Morris-Commercial PU 8-cwt in greyish blue colour?

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by Mike Kelly in C8 at work ?
Hanno , where and who owns this pre war Morris PU ? Have you any pics ?

We know of around 25 MCC PU's left . At least bits of 4 have been found here , plus one complete one .

Mike, I'm sure Rory Ballard has told you about this one (if not already, his letter must be in the snail mail ).
While In Normandy, we went over to visit a French collector living near Caen on 10 June. He has restored a Bedford MW and Chevrolet C15, and he's now working on this PU he found somewhere in France. Either the WD census number on the door or the chassis no. denoted it was of 1938-ish vintage, I can't remember exactly (my poor Dutch mind worked overtime translating French into English and the other way round!). A data plate stated this PU got a Class I rebuild in August 1945. When the current owner and his mechanic stripped it down for restoration, they found the chassis to be painted in a greyish blue colour, even under brackets bolted to the chassis etc., so they had it colour-matched and repainted it.

Could you explain that? Could it have been an ex-RN truck? But would they have repainted their trucks that thoroughly? I recall a number of Morris-Commercial trucks were given/sold to the French military after WW2, which could be the reason why this 8-cwt was rebuilt that late. Could the French have ordered that paint colour? From what little evidence I have, the French Army standardised on American-built trucks, while the French Navy used Canadian and British built trucks.

Any insights welcome!

Hanno