restoration Crocs' Bedford Blog

At the Measham "Gipsy Sale" in 1997 there was also a Bedford RL, a friend of mine, Dick, decided not to buy a Gipsy as the prices were over inflated by a number of dealers (who ultimately got their fingers burnt). As Dick was already running RLs as part of his business he bought this one, intending to add it to his fleet. Work had started on getting it ready for a respray when he was taken ill and he was no longer able to make use of his toys. Some time ago he asked me to help find a good home for his Austin Gipsy, which went to Adam Elsdon. He subsequently asked if I would like this lorry. Hopefully by the end of the summer we will get a chance to go and visit him, with both the Gipsy and RL back on the road.

First picture for the blog is the RL at the Measham sale in '97, as far as I know this was the last RL (other than Green Goddesses) to be released from the Home Office. It is pictured in "The Green Machine" book p.xlviii.

As it was in Dicks' yard in Dundee a few months ago.

Almost home behind the Scammell.

Croc that is a very late one with the chrome grill surround - two of the six we bought in about 1990 were like that and I was tempted to keep one but didn't. Biggest problem was hanging onto the gearboxes as our pikey friends seemed to have a ready market for them, Vass lost something like 30 over one weekend despite half of them having a bar welded across the fixing bolts and the UJ nuts and bolts welded together. They came back the following night with a trolley jack and jacked under the gearbox until the bellhousings shattered and ran a tube cutter round the props!

What a cracking wagon. I love Bedford RLs and I'm dead jealous of that one.

Once the RL was home first job was to get it moving under its' own power. A couple of bits, the coil and an elbow on the exhaust manifold, were missing. I have all the lights and chrome trim safe in a box and managed to find the elbow, although it is damaged, but no coil. Adam came round and donated a spare pig coil then cleaned up the ignition system and with the exhaust bolted together we gave it a go. The fuel pump wasn't drawing so I set up an electric one to get petrol into the carb. It fired up quite easily and once running the mechanical pump started working.

With the engine running and warmed up the next problem was a stuck clutch, this was dealt with a couple of days later with a bit of gentle off-roading and some deliberate "kangarooing" in low box. None of that was very photogenic so I took the RL for a drive earlier this evening to get some pics.

I see you have discovered the legendary RL flexible chassis. If you look at the floor members in the loadspace they are all spaced a few mm apart, not because they have shrunk but because they were built like that to let the body flex.

When in storage for the AFS, they all had wooden blocks fitted to take the weight off the springs, the regulators were removed and a device was fitted to hold the clutches down as they are prone to sticking.

When we picked our ones up we discovered that even the fuel tanks were inhibited and they smoked like mad until we filled the tanks with fresh fuel.

The rear body hasnt fell off yet then! :-D

I see you have discovered the legendary RL flexible chassis. If you look at the floor members in the loadspace they are all spaced a few mm apart, not because they have shrunk but because they were built like that to let the body flex.

 

When in storage for the AFS, they all had wooden blocks fitted to take the weight off the springs, the regulators were removed and a device was fitted to hold the clutches down as they are prone to sticking.

 

When we picked our ones up we discovered that even the fuel tanks were inhibited and they smoked like mad until we filled the tanks with fresh fuel.

This is how they looked when first released:

Smashing. Absolutely smashing.

So is there any more progress?

Not much progress at the moment, apart from changing the antifreeze. It turns out that the body has been unbolted from the chassis. I think there may have been a plan to fit a hiab behind the cab, but the job was never done. I have decided that I may as well lift the body off to clean and paint the chassis, but haven't got round to it yet.

That sounds familiar, the plan to fit a Hiab behind the cab, but haven't got round to it yet.

Are all the U bolts present, if not I've got the ones from when I removed my body if you need them.

crocs shot of his RL in boggyground reminded me of this one from the RAWHS collection in the AEC Millitant mk3 RV set

Has the RL been left outside for 12 years and subject to some robbing of parts? It looked in very good condition at the sale.