[Ken Smith]

Good day friends,

Well after three and a half years my C60L is home. I have now had a chance to examine the truck with my glasses on and with a magnifying glass and a few things are a bit strange.

First the engine has been changed a couple of times in the army life of the truck, the engine number on the data plate is DR4014304, the engine number in the War Memorial book is DR3750990, the engine in the truck is DR4014613, and is painted deep bronze green and I guess it is a army rebuild. I am happy with all that as the engine runs very sweetly.

There are about 6 different notations about repairs and reclassification stencilled under the bonnet/hood they start in 1953 and go up to Dec 1955, all with Northern Command, Queensland.

The manufactured date is 5-5-45 IND, originally I thought it was 1ND but now I am not so sure, funny thing the dashes between the 5-5-45 are actually the number 1 lying on its side. Could this truck have been made for India ? It was supplied under SM 6404.

The truck is deep bronze green as you would expect, and the paint is polishing up reasonably well for 60 year old paint, the ARN 77821 is painted on the top of the front clip, 3 times in 3 different styles, but on the bottom layer of brownish paint is the number 4004, it is stencilled on and done very well, quite thick, it is possible that there are numbers before the first number 4 but there is no room for anything after the last number 4. Could this be a Indian registration number? I will add at this stage that the ARN 77821 and the chassis number 4-8443-71597 tally with the ledgers at the Memorial.
Mike C has said that the Australian army sometimes kept other country registration numbers, my cab 12 C60L, AIF L4710841 being one of them, but this other registration they didn't keep.

There is a Holden badge on the engine cover, but that is the only connection to the truck being built in Australia. It doesn't have a CWO plate.

When the gentleman got me the information from the War Memorial he didn't understand a lot of the stuff he wrote down for me, therefore it is a bit hit and miss, he normally researched biographical data, and it would have been nice to know if my truck was a orphan or if it was in a bigger group of similar C60L,s.

I have taken a few before photos to put in the restoration section, but I would like to get some thoughts on this information first.

I know I am to excited and reading to much into a bit of paint.

Cheers Ken