1986 Bedford Astramax - New Daily

They certainly are ! I used to deliver parts when I worked at a Vauxhall dealers and the one they had was well loosened up. It had supposedly been converted to unleaded but went much better on super plus although it's that long ago it might have been 4 star.

They had a couple of blue ones at the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough while I was there and another garage had one the same colour as well.

Is yours from the Hampshire area or did you find it further afield ?

Working on the assumption this is the same hubs as the Astra then it's 4x100 PCD which gives you LOADS of options. If you want to keep it period, Astra alloys of the same period pop up on eBay all the time for very little and drop straight on. Leaf springs out back and Astra up front should make lowering pretty easy and cheap, plenty of engine mod options too if you want to go down that route.

Really, for an interesting lightly modded van for advertising you can't get much better than this. Rather than changing the colour on the whole van, just get the side panels painted white and signwritten accordingly, or even a custom vinyl graphic just for that section. I bet that paint responds quite well to a machine polish or even just a few hours and a bottle of T-cut.

Look forward to seeing more on this one, I've seen a few of the Astra estate based vans but this shape I haven't seen for a few decades out in the wild so you'll definitely stand out even if you leave it exactly as it is now.

Just recently got bought a good polisher, so I will see how the blue paint comes up, the colour may grow on me, it has the mighty 1.3 litre petrol engine.

Very nice, where do people keep finding these cool Vauxhall's without me spotting them?! Haha!

As said before they are 4x100 so many wheel choices especially as it's the same as the vw just watch the offset.

As I read the description, before I'd seen the pics, I was picturing it in that blue. So you've got to keep that colour!

Never drove one but have it on good authority from a mate that they were indeed the fastest thing out there. He drove one for a chain of shoe shops where I grew up as a Saturday job.

Back then I would've put a GTE front and alloys on it, sat back, and congratulated myself on my coolness. ;-p

Nowt wrong with a 30 year old Bedford. My first car was a Bedford Asravan, and there's a company in Exeter that has a signwritten Bedford H van, I'll see if I can drum up some piccies.
Should be fun chap.
Not an astramax I know, but I love a Bedford, nothing quite like an obsolete marque is there?

I love the old Astra vans!

If you want to make it stick out as a Retro van, I'd keep the colour too. It's very 'period'.

I've only had Mk3 Astra'a, are any of the suspension parts interchangeable? If so there are loads of lowering spring kits available. But not many people have had luck with DIY coilovers, and premade are a fortune. Again, this is Mk3 not Mk2...

eibach pro kit for mk3 astra gsi is a well trodden path for folk in the mk2 club (i'm admin on mk2 owners) but of course you pay your money and only get to use half the kit. would probably be able to sell the rear pair of springs though. i cant think of anywhere that would sell only front springs, unless someone has done the opposite to you and is ebaying them.

if your dampers are original they will be oil filled delco versions, which were superseded by gas version. so anything you get will make a huge difference. you can still get bilstein B4, B6 and B8 and koni adjustables for mk2 astra (usually better hits searching for kadett E) same problem as springs though, can only use half the kit !

interchangeability between mk2 and mk3 is difficult, the struts are the same, springs are same dimensions and interchangeable, brakes interchangeable, slight difference in the actual damper rod as the top mounts are different, but mk3 dampers fit mk2 struts, and mk3 top mounts fit a mk2 shell, so basically boils down to having to use all mk3, or all mk2 bits.

engines, well it looks like you have the 8v 1.3 if you are lucky it will be same 75bhp version as nova SR (pretty sure it is but don't have the beddy brochure to hand) quite pokey but almost any engine from the 80s/90s era nova astra cavalier will drop in.