1937 Bedford Restoration… the devil makes work for idle hands

We are busy but on the last day of work before Christmas 2016 I was looking on eBay, all work related of course, and saw a 1930’s Bedford W Series with horsebox body by Vincents of Reading in need of total restoration.

I showed Andrew Pearce, our Managing Director, who was keen to investigate further. Andrew had built some of the last Vincent horseboxes in the early 1980’s. After some haggling, we were off in our low loader to Yorkshire to collect our purchase. As you can see from the photos she was in very poor condition, but very original. The body was very fragile and listing to one side. As we tried to secure the Bedford on to the trailer the ratchet straps just crushed the wood. We even put a skip net over to stop anything coming off.

Once back at base we evaluated the vehicle and decided to firstly get it going. After removing the cylinder head and freeing off four values it ran. It still needs some work in this department but it will move under its own steam for the first time in many years.

We then decided that the body needed removed and completely replaced from scratch as it was as rotten as a pear. After shot blasting the chassis and painting we were ready to start the new body. With new timber supplied we started the build. This is a complex and highly skilled job so we allocated the job to Colin Scard who has many years of experience and is old enough to have built wooden bodies.

The idea of the project is to show we still have traditional coachbuilding skills and we intend to take it out and display it on our trade stands with a new horsebox for comparison.

Watch this space…