I've recently stumbled across an ex-MOD 109 which has somehow made its way to South Australia. It's been sitting on a rural property for several years but is still surprisingly solid and I'm now going to embark on a gentle recommissioning. It'll need all hydraulics renewing and probably a good carb clean or rebuild but it does run and drive.

Here's a picture from 1984 when it was with 7 Para RHA, probably newly delivered at this stage:



Looking somewhat less classy now:



According to the service records it moved from 7 PARA in 1984 to 23rd Field Ambulance RAMC in 1985, to 2 PARA in 1986 to 1 PARA in 1987 - it looks like it stayed with 1 PARA until it was sold off in 1997:



Other than the usual "does anyone know of any history or background of this vehicle" question, I have a couple of others:

1) As far as I know 1 PARA did not go to the Middle East in '91 as part of Operation Granby so why would it have received a tan paint job? Were vehicles shared around more than the service records imply?

2) At some point it's been painted at least partially in airfield yellow - still evident under the bonnet and where the tan paint has chipped in some areas (rear cross member for example). At what point is this likely to have happened?



3) It's got a significant roll cage in the back - essentially an upgrade of the standard hoops to 2 inch pipe but no change of other dimensions. Is this likely to be in relation to its time with RAMC or something else? Could it even be a post-service addition?





Any light anyone can shed on this old beast would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

Tbh any of those things could have been done post service life, it’s been out 25 years which is ample time for previous owners to paint it.

It could have been used by a company that painted it in their yellow livery. It could have been painted tan just because the owner liked it.
The roll bar again could be in-service unit upgrade or post service owner made.

it’s so hard to tell tbh

if it was me I would out it back to the RHA colours in that photo!

Very true - I guess a lot can happen to these old buses over a couple of decades. Just thought it would be interesting to see if anyone had seen a similar roll bar structure in an MOD 109 or if any of the regiments its been posted to routinely had 109s in airfield yellow.

I'll keep chasing to see what I can find out.

Plan is to definitely lose the tan paint - whether Initial thoughts were a re-paint in NATO green (probably a careful brush job by yours truly) but now I'm wondering if a careful stripping of top layers might result in some interesting patination. I won't know until I start stripping it I guess...

Could the tan paint be Australian army paint? Not that the vehicle was used by the Australian army but I mean a previous owner could have got hold of a tin?

That's quite possible - the canvas looks like an Aussie military one so it could have been painted at the same time it received that. Sadly there's no post-MOD history with it so I've no idea what's happened to it over the last couple of decades. It's probably had an interesting journey...