Still taking short bursts at it; I've started rebuilding the rear corner panel for the passenger side which is coming along quite nicely when my welder plays nice. There's something screwed up in the torch that even a new liner didn't fix, so I've got a new welding torch on the shopping list, and in the meantime I'm using the TIG. More metal-forming and welding to do yet before I get it to the stage I can hang it on the truck, but it's all progress.
Did take a trundle down to the unit to drop off more workshop equipment (nothing too fancy, just a proper bench grinder because it's a real pain getting things done without one.) and will myself into poking at something, while I was still capable of standing; which turned into scraping and peeling paint 😀
The really big news for today is that thanks to that, I have finally got confirmation of something I've been pretty confident I was right about. So, I took the little body tag off the nearside to let me clean up that little bit behind it to make way for new paint...
And on the back side of it, I found some magic words stamped in!
TRACTOR 3 TON FA 4x4 RLW CODE NO 43490501361
This not only confirms my suspicions of Field Artillery conversion; but IMO also puts a line in the sand as far as date of conversion, in the form of the vehicle code number using the system that -- according to sources -- was phased out by VESPER from 1964. So, the mystery timeline gains another data-point! ​
Anyway, speaking of making way for new paint...
Technique that appears to be working the best at the moment is a hot-air gun and a wide scraper. The paint softens nicely and just peels off, rather than turning into dust and fragments.
And a first coat of heavy zinc primer, after beating all the pitted spots and filler patches with the wire brush to see what happens
Thankfully, none of the pitting or filler turned out to be hiding any big trouble, so I'm hoping I can blitz through this side fairly easily. Only the locker doors, to do before I can start thinking about laying on yellow paint.
And I'm pretty hopeful that I can get away with not having to repeat the whole process on the other side, thanks to it not having been painted over with the mystery brown paint. 'course, I'm also still undecided on whether (and how) I want to do a tilt, which would then mean I need to add mounting points for that before painting... Would be nice to have a covered portion over the back, though. Maybe I'll just add the brackets, then it doesn't matter if I can't make my mind up.)
While I'm waiting for next week's paycheck, so I can pick up the new
welding torch and some other assorted bits (New nuts & bolts for the
locker I removed, in particular. ...a locker which I need to give a
coat of black paint, come to think of it.), I'm giving serious thought
to attacking the insides of the lockers with the powered wire brush
and hoover... Clean them up and get them at least in primer, because
I'm sick of everything being a shower of rust flakes all the time,
especially into wet paint! 
Will have to get a bucket of white paint for the locker internals, too, when I can. (Lockers are a lot more useful when painted white. Especially if there's a light fitted! Now there's an idea...)
Solving a mystery
I have also, while poking around online this morning while refuelling (coffee, bacon & egg on toast) was ongoing, discovered an answer to one of my previous ponderings!
Remember this?
Turns out, it's for this:
Which lets you do this with the hoops for the canvas tilt:
And now I know. 🌈🌟
As for my own tilt...
I'm thinking having it only extend over the length of the lockers, which still leaves the area around the crane exposed for working in; but provide some covered space on the back of the truck, out of the rain. I was also thinking of having the cover made out of the same PVC tarpaulin that tautliner curtains are made of, in a similar sort of yellow to the body.
I know, it's a lot of yellow in one place, but anything else might look out of place.