This page is dedicated to John (Studel) & his dedication to create this beast.

As we all know ( Those like us) to build anything, a project of any sort.......you need four things.

1: The time

2: The place

3: The money

The fourth is an either or.

4: No Woman or a Good Woman

If you have not got all these things it ain't going to happen.

I first met John in 1992 in his home town of Nailsea. I worked overseas at the time & only came back to the UK every 4-6 weeks. I was on a mission to build a V8 Bedford CF Van at the time. I bought one then went off to London in it where it used to be for weeks while I drove my Scania around Europe.

I came back to London after my time away, Bought A Rover V8 from a breakers in London & drove home to Somerset excited as all hell with this V8 lump leaking its life blood in the back of the van.

I went to show a mate who worked in Nailsea my Van, My idea & the lump in the back.

He thought I was mad ( like most did ). He wanted a lift to the shop for some fags.

I pulled up outside the shop & to my amazment there was another Bedford CF outside the shop. I knew this was no stock van. I got out of my van to have a lookasee.....

It had a V8 in it !!!!

Out of the shop came John.................We met.

It was our destiny that we should meet that day. Another guy right on my wave length.

He soon became the true friend that my life would not be the same without.....

I gave up driving trucks for a while & went to work on my van, outside in all weather on my drive at home. John came round regulary to give me a hand.

I fitted the Rover V8 A manual box & a Jag rear axle. I also lowered the front end & fitted a real kick ass sound system.

We both worked on our vans & went to some custom shows & runs down to Newquay & generaly cruised around in them together.

I got a workshop & we built some really cool cars for people. My van got broken into by some arseholes that I foolishly thought were friends. They trashed it & stole the sound system. I was so gutted I sold it.

John brought his van down to the workshop & decided to revamp it.

That's how it started...........

The years of sweat, Pain, Money, & turning down girls, ha ha

Out came the Rover V8, in fact out came everything & I mean everything. The van ended up as a shell.

Down to bare metal. Every seam welded & filled. The gutters removed.

Door handles removed & remote solonoid opening designed & fitted.

Rear doors thrown in the scrap & a one piece fibreglass door fitted ( nightmare of a job ).

The rear lights & the surrounding shape cut out & new round lights frenched in.

New rear vallance made out of steel to remove number plate recess.

Rear wheel arches tubbed & the outer shape resized.

The line in the bonnet was cut out & welded up to make the bonnet flat & smooth.

The bottom of the doors were cut off & welded to the body of the van to make the doors shorter.

The front vallance was cut off & a new one made of steel with frenched in indicators.

A dash was cut out of a scrap van, then a peice was cut & trimmed then welded in to the hole where the old ice cream style dash instrements used to live.

The stearing colum was re angled to a more relaxed angle. I remember John cutting up Range Rover tie bars to make the colum supports.

The underside of the van was shot blasted & any rust was cut out & new steel welded in.

The front suspension & crossmember was removed, stripped down & totaly rebuilt with no expense spared.

John even bought another CF van just for the disc brakes.

New shocks & heavy duty springs were fitted.

The front of the chassis was channelled to get the front end down without sacrificing the ride quality.

The Jag Rear axle was stripped & rebuilt, Also narrowed.Fully adjustable shocks were fitted. I remember the trip we made to Europa car parts for those shocks.

The Engine

The power comes from a 350 Small Block bored out to a 355.

Fully tricked up including:

400 Big Block heads.

Roller Rockers.

292 Cam.

The biggest Elderbrock Inlet Manifold you can get your mits on.

A 750cfm Double Dumper Four Barrel Holey.

Compresion of 10 to 1

& loads of other shit that makes it haul ass..........

Auto box with A sexy B&M shifter.Th350 trans and 2800 stall convertor pushing a pair of  18.5 inch micky thompsons....

The interior is as simple as poss but awsome.

BMW seats re apulstered in black leather on swivel bases.

Loads of really cool gauges.

The engine cover was made out of sheet steel with built in cup holders etc as I filled the workshop with smoke performing a burnout on my ZXR 750.

More spec later...

John's mission was to build this van & then take it to America to cruise for 6 months.

Everybody doubted this mission except a close few of us.

When the van was finished John shipped the van to the States & acheived his goal.

Check out the pics. The van is now having a few mods such as Nitrous Oxide & a few touch ups on the body Etc.

PICS:

It was all worth it John............

Adding more stuff & sorting spelling out later..