My Vans

I'm always on the lookout for more Bedford Rascal vans in particular - see here.

18/12/2016 - My new Rascal

I found an advert on an obscure website while searching online for Christmas presents. The advert was over a year old and the seller was only 100 miles away from me. He was selling two Suzuki Carry vans and one Rascal. I sent him a quick text message to find out if they were still available and a few minutes later I received a reply telling me they were. The advert had pictures so small I couldn't see what condition the Rascal was in at all but that didn't matter. I made arrangements to go and see it yesterday (17/12) and this is the result:

This was what the van looked like when we got there. It had been in Mullingar railway station for 12 years and was in a very poor state. The front panel is barely attached to the van at all and the dashboard moves if you wiggle the door. In fact, it's probably the worst Rascal I have owned however this did not put me off. Because of the ruthless exporters there are hardly any of these vans left and I was determined to bring this one home with me and restore it.

In the above photo you can see that it is actually sitting on the old tracks at the original station platform. If you look closely you'll also see the blue rope that we used to pull it out but for some reason it kept veering off towards the platform. I just kept lifting the back end up and moving it over to bring it back into line.

It was more or less complete but missing the rear lights and wing mirrors. The seller said he did have these parts and will make an effort to get them to me. However if you have any spare parts you think I might need to restore this van please do get in touch.

I'm going to take this van back to a bare shell and paint it Bedford Cargo blue instead of red inside and out (at least, that's the plan anyway!). I could be doing with a pair of good side loading doors though - these ones are pretty bad at the bottom. The strut tops, on the other hand, are actually in very good condition.