Facelift...

Well, after it's spa holiday in Suffolk, 32 has returned north with some further improvements which Tony has spent much time and effort on, and very good they look too!

After a little issue getting 32 back in the barn owing to a caravan / motorhome owner parking across the doors inside the barn, the work could be admired.

The main reason for the journey south was to allow for the fire extinguisher holders that used to be on thr front to be remanufactured. This was a key part of these petrol carriers and both the Bedford and Commer variants had fire extinguishers mounted in this way - the Bedfords on the bumper and the Commers along side the cab doors on the head board. These foam extinguishers would thus be available for first aid fire-fighting if required.

Now, no trace of these brackets exists. GYL 29C still exists somewhere in Scotland but all attempts to trace it to see the real things have failed. So, with some very high resolution photographs provided by John Thompson (who co-wrote the book the 'Green Machine), these have been made from scratch.

Tony and his welders have done a super job and they look just right, even having the mock-up cream extinguishers fitted. The curved metal panels were made from Tony's old oil tank, so recycling in action.

Whilst down there, Tony also recreated the AFS mobile fire column number plates for the front and rear. It's not known that these vehicles were ever issued thus requiring these, however, in the grand scheme of things, numbers 40-46 were allocated for petrol carriers in the Supply and Transport Platoon of HQ Company ('Green Machine', page X). So - which number? As 42 is the meaning of life, it couldn't be anything else. To do this, we had to recreate the number mount for the front which sat on top of the roof-mounted flashing amber lights, the base for which we removed during restoration! You live and learn....

As part of that process, at the back, Tony also raised the rear lights up. These were a little lower on some RLs according to video footage but on the control vehicle, they were mounted higher up, away from damage and where they were less prone to waggling about and vibrating! Sadly, the original number plate didn't survive the transfer (the plastic numbers broke) so although we have kept it, a new one has been made.