, too, on the pavement and over the double-yellows.

 

Julian

 

 

There's loading exemption signs on the lamp posts and that's what we were doing. (Whilst of course reenacting a typical bit of van behaviour!)

But I will agree with you it does look like transit van man nipping out to a greasy spoon or some lazy ho in a MPV outside the school gates. 

As for the bumper, that was secured with Binx nuts about 20 years ago as welding up the mountings is a fiddly job you only want to do once.

Edited December 2, 2020 by MrWolf
Stupid autocorrect

[great central]

Went on a mega shed bash around Glasgow and Edinburgh in 1963 in a Bedford CA minibus type of thing, longitudinal wooden bench seats in the back and about 50mph everything seemed to rattle.

I was 10 years old. We somehow got lost in the backstreets if The Gorbals, next thing there's house bricks being thrown at us cos we're obviously strangers. 

Loads of cops though for the combine

[MrWolf]

Oddly enough, I have owned a Bedford with a damaged bellhousing. It had had it's clutch replaced some years previously yet the gears still crunched and the clutch slipped so the owner had dumped it in a corner of a shed.

Obviously the mechanic who did the job hadn't much idea. The bellhousing stays on the engine and you pull out only the gearbox and use that to align the new clutch. He had also prised off the clutch fork like it was a modern car. The mounting of the clutch arm is much more sophisticated, doesn't need removal and generally outlasted the vehicle. 

If as they say in the forces RTFM - Read The F******* Manual. You can replace the clutch at the side of the road in less than an hour.

This chump had removed all manner of bolts and not taken off the inspection cover to, well, inspect the job. He got the clutch in, hammered the damaged fork back on to the pivot ball and reassembled. Leaving a couple of crucial bolts out of the bell housing and not securing the anti tramp bar correctly.

So that when you depressed the clutch, the engine and box were trying to part company. Until of course the cast iron bellhousing cried enough.

Of course, by the time we got them as teenagers in the 80s, the newest ones were 15 years old so that the damage had been done. As for the gear change rods, that's why you kept a few split pins or paperclips in the tool tray. If as most owners / drivers evidently didn't when new - RTFM, it says in the routine maintenance section "apply a few drops of oil....." 

As for the CF, I had one of those too, a 2.3 litre single wheeler. It would out run, out handle (didn't have a 1930s beam axle) and was nicer to use than a transit. Downside was a raging thirst, awkward to get at spark plugs and the ability to rust almost as well as a Transit. If Bedford had released it in 65 or 66 in its original 1.8l form, Ford might not have taken over the UK van market. 

[Kickstart]

1 hour ago, Rugd1022 said:

Driving past yesterday I only really caught a fleeting glimpse and the rear spoiler threw me a bit, at first I thought it looked like the indented Shamal style bootlid, but they're completely different anyway. The more photos I find of the Biturbo era cars, the more subtle differences I notice, some as intended by the factory but plenty of owner's own mods too, particularly regarding the various badges, or lack of, and their positions. I've noticed three distinct variations on Ghibli bootlids, some just have the trident in the middle, some have the Maserati script underneath and some have 'GHIBLI' on the right hand side as well. It's strange how the shield badge appears and disappears on some of these cars too, as far as I can tell all of the Shamals had one on the bonnet but most Ghiblis don't, I suspect that those that do have had them added by their owners at some point. 

 

John Price Williams' book on the Biturbos is making fascinating ready at the moment!

 

A nice comparison shot between the Ghibli and Shamal....

 

 

 

 

There are various owners changes. Ours we think was built as a 222E in 1989, but had the later 222SE bumpers and exhausts fitted when first registered in 1991. 
 

The rear spoiler on ours has 3 tiny drainage “slits” , which get blocked very easily resulting in a pond on the boot lid.

 

I do like Ghiblis. 
 

Years ago we broke down and called the AA. Guy came along and said “funniest MR2 I have seen”. Turned out the AA didn’t have Maserati 222 on their system and MR2 sounded similar!

 

All the best

 

Katy

[alastairq]

Om the Bedford CA front, I admit I recall considering bolting straps to the bell housing...but I think a local scrappy ]Lewisham?] came up trumps with a freebie bell housing.

The trouble with Hammersmith flyover back in those days was, no hard shoulder to stop on...

 

My CA eventually passed away [it went missing in action, literally] when the front of the propshaft parted company with itself, the van doing a pole vault.

In the mddle of the night.

On Salisbury Plain....

A  'local' garage I engaged to go recover it...couldn't find it.....

A chum came to rescue myself and my 'load', from lunnun,  using another of my 20 quid with a bit of ticket wonders...a mk3 Zephyr 4..   Two of us, with boot, and rear seat full of students baggage, trunks, etc....and that wonderful heater that was twice the size of a Morris Minor....

 

I had a lot of fun with those scrapyard specials....My 'posh' car being a nearly new ['68] AH Sprite...which I kept in a garage.

[Fat Controller]

My father used to have a Bedford CA van; the sliding doors had a habit of flying open on sharp bends. Still, at least it worked, which is more than could be said for the Austin FG, or the Standard Atlas pick-up.

[PhilJ W]

I had a Bedford CAL Workabus during the long hot summer of '76. The sliding doors were hardly ever closed, being held open by a webbing strap each side that looped over the inside handle. Its true that Fords Transit caught Bedford napping and the CF was a bit of a rush job being basically an enlarged CA with the mechanicals of the then current Victor range. Part of the delay was because they already had a CA replacement on the stocks the CB but in light of the Transits success decided to drop it and go for the CF instead. More about the Bedford CB here. 

As can be seen they were going down the Thames 400E, Commer and BMC J2 path. 

The other competitor for the medium van market was the Leyland Sherpa which once it got beyond its J4 with a snout origins was also quite good. The longer/wider versions had more cubic feet in the back than their Transit and CF counterparts and was also available as a special with the Rover 3.6 litre V8 under the bonnet. One such was in service with the Essex Police Underwater Search Unit back in the 80's. Speaking to the crew they told me that it was modified to improve the handling which was the Achilles heel of the Sherpa. The modification involved massive anti-roll bars front and rear.

[MrWolf]

I remember reading about the CB van, it should have hit the showrooms about 1960, same as the Commer P series. The Ford Thames 400E was modern looking for 1957 but very narrow and mechanically archaic compared to the CA which had unequal length dual wishbones and coil over shocks  IFS at the front and telescopic dampers on the rear cart springs. The Thames also rusted out badly. The CA also rusted of course but a lack of double skinning and a hefty chassis kept them going. The trouble was, they could handle so much abuse that when they did finally give up, they were dead.

I never really got on with the Sherpa or its descendants. I didn't like the driving position, or the feeling of the front track being too narrow, the unreliable switch gear and several other niggles. I did own an LDV pilot for about three months. Which was enough. It always started, always got me there (usually more dead and aching than the CA, which bounced along cheerfully at about 50 and made people smile whilst trying to cook your passengers right foot) and carried mountains of timber all over the country, but I just couldn't take to it. The other thing was more rust than Brighton pier and put me in mind of what we used to say: "Learn how to weld - buy a Transit".

[BernardTPM]

Interestingly the Bedford CF came out two years before the similar looking (but larger) Chevrolet van. Prior to that Chevrolet had a cab-forward design like the old Thames, J4 etc.

[steve1]

Spotted this old bruiser in Scotland a few years ago.

 

steve

 

[MrWolf]

Got to admire your taste in old cars there. I do like those late thirties to early fifties American coupes, however impractical they might be. It looks like a circa 1946 Chrysler.

[PhilJ W]

I've always thought that Bedford should have continued with an updated version of the CA. Same chassis but with rack and pinion steering and 'four-on-the-floor' gearbox. Restyled body with the same styling as the CF, possibly using some panels such as cab doors. This would fill the gap between the HA and the CF models.

[PhilJ W]

9 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Got to admire your taste in old cars there. I do like those late thirties to early fifties American coupes, however impractical they might be. It looks like a circa 1946 Chrysler.

Late 40's Packard.

[MrWolf]

[figworthy]

On 01/12/2020 at 21:58, MrWolf said:

 

Probably rarer than a Maserati by now, 1956 ex War Department Bedford CA "Kenabrake" crewbus by Kenex conversions.

 

When I were a lad, our local greengrocer had the plain van version, complete with a single wheeled trailer (anyone remember those ?).

 

Adrian

[MJI]

1 hour ago, figworthy said:

 

When I were a lad, our local greengrocer had the plain van version, complete with a single wheeled trailer (anyone remember those ?).

 

Adrian

 

My dad had a single wheel trailer on a Reliant Supervan

[MrWolf]

I don't remember single wheel trailers other than the ones that you saw behind motorcycles or sidecar outfits.

[Enterprisingwestern]

8 hours ago, MJI said:

 

My dad had a single wheel trailer on a Reliant Supervan

 

That was when he was reversing!

 

Mike.

[MrWolf]

@figworthy Do you mean something like this 1950s All-state trailer? 

All-state was the motor accessories arm of the Sears chain stores.