[motto]

Hi Tim, congratulations on your choice of vehicle and the restoration. For the number of Chevs around from this era very few have been restored and to see one with the stake sides intact is rare these days.
Although my personal preference would have been to see the truck restored to its original configuration I've got no argument with them being civilianised. After-all, they spent the vast majority of their lives in civvy street.
You're probably correct about the guards being an Australian adaptation Andrew. They were not just cut away, also flared or widened. There was quite a bit of variation.
As regards instruments, very few of the L/L Chevs that came to Australia seem to have had the round military style individual instruments as yours does. Most had the rectangular civilian type cluster as in Tim's truck.
The moulded plastic steering wheel you refer to as being civilian Andrew is also standard in Australia for WW2 Chevs. As mentioned previously, I've never seen one here fitted with the wood rim steering wheel which would not attach to the spindly light duty steering column on our trucks anyway.

David