Work starts on Bedford in old city yard

Work began on the Traditional Pakistan Bedford Truck in the small yard in the old part of the city, a few metres walk from where we bought all the steel work for the Luton Truck. The yard currently has two Bedford trucks in for a refit and decoration owned by the same man, one old Hino tanker being rebuilt and a bus awaiting work to be started.

Haider Ali and myself have the task of decorating one of the Bedford Trucks, I say Haider and myself but this is not strictly true as there are a team of men working on the decoration of this truck, the sprayer paints the chassis and applies colourful decoration to all the carved areas, the calligrapher applies the writing in both Urdu and English together with very accurate decoration to enhance his writing, Haider applies the larger pictures on the truck such as Peacocks, Partridges, Horses etc. the mirror worker applies the small mosaic mirror work above and inside the cab, another man does all the rubbing down of the old paint and then there are the mechanics busy on suspension and brakes etc. all working on the truck at the same time, including the man spraying the chassis and filling the air with a fine black enamel mist.

This truck will be finished in about 7 days, again the owner and driver of the trucks watch very closely to make sure all is done to their satisfaction, ordering small cups of tea to keep the workers satisfied. Time is money and the longer the truck is out of action the greater the loss of income.