I saw this obviously imported van in the yard at Bert’s Two Guys and a Dog Garage, and went back later to check it out:
The rear view has a better clue, that little silver tag on the door says Bedford. It’s a model CA panel van from Britain.
The Bedford CA van was built in the UK from 1952 to 1969, and were apparently very common on British streets. They were also sold in Canada from 1957-1963, and it’s the first one I’ve ever seen. Since this example has a one piece windscreen I’ll say early 60’s. It’s actually supposed to look like this.
Not a lithe or graceful machine by any stretch, you may wonder why they’d bother to bring these over. As I’ve said before, it’s difficult to fully appreciate the cultural sway that Great Britain had over Canada in the 1950s.
Here’s a simple little cabin for the passengers, looks like a column shift with the signal light selector on the dash. I like the rusty spot on the wheel well where the passenger’s feet wore the paint away. We’ll see why later.
Looking back all the major bits seem to be present and stored inside.
Nothing rusts like British steel, the lack of deep corrosion makes me suspect that this example came from Western Canada, either the dry prairies or the formerly oh so British city of Victoria BC.
I didn’t notice this until I was preparing the post, but look how far offset the engine is to give the driver some foot room. No wonder the paint is worn off the passenger wheel well.
There’s a few new fasteners visible here, someone was doing a bit of work on it. That’s apparently a 1.5 liter overhead valve four with all of 52hp, and it’s always good to have a hand crank fitting on a vehicle with Lucas electrics.
The original hand lettering was obviously sanded off some time ago, but from the right side we can see that it once said;
PLUMBING – HEATING
SHEET METAL – ELECTRICAL
That’s a lot of activity for such a small van. The name on the front and sliding side doors is a bit tougher. I think it says XX Brown Ltd. but I can’t make out the initials.
So why did Bedford last only through 1963 in Canada, whereas the CA soldiered on until 1969 in the UK? For one thing, British influence was beginning to wane in the 1960’s. One other clue to Bedford’s demise in Canada is that the company was part of GM.
The Chevrolet Sport Van came out in 1964 and I can imagine that it would undermine enthusiasm for selling a quirky small van that had to be shipped from overseas to a limited market. The CA certainly wasn’t going to fly in America, look how quirky and small worked out for the Corvair Greenbrier.
I enjoyed looking this van ove;, it’s British-ness revived fond memories of my lamentable TR4 project. Hopefully someone will take on this fairly solid project, like it says on the side all it needs is a little plumbing, heating, sheet metal and electrical. 🙂
Looks loveable if probably miserable to drive/ride in….
.
-Nate
They were far better than their contemporary ‘cab over’ fully forward control light vans like the Austin/Morris J2, Ford Thames 400E or Commer PB with a more car than bus-like steering wheel position, independent front suspension and easy kerb access with the sliding doors. The layout foreshadowed that used by Ford from 1965 in the Transit which toppled the then 12 year old CA from it’s top selling spot.
The deeper side windows indicate this is the long wheelbase variant.
CAs only came in one wheelbase but in ute milk float van etc I have a body style chart for them somewhere there were many factory variations available.
The original wheelbase was 90″, but a longer 102″ CAL was introduced in 1958, at the same time as the introduction of the single screen. The main body panel pressings were the same, but there was a short extra section added to the front of the side panels and much wider doors (with the deeper side window) mentioned in this workshop manual (p.26).
http://www.bedford-ca.com/Bedford%20CA%20Manual.pdf
As well as the panel vans, chassis cab and chassis cowl versions were also made, as you mention.
Only one was sent CKD and only the van.
My family had a Ford Thames 400E in Vancouver in the 1960s – but I don’t ever remember seeing a Bedford there. They were certainly common in the UK though.
RHD like my one the engine is offset the other way easy way to tell the age of it is the wheels they were 15inch until 63/4 then they went to 13s also the roof gained pressed ribs in 61 or so powertrain was from the victor sedan and went to 1600 when they did in 63 with the FB, slow vans on the road happy cruise was about 50-55 mph they had a low geared rear axle for load carrying but are really only good for half a ton or so tappet/valve cover is reversed so oil can be added by opening the doghouse a small hatch on the bonnet allows access to the radiator, I drove mine by working the cab by hand with the engine cover open not much fun but it got me home where I could piece the rather complicated linkage back together lots of clever spring steel clips to fail with age that the dealer no longer stocks, Fun old van though I’d have another just with less rust and work beaten body next time maybe a dormobile version. This is the second model with 1500 engine and one piece front screen later models had a deeper windshield in fact this one is almost the twin of the one I had my fathers firm had several as parts runners mine had been a tractor service van and got a hard life repairing tractors on farm it carried a portable rail system to split a tractor on site and bring the offending item engine transmission or rear axle back to the workshop for repairs, from 59 untill 74 it covered 240,000 miles when it was retired a friend bought it we installed another motor then I bought it and rebuilt the gearbox then it got rolled and written off though it still ran and drove.
Was that doghouse built to be so easily removable? If so, that would make service a breeze. Or, perhaps this is the result of hours and hours of penetrating oil and disassembly.
Also, it strikes me that while American vans chased these out of Canada in the 60s, European-style vans are lately having the last laugh.
All the front panels were attached with bolts and could be removed for maintenance (p.27 of the manual).
http://www.bedford-ca.com/Bedford%20CA%20Manual.pdf
The engine was used to power the refrigeration units when they were used as ice cream vans and in hot weather (when they were most active, of course!) the little bonnet tops were often propped open top help cool the engine.
Internal engine cover was hinged at the floor, locked with a handle at the top a feature removed in the later CF series, Front bonnet had an access hatch and the entire panel was attached with zues fasteners this one has had the front clip removed which merely unbolts
Hand cranking anything with Lucas electrics must be like beating yourself in the head with a hammer; it feels so good when you stop. 🙂
Only the CA was fitted with Delco,being a GM model.
Odd-looking little thing, but quite interesting. I never realized just how many UK-market vehicles had Canadian variants “back in the day”.
As Bernard Taylor said, these predicted the van configuration to come. Too bad Chevy didn’t see that, and instead built another Econoline clone. It would have been an opportunity for them to lead rather than follow with their Chevy van. But I guess they wanted to play it safe after the Corvair van.
I’ve been walking the earth in western Canada for a few decades and don’t recall ever seeing one of these around. Which I find odd as British cars were certainly popular in the Edmonton area until the mid-sixties.
I can only remember one type of British van with the engine placed between the front seats. The same engine used in the Austin Mini. I helped a friend extract said engine for a small car project. It was quite a chore to get that little boat anchor out from the front passenger area. The van had been used for small deliveries by a major trucking firm.
That sounds like a J model BMC van they used the B series engines like the MG not the smaller A series from the Mini, the engine comes out underneath not out from the top like a lot of vans you drop the front suspension leaving the engine attached and remove the body.
Hah, that would have made it easier to remove! Of course that method of removal wasn’t considered by ourselves.
Thanks for the additional information. If the van had an MG power plant then would it would have been pretty robust?
A simple van like that would fit with my retirement plan. I plan to go fishing. That looks just big enough to sleep in. It also looks British enough to require fixing every few hundred miles.
Both the CA I had and its bretheren used where my father worked required little in the way of repairs throughout their service lives, simple rugged OHV engines theres little go wrong just an oil and filter change periodically new points and plugs at regular intervals and they run for decades reliably.
I like the later Bedford vans that look a lot like a scaled down 70s Chevy Van. GM could have imported that Bedford van , or maybe produce it in the U.S. , instead of the mid size Astro.
I vaguely remember seeing a few of these as a young boy in the ’60’s. The American vans were much more common, along with the VW vans, of course, but I remember seeing a few of these. I also saw one in old photos from relatives in Scotland – I think my uncle in Glasgow had one for his butcher shop. Quite a rare find – I hope someone can bring it back to life.
This site STEALS copyright material !
The Blue Bedford CA MkIb Workobus was taken from my website, and instead of cropping off my copyright notice, you could do me the courtesy of acknowledging where you STOLE it from:
http://www.simoncars.co.uk/bedford/bedfordca.html