camperfanatic

Illustration of the Bedford CA panel van conversion by Maurice Calthorpe Produced at Vauxhall's Luton plant, the Bedford CF was introduced to the UK market in 1969, replacing the CA model which had been in production since 1952. In this pictorial blog I will display some of the best British campervan conversions produced on the Bedford CF. Pictured above is the rising roof conversion by 'Auto-Sleeper' of Worcestershire. This company began to produce campervans in 1961 on the Austin-Morris 152/J2 chassis, switching to the Rootes/Chrysler Commer in 1963. The Bedford Freeway model seen above featured the distinctive Dormobile roof, with its candy-stripe fabric glass-fibre roof capping. The Freeway was an extremely popular model in the UK throughout the 1970s. Another one from Dormobile of Folkestone, England. The larger Dormobile Landcruiser, with its glass-fibre rear living body. The same body style/design had been used by them for their 'Debonair...

Those who have followed my camper-related blogs will know about the 1964 Commer Maidstone which both me and my father owned, and the story of how my father came to own the camper three times! Well talk about history repeating itself, this really was a case of deja vu, but this times the tables were turned on me, not my father... We had purchased the Fiat camper, and were indeed getting great enjoyment from it, but as we were heavily involved in the UK classic vehicle scene, we did feel like a couple of frauds using a 1988 model when our friends were all camping in vehicles built in the 60s and 70s. By coincidence around this time, we had a letter from the owners of our old Commer Car-Camper informing us that they were going to sell it, and did we know of anyone who might be interested? By now readers, you are already one step ahead of me aren't you! Yes, of course, we took all of several minutes to decide, we wanted the lovely old blue girl back in our lives, even if it was a...