Mick Bainbridge had a highly personal reason going back 60 years for wanting to restore this 1958 ERF LV from near-scrap condition. Peter Simpson tells the story…
Now a spritely, fit and totally on-the-ball 82-year-old, Mick Bainbridge has lived his whole life in and around Wainfleet, near the Lincolnshire coast. Please don’t, however, assume this means he hasn’t seen any more of Britain. Far from it. As a long-distance driver, he drove regularly all over the country, with London, South Wales and Southampton/Bournemouth all being regular destinations.
On leaving school, Mick, like so many of his contemporaries at the time, went to work on the land; “mainly cabbage cutting” as he put it. His employers were A E Lenton of Friskney, a firm that’s still thriving today. Then, as now, large scale food production was the main industry hereabouts, and it was even more labour-intensive then than it is now. It was, and is, hard manual work, out in the open and in all weathers. Mick soon started looking for something a little less back-breaking, and when the opportunity arose at Lentons, he switched to driving one of their lorries. This was before the days of HGV licences, and Mick was able to do this on his standard car licence. When HGV licensing was introduced in 1968, his experience up to that point meant he could get a ‘Grandfather Rights’ HGV licence without taking a test.
Anyway, Lenton grew a typical range of Lincolnshire produce; cabbages, cauliflowers, sprouts, celery and so on. This was sold throughout Britain, and as well as servicing the usual wholesale markets they had their own market stands in London, Brighton and Sheffield. Mick’s job was to take the produce from Friskney to the markets where it was sold. London’s Covent Garden was, of course, a regular run, and Mick’s regular lorry was ONR977, one of two ERF KVs operated by Lentons. The other, identical in every respect, was registered SBE464…
Self employed
After five years, Mick left Lenton and joined his brother Granville at Ken Booth Haulage. Here he drive a BMC rigid and an Albion tractor unit. The work was still food and produce distribution, but now it was imported stuff from Holland out of Boston docks. A year or so later Granville started up on his own, as Bainbridge Haulage, and Mick subsequently joined him, first as an employed driver, then as joint-owner with Granville. The main work was still imported produce out of Boston. In due course the brothers separated their businesses, and Mick continued as an owner-driver for ten years or so, before switching to the mechanical/maintenance side. This continued until around 2020 when he basically retired, though like so many old-school spannermen, he found his skills were still in demand. Additionally, he didn’t really want to stop, because he enjoys making and mending things.
After he left Lenton, Mick’s lorry was basically run into the ground and scrapped. SBE464, however, survived. It also stayed local, and while Mick is uncertain exactly where it spent the intervening half century, he believes it spent time with keepers in Friskney, Thursby and Alford, though not necessarily in that order. Mick rediscovered it in late 2020 when, on looking through the catalogue for the Kev Dennis ‘dispersal’ auction on October 3, he saw that a KV with a familiar registration was one of the ‘guest’ entries. By this point, as the photograph below shows, it was a twin-axle chassis-cab unit in extremely poor condition, especially in the cab department. The Gardner 4LW engine, David Brown gearbox and Eaton two-speed axle were, however, present, and probably the only items of value. The writer was at that sale, and like I suspect most people, I was expecting to be bought purely as a mechanical parts donor. So much so that I didn’t even bother to photograph it! The price realised – £900 plus £54 Buyer’s Premium – reflected that ; it was basically the value of the engine and axle.
The buyer, however, was not a breaker but Mick Bainbridge who had recognised the KV as being ex-Lenton, and having pretty-much retired from fixing other people’s lorries, was after something to do. And this particular project was certainly not short of things that needed doing!
The Restoration
Before we start looking at what was done however, we need to consider where it was done. Mick had no closed workshop in which to work on the while lorry. Rather, he made use of a corner of the yard which Kev Dennis’s yard kindly made available. He also had the use of an old shipping container behind in which he was able to set up a small workbench and also store some parts. That, though, was it. Consequently, most was weather-dependent. Additionally, to prevent the weather from undoing Mick’s work, the lorry had to be covered after every session and then uncovered before the next. Power tool usage relied on long extension leads from the adjacent workshops. But having spent so many years fixing lorries, Mick was no stranger to working in less than ideal conditions, and took all this in his stride.
First up was the cab. This, as the auction photograph shows, was in a really bad way, with the wooden frame having deteriorated to the point where most of what had sort-of survived was too bad to even use as a pattern. The whole frame was renewed, something Mick described as the hardest part of the whole job, along with the floor, door frames and everything else. The only parts that could be retained and reused was the outer skin and the glass. Miraculously however one rare part had survived; the Smiths Recorder was still in place on the back of the cab, has been refurbished, and is now back in position.
The cab interior also needed pretty-much remaking from scratch, with new door cards covered in burgundy leathercloth. New seat covers were made by a local trim specialist, and the instruments are mainly good secondhand replacements found by Mick; having a certain Mr Dennis to hand was of course a great help when it came to finding stuff!
The main chassis rails were sound, but the crossmembers corroded, so Mick made new replacements. On the KV, the crossmembers are riveted into place rather than welded, and Mick replicated this. He is very modest about his achievements; “all you need is rivets, a gas torch and a large hammer.” He refurnished the suspension fully with the springs taken apart, cleaned, reset as required and reassembled. Mick also renewed brake linings and chambers, along with all the associated pipework, but the original drums could be reused. The fuel tank straps are new, but the tank itself is the original, and a replacement wiring loom was supplied by Mel Stopper of Boston who also arranged for the dynamo and starter motor to be refurbished.
Although the chassis-cab was surprisingly complete when bought by Mick, one rather important part was missing; the body. Here, Mick made his own replacement from scratch, though getting him to describe exactly how he carried out this major job isn’t easy; he just doesn’t seem to see doing it as any big deal! He says that he did it all by eye and using decades of experience. It’s all made from ash, and looks totally the part, though this is obvious only from underneath due to the roped and sheeted load. Slightly unusually, the latter isn’t hiding living accommodation; it’s all genuine former produce boxes, albeit empty.
Good mechanically
The mechanical side of SBE464 was surprisingly good; the engine carries a plate indicating a full rebuild at some time in its life by Peterborough-based Seller and Batty. The fuel injection pump was overhauled by Don Pick of Boston. Other than that it was just a case of cleaning everything up, changing oils and checking. In classic Gardner style, the engine smokes a bit on cold start-up, but this soon stops and she then sounds very sweet indeed.
Mick did all the paintwork himself, and despite working entirely outside, the finish achieved is superb. The chassis was treated with red oxide prior to receiving its undercoat and colour coat.
Despite the amount of work needed, and his less-than-deal working conditions, Mick turned this entire project around in less than four years; he bought the lorry on October 3 2020, we were invited to take the finished photographs on May 29 2024, at which point the lorry had been finished for just over a week. Photographer Martyn and I were both impressed by the quality of this rebuild, and the attention to detail that’s apparent throughout. This is a fabulous job, before taking account of what it was like at the start and where the work was done!
At this point iit’s customary to talk about show appearances that have or are going, to take place. That, however, hasn’t happened here; the lorry hasn’t been out yet. What’s more, it’s quite possible that Mick won’t be showing it at all. That’s not really what he is interested in. Mick is a lorry fixer and restorer first and last; and derives his pleasure from bringing something that’s been neglected back to life. He wanted something to do during his retirement; a lorry that he could take his time over, and achieve the standard he wants. This one is finished and is thinking about the next project “I’d like to do another old-un” as he put it.
The KV is therefore now for sale. Preliminary enquiries go through Kevin Dennis on 01754 880434. A good home, preferably in or near Lincolnshire, would, I’m sure, be appreciated.
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