mowersman

Sorry its been a while since I replied, I've been running round like a headless chicken. That vehicle list is interesting Wally. Can you shed any light on what the columns on the right mean, is that E3824 and H of A c/o GEA ltd? I apologise if these are silly questions, I'm not at all familiar with military documents, but am enjoying learning! Cheers Andrew

Hi Richard, thanks for that, that's quite interesting! Also interesting you say about the fuel pump. Did yours not have the usual military change over tap mounted by the drivers left knee. I saw mine had twin tanks, so bought the tap and mounting bracket at Newbury, only to get home and find it doesn't have a hole to fit it! Mine has an electric pump under the middle seat, which I haven't looked at very thoroughly, but I suspect isn't original, as it looked a bit new. The conversion for its trip to Australia sounds a bit different, certainly adds to its history! Like you say, back then, it was just another old, ex mil Land Rover. Mine was sold by John Craddocks, then it went to Iceland for a little while, something which I've still got to research more. It was then owned by Land rover Owner magazine. If you do find any photos of yours, It would be great to see them. Cheers Andrew

Good morning all I've been meaning to join up for some time and have finally got round to it. I've been playing with old Land Rovers for a while now, and have owned FUD, my 1965 88" daily driver for 5 years now. However, I had been on the look out for a project vehicle, as whilst FUD is brilliant as a daily driver, it is very non original and look like its just been pulled out of a scrap yard, so I wanted something that I could keep pretty original and use for taking to shows etc. I hadn't been looking for an ex military vehicle, but I'd narrowed my search down to a S2/3 LWB Station Wagon, when suddenly, this came up at the right price and the right time. Ignore the military number on the stickers on it, it bears no relation to the vehicle. It is a very early S2a, a 1961 build 109 SW (26100012a) that was dispatched to the "Fighting Vehicles Research and Development Establishment" possibly as an instrument vehicle and had a solid bulkhead between the front seats and the back to block out light with blacked out windows in the back. So far, my research has turned up little about its life in the military, although talking to Geoff Fletcher turned up that it was initially registered as 27 EK 36, before being transferred to the RAF as 49 AS 60. He also produced these photos of it in 1970. Since I bought it, I haven't done a huge amount of digging into its history, I've been focusing my efforts into welding it up and getting it through an MOT, hopefully back on the road in the next 6 weeks or so. However, I discovered this post from 2012 on this forum last night, which finally prompted me to sign up! http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?29924-land-rover-109-station-wagon-missile-test-truck Basically I want to return it, eventually, to a similar external condition as seen in the photos above, unless I can find any more information/photos on its earlier life. The window blanking will be made removable however, so that I can still use it as a regular Station Wagon! Cheers Andrew