Differences between Bedford OYC and OYD

[mlombard]

Originally Posted by Richard Farrant

Hi Matt,
Not quite as cut and dried as all that. There would be very few OY Bedfords around with the civilian type wheels with twins on rear. Most were lost in France and Dunkirk in 1940. The bellows air cleaner could be found on later OY's. The year of your chassis number, assuming 73076 is correct would be 1943 as production that year was chassis numbers 68618 to 79852 (according to Bart V and he was a stickler for accuracy of facts). The cab cupola was introduced at chassis no. 78696 and another feature worth checking is to see if the top half of the cab was removable, as this feature came in to production with Chassis no. 43522.
On the dashboard, if you have a large round lighting and ignition switch in between speedo and combined gauge, then that feature came in on ch. no. 43522 (1941), this carried through to end of production.

regards, Richard

Thank you very much Richard,, this is exactly the detail I'm looking for, the more I can find out the closer I can narrow down the year of manufacture, and whether it is a refugee from Malaya or a vehicle brought in later.