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Just going by photographic evidence: in the SW Pacific Area , the RAAF ( Air Force) were issued with some WC 3/4 Weapons Carriers and some Command Cars.... whereas the army were using mostly CMP trucks and MCP trucks. Seems to be a good number of surviving 3/4 Weapons Carriers here in Australia but some were post-war imports by Surplus dealers..... These are Scenes at Finschhafen P.N.G. with US soldiers. Strafing damage by Japanese aircraft in the Northern Territory Australia advert: Surplus dealer in Sydney .

They look like Army - Royal Signals. Was your grandfather-in-law R Signals? Perhaps RAF support communications - that looks like an aircraft symbol on the white & blue R Signals AOS sign on the driver's side of the windscreen. Something like this?

Now we've just about got the turret turning I'm having trouble find the right position in order to open the engine covers (they foul the turret). Turret is near the 9 o'clock position. Does anyone know what position the turret has to be in to open the engine covers? - I'm trying the refit the T support piece on the rear deck. Thanks Chieftain rear deck.pdf

FYI - REME got the turret moving by applying a strop to the barrel and towing round. This was enough to free up the rust and can now use the hand traverse (though v stiff and hard work!)

Sorry, but I am afraid that one escapes me. Mind you, flat caps are becoming mandatory but I think that is an age thing! As you know, we are recreating one of the Army's first recovery or 'Ambulance' lorries as they were known. When Tim turned up the original drawings in the National Archive they included a list of the equipment to be carried and, not surprisingly, this includes a couple of jacks. We have been fortunate enough to find this one, a Charles Willets Mk1 screw jack of 1915. We think it is of about five tons capacity and will do the job admirably. 1915 dated! Generally, it is in very good order with just a couple of things to fix. After taking it apart, I sorted out the bend in the rotating ring. It was just a case of heat and a bit of tube to lean on it in the vice and it was soon fixed. The tube also provided a replacement handle. The lifting handle on the front was there but two of the screws had sheared off. I drilled them and then tried my E-Z out extractor. I am usually very wary of these things as I usually end up with a sheared stud with a hard centre! However, in this case, they worked well. Then painting. I have just this evening reassembled it all with lots of grease and am well pleased with the result. Something else to store! Steve🙂

My wife’s grandad in France, unfortunately I can’t make out the markings on the windscreen.

And did you already order a lot of guys with caps to be charged on the back of your lorry.... 😃

From the look of it , your Commer does look to be one of these, in the photo of the factory line up, (below) rather than the van type? However, I think those in the line up are Q15 models but according to Bart Vanderveen the Commer Q2, was sometimes produced with a closed cab like yours (rather than an intergral cab) and these were made for GS and specialist bodies like the aircraft engine pre-heater. Factory Line up of Commer Q15 vehicles? The Commer with Type E radio body, may be trial fitting of a body that looks similar to those on Bedford MW, with wheel arches bigger than necessary, presuably to cater to all sorts of vehicles and wheelbases

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I know that many Dodge Weapons Carriers (with and without winch) were issued to the British & Commonwealth Forces in the Far East and in SW Pacific area and Australia , as my Dad used one in Borneo in 1945, (and the recreation of his Dodge would probably be disbelieved at MV shows today, as it would be painted in US Olive Drab and with Allied star as delivered, with Australian Army additions of the Australian 7th Division, and driven by dad in RAF Uniform (a mix of Jungle Greens and Australian version, with Australian Brown boots, and with a few trusted Japanese POWS in the back!) But were Dodge Weapons Carriers ever used by the British Army or Canadian Army in NW Europe? I think the Canadians made their own version of the Dodge WC at their Chrysler factory as the D3 but I guess that was too late to see action in NW Europe?

Its not a coachbuilt cab, it doesn't have a PTO for it to be a heater truck. It does however have a gun hoop in the cab and gun racks inside and also a lubrication chart plate that we can make out says 'Commer Q2 AM 15cwt Load Carrier'... We are thinking it would have the GS body fitted?

Rootes, Regarding your Commer 15cwt, what type of body do your think it had or has remains of?

But back to your question: The exhaust was rotted off my First MUREX, so had to get creative.

x

Having worked on "Low Orginal chassis" and this one (High), I found this higher chassis much easier for access to the engine. Perhaps after they decided it was never going in a glider again, the REME just did what you've done (in reverse) and removed the low chassis and fitted this one?

I had most of the things to hand including the lead white. I am lucky to have access to a wide variety of toxic compounds. However I'm sure that the internet could furnish you with the requirements. I had to make the patent driers from several other sources and the prussian blue as I had run out. The driers used was lead acetate based, but it's contribution to the paint is just an off white. This could be substituted with a similar colour pigment. The plan was to create a fresh colour that I could create a similar mix of non toxic pigments.

This vehicle is on my neighbours farm. I assume that it is an old gun tractor but if any one can give a more detailed specification I would be grateful. Is there any way of identifying its history? There is a faded number but otherwise it is in a poor state.

Fascinating results and certain to cause lots of discussion. How easy is it to get the ingredients?

Hi . The post-war Commer engine ... what a excellent source of parts for the Humber guys - engine parts for vintage British vehicles are scarce enough , but even more so for those of us located outside of the U.K. No such luck with post- war Morris engines as a source of parts....at least the crank main bearings in these Morris OH engines are shells - R.B. kindly sent me a old set. I found a pre-war NOS Morris 6 head gasket at Auto Surplus but there were two types... the early ones ( like I found ) must have caused problems , the later revised gaskets have improved sealing . I have 6 of these engines .. one is out of a pre-war civilian C model truck .. the rest are from my WW2 era CS8 and PU wrecks. I recently got a price for a set of Morris rings from a UK supplier... around $600 Aust... yikes 82mm + .040" is very close to 3.25" Dodge WC size but.... the Morris rings are metric in width (2mm) compression and (2.5) mm oil control plus the ring grooves in the Morris pistons are unusually shallow. The VW beetle rings are dimensionally correct except for being far too deep for the shallow Morris piston grooves , the VW rings would have to be narrowed down somehow. I don't want to deepen the Morris grooves .. very risky as a piston top would break off. I can get a ring set custom made .. a business down in Melbourne . The rings being so narrow, are somewhat fragile and they snap easily . Another oddity with these engines is: the crankshaft was made without counterweights - like a Model T Ford.

very interesting experiment. A lot of discussion is often had about "the correct WW2". I can imagine in WW2 consistency was a issue.

I thought this might be of interest. I recently started making some of the paints in the 1915 artificer handbook. The service colour for artillery pieces etc proved interesting. The shade depended not only on the original of some of the pigments but also the mixing style and dampness of them. The prussian blue in particular showed itself particularly susceptible to not dispersing in the oil media producing a fairly dull brown. However if it was dampened the classic khaki drab instantly was apparent. The picture below shows the difference from the same spatula of pigment mix. It just goes to show that the variations in production could be varied even with small preparation changes. Good job it was made by the hundredweight.

Hi Mike I'm glad to see you working on the Morris. Thank goodness I defected to Humber, the engines are like a big jeep engine with lots of refinements. The wartime Humber had poured big ends, but luckily I got a post war Commer engine in pieces, and they have rods with shell bearings. Would there be any post war Morris engines with compatible rods ? Sounds like a long shot though. Mind you, I was lucky to get NOS bearings. The crank had to be ground 2 sizes to suit the bearings available. regards, Andrew

Reading through this thread for the first time, we are restoring a 1944 Commer 15cwt RAF truck, I'd be interested in a copy of the list if that were possible? I have a contract number for the truck but she is just a chassis cab so I have no idea what the RAF use was. She was sold off in France in 1946 and we've only just re-patriated her.

It's not military but deserves saving. https://www.ebay.de/itm/276430838975

Hi The front spring bushes are made out of, steel, with a M20 thread.(Question answered) lots of metric and imperial sizes, due to War economy measures on the engineering side. the old bus has the early low ratio front axle, and later(by 53 ch.nos )rear standard ratio. which is OK by the book as this makes no difference on soft ground in four wheel drive, an acceptable practice. I had an early LandRover which had freewheeling 4x4, gearbox. get the tyre pressure wrong, 28 rear, 25 front, and it would drag along.on the road, regs rup