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Anon
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Hi Everyone

Hi All,

Thought I would introduce ourselves, we are a husband/wife/daughter team of campers that was looking for a project camper to have something to spend the weekend aways in. After I bought an Iveco Daily van and started a conversion we quickly discovered that the wife couldn't drive the upside down gearbox so we cashed in and started looking for a camper with an over the cab sleeping area large enough to accomodate a 16 year old.

We found a 1979 Bedford CF280 on eBay which we fell in love with, there was only one picture and it didnt look too bad so we decided to go and look at it. The seller had listed it in Herefordshire (20 miles away from us) instead of Hertfordshire (a long way away) so after a unexpected 3 hour drive we pulled up and felt a little dissapointed.

The van was in a pretty bad shape, cracked windows, lots of rotten wood, hundreds of dodgy repairs, the whole van had been brush painted in a variety of enamel paints. The interior was damp and it just kept getting worse and worse. Probably the worse part was that I was excited by the project, my wife was in love with the van, and the seller wasnt budging on his 'already very high' asking price. We handed over the cash and I started planning on the way home how to tackle it.

We had a couple of good weekends away in it, and then on our way home it died, a large bang and puff of smoke in my rear view mirror (wife was following me in the camper) and it was clearly something serious. Opening the bonnet on the side of the M5 revealed a hole in the side of the engine, hot oil pouring out and flames covering the engine..... I *very luckily* managed to extinguish the fire before the van caught (I wont say how because it was stupidly dangerous, but turned out to be the lesser of two evils) and its now at our local garage having the engine removed.

Local garaged claimed they could replace the engine with a 2.0 16V Redtop from a Vauxhall Sierra - but this turned out to require too much structural work, so I am now looking for a cheap replacement engine. Its a 2.3 Petrol I think with 4 Speed box.

This is now going to be a very long restoration project, and its likely to be another month at least before theres a running engine in it - just hope we can get it down before the summer kicks in next year!

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Sun 27 Nov 2011 @ 12:35 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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familycamper wrote:
Hi All,



t - just hope we can get it down before the summer kicks in next year!


Don't fret,you've got 10 months.

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Sun 27 Nov 2011 @ 13:55 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Welcome.

Hi familycamper people,

You have joined the right club to get the help you need, I looked at an engine on ebay just last week 2.3cc bedford, so they are still around to be had.
And they are a helpfull band of guy's on this site so no doubt some one will have the bits you are looking for to put your poor old bedford back on the road.

Doug.

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Sun 27 Nov 2011 @ 13:59 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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firstly a big welcome to the club

i'll second that there is always somebody on here more than willing to help

good luck with the refurb mate
i just got mine back after 18 months and trust me its all worth it

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Sun 27 Nov 2011 @ 23:01 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Thanks for the replies.

I missed out on a beddy for £200 on eBay - but it had low compression in 4th cyl so was nervous anyway.

Have been offered another for £400 engine only but seems a bit steep.

And another on eBay that he wont guarantee or say when it was last running.

So still stuck, van is having the engine removed and im no closer..... will just have to wait i guess.
Sun 27 Nov 2011 @ 23:49 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Does it need to be a full engine transplant? when trawling through listings, I have often found engines stripped and parts sold seperately, for example, over the past, i've seen slant engine cylinder heads and blocks sold seperately, if there is not too much damage to the engine, you may find it cheaper to find parts and rebuild your engine

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Mon 28 Nov 2011 @ 00:02 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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The mechanic has suggested a full transplant. There was a very large hole in the side of it, and im not sure how much damage was caused.

Also, and this may sound silly - but do these engines require a Lead Substitute , its a 1979 but the seller never mentioned it.
Mon 28 Nov 2011 @ 00:08 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Lead sub.

Hi familycamper,

The main reason for a lead substitute is that it can stop the valve seats from burning out the valves, but you can have the seats replaced.
I have not done this to my old bedford because it does a very low mileage, plus you can set up the ign timing to help stop this from happening.
And there are additives you can buy to put into the fuel tank as you fill up, or you can buy four star fuel, there is a supplier on this site as well as on others on line.
And it is easier to change the whole unit in one go, plus you get left with some useful spare parts, like crankshaft, oil pump, cylinderhead, water pump maybe.

Doug.

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Mon 28 Nov 2011 @ 10:25 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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hello and welcome
Mon 28 Nov 2011 @ 11:32 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Hello and welcome. You've joined a fantastic club.

Please post pics of a Vauxhall Sierra for me ... I'm really intrigued.

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Mon 28 Nov 2011 @ 21:59 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Now this is an interesting car I for 1 would also like to see what it looks like .

Talking of a Sierra had a bloke in work on Friday asking if we could sort out his wipers on his Citroen Sierra lol.

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Mon 28 Nov 2011 @ 22:53 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Colin Birch
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Spookytim wrote:
Hello and welcome. You've joined a fantastic club.

One that's full of p**s takers

Oh, and welcome to the club

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Colin Birch - CF-UK Admin
Pontypridd, S.Wales
The Bedford CF Web Site
http://www.cf-uk.co.uk

Mon 28 Nov 2011 @ 23:06 View Colin Birch   Email Colin Birch   Colin Birch Home Page   Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Colin Breach wrote:
One that's full of p**s takers


I didn't know we had that many Peter Ian Stakers in the club

Rae & Ann

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Mon 28 Nov 2011 @ 23:11 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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family campers

the early frontera used the same 2.3 slant 4....so anything around a 1993 long wheelbase petrol will be an ideal candidate...i,m putting my beloved bertie on ebay this week but he,s 2.3 diesel..good luck guys

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Wed 30 Nov 2011 @ 19:20 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Frontera never had the slant 2.3 petrol engine fitted.

They had either the 2.0 Opel petrol or 2.3 Opel diesel non turbo fitted in them.

Later ones had the turbo version of the 2.3d fitted and then the later vauxhall 1.8 OHC and bigger.
Diesel was swapped to a 2.7 Isuzu.

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Wed 30 Nov 2011 @ 22:22 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Ah good you all spotted the deliberate mistake

Its a ford isnt it... anyways its a 2.0 16v , but it never materialised anyway. Hopefully I will win a new engine on eBay over the next few days and they can get it running again in January, either way its going to need a new MOT by then which could present a whole host of other problems.

Need to sort something out soon before I start getting charged for storage, the leak above the kiddies bed is getting worse too.
Fri 16 Dec 2011 @ 13:17 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
Anon
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Hi and welcome, theres one on Ebay in Birmingham if you haven't already seen it, but if your in no rush one should be available before next summer.

Item number: 290640844742 if you want to check it out.

Regards - Wayne.

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Fri 16 Dec 2011 @ 14:37 Edit this messageQuote this messagePMQuote this message
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