First published in the Apr/May 1985 issue of Street Machine

Geoff Cook should have named his shiny white knight something more sinister, because it has the brutal frontal appearance of a gladiator.

The CF Bedford was always a bit of a lame duck on the Australian market when it came to street machines. They were sold to fleet buyers such as Telecom, the Post Office and trades people for commercial use.

When they first arrived on the market from England they were expensive and underpowered with a 1600 cc ohc motor that really had trouble just breathing. Later on the General released a 6 cylinder 202 version that had a somewhat better and more suitable performance.

It did have some features going for it. The structure was rigid, the ride was comfortable and it looked good. And some brave souls even turned out the occasional custom van.

Geoff is a lad who lives in Pelican, just south of the city that contains one of Australia’s great motoring monuments — Hunter St, Newcastle. (No more cruisin’ there boys). And living by the beach what else could a lad from there build? A van, of course. He calls it Innocents, but there’s nothing cutsie-pie about the way it’s been put together.

Innocents is a credit to Geoff and Jackie Cook’s craftsmanship as they truly did build this van themselves. Geoff did all the body work and engineering on ‘Innocents’. This was not a flash-in-the-paint and de-chrome job. Four years of building produced one of Australia’s top appearing vans.

Starting from scratch the Cooks stripped the Beddie and rebuilt each system of the van. The front suspension got a four inch drop and some new 11 inch disc brakes. As the rear was of the most basic commercial design it was removed and a beautiful chrome and red Jag unit installed. A sub frame was built in combination with a general strengthening of the chassis and the Jag unit was suspended from the rear sub frame. This produced an effect of lowering the rear about one inch but the combination of the four inch front drop and the Jag rear end gives the Beddie an overall rake.

Geoff chose Speedy wheels so he could get the exact size and balance the look of Innocents. 15” x 10” wheels on the rear and 14x 8″ on the front are an odd size combination but it does suit the Bedford.

It now seems that the 350 Chevy is the Holy Grail of hot rodding and Geoff certainly worked religiously on his. He blue printed it with a 60 thou’ overbore, 327 fuelly heads, dual point Mallory ignition, a Holley 650 double pumper backed up by a Holley electric fuel pump and topped it off with alloy rocker covers and chrome accessories. Where possible Geoff has used stainless steel braided hoses.

A modified Chev radiator keeps the 350 at the right temperature and a Powerglide moves the horse-power to the Jag rear end.

Geoff did all his body work in steel including the Gladiator-style front, the flairs and running boards, the frenched front side windows and the very interesting rear treatment with hand built tail lights and arrow head rear window.

If you have ever prepared and sprayed a car you can imagine what time and effort is needed. After the 34 coats of Spartan acrylic white was applied Geoff shaded the van with an assortment of blues that give the van an interesting high key look. Wear your shades on a sunny day if you want to look at it.

The final touch was to have Gordon Pereira of Custom Art in Nelsons Bay apply images to the van of sultry pubescent ladies.

Jackie took charge of the interior. Crushed brown velvet, all button and tufted, with plenty of mirrors. 2001.