Rootes75

I do have some photos of 1937-9 Ford 10's being used as staff cars in France 1940, I recall one was a private vehicle taken over to France by a padre.

In answer to that, the Minx was basically a dulled down civilian model. Painted over chromework and no hub caps fitted was the norm.

I have found an RAF ALG about 45 mins away from Magenta, B37 Corroy? Very few references to it though.

It is often so hard, almost impossible to trace a vehicles wartime history, we already know that. But with our latest project we have a few crumbs of information left to follow to try to paint part of the picture..... Firstly we know that our truck was built for the RAF in mid to late 1944, but also importantly we have some of the French documentation from when she was sold off in France after the war had ended. We know that she was sold in 1946 in a place called Magenta, this is just below Reims. And in my way of thinking she would have probably been disposed of not too far from where she was last used?? Maybe? So next, I'm trying to find out if there were any British disposal sites in the surrounding area and also any ALG RAF airfields in the area??

Looks like a very clean break.

Brilliant work.

Superb!!

What's better than one Commer Q2? Two Commer Q2's...

Costs for putting on a show...look no further than Great Dorset Steam Fair. Massive show that running costs simply spiralled too high to keep going.

As a Vintage Car owner too we know this situation all too well.... One event we went to enter last year was just a road run but it was £45 each vehicle to enter!!

I'm looking for photos of RAF trucks in convoy and RAF trucks fitted out for convoy anti aircraft work??

Very sad news.

Water or Petrol Bowser or pump related maybe??

A show I very much think we will try to get to next year.

We went to Beaulieu in the sunshine yesterday. I find very little there these days for our vehicles but we hunt mainly for wartime tools. And we found a few bargains yesterday as a result.

We have tentatively started work on the Commer, alongside getting our 1942 Q2 ready for this seasons shows. The engine is well seized so we have cleaned out the much from the bores and are now soaking the pistons. We've drained the oil and removed the sump to inspect inside and its all very good condition. We have also been very carefully cleaning off the chassis plate and the lubrication / Electrical charts that are mounted in the cab. Its interesting to note the Lubrication chart title below stating that she is a 'Load Carrier' so our guess as to body type may simply be a GS body. The next point of note that we have found and that is when we took the sheets off at the weekend in the sunshine is a very noticeable square type patch on the drivers front wing where the rust has taken on a very different form to the resto of the wing. Our first thoughts were maybe this was where an anti gas patch was painted and therefore the rust is reacting differently??

Such a lovely truck.

Yes, Best of luck. Looks like a great project.

She is a Q2 15cwt with the 6 cylinder petrol not the 4 cylinder.

Some very nice photos there, thank you. And no, she will definately not be painted grey, I've researched quite a lot into colours. Of note, our 1942 Commer I have in SCC2 as she would have been originally. I tell you, the number of people who have messaged me to tell me that she should be olive drab and I have it wrong... And yes, we believe she was part of 2TAF shipped over to NW Europe in later 1944. She was sold off locally in France in early July 45.

Yes, that is a line up of fresh Q15's. Actually quite a bit smaller than the Q2, narrower track and very short wheelbase. I think our thoughts at the moment are to body the Q2 the same as our 1942 Q2 30cwt with the GS body and canvas tilt.

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?

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.

That is some really impressive work.

One other major find today though was the chassis plate in the cab that was completely unreadable due to rust and muck etc...well after an hour or two of extremely delicate cleaning we have managed to read all of the writing on it... Biggest surprise is that it gives the Contract Number (the plate on our 1942 Commer does not)... So we can at least date the lorry to it's Contract, the contract being issued May 1944.