Wilkie’s Bedford

A classic truck with a very modern foundation. Bedford K Series cab, 2015 Holden Colorado underneath — and everything that made the Colorado worth driving is still in it, right down to the cup holders.

Most old trucks that get restored end up as something you take out on a fine Sunday. The brakes are period, the seat is period, and the heater was never any good in 1952 either. This one was built to be driven — and the way to do that is not to modernise the old truck, but to put the old truck on top of something modern.

The donor

It started with a low-kilometre 2015 Holden Colorado. The Bedford cab went over the complete Colorado chassis and drivetrain, and as much of the Colorado as possible was kept: ABS brakes, the dash, air conditioning, the seats, the steering column. All of it still works, because none of it was cobbled together — it was retained.

Making two trucks into one

That is the easy sentence. The work behind it was the largest part of the build. Around 60% of the Bedford’s original sheet metal was replaced or modified, and the cab was lengthened by 200mm to sit properly on the modern running gear.

Lengthening a cab is not a cut and a weld. Everything has to be re-proportioned around it or the truck stops looking like itself — door openings, roof line, the rear panel, the way the guards meet the running boards. Get it wrong and it reads as a mistake to anyone who has seen a Bedford. The whole point was that it should still be unmistakably one.

The result

Army green, flat tray, all-terrain tyres, and a cab from the 1950s that has cruise-height seating, cold air conditioning and brakes that will stop it. It looks completely period from ten feet away and drives like a ute built this decade.