1971 IH Scout II

1971 IH Scout II

TRUCK HISTORY

This truck has been in my family since 1974 when my Dad picked it up from the Chevy dealership in Bothell. We had a lot of fun in this thing when I was growing up. I can remember going camping and offroading all over the Northwest with my Dad. We would take it out on the weekends for a day outdoors. First off we always had to stop at the local Deli for bananna chips and jo-jo's potatoes. Good offroading snacks.

When I was 12 we moved from Woodinville to Redmond. There were just too many vehicles on the lot for our new house, so we gave the Scout to my Grandfather who took it home with him to North Dakota. It spent the next 13 years out there being used as daily transportation out in the farm fields. I learned to drive in this Scout out on the dirt and gravel backroads of North Dakota. It wasn't the easiest truck to learn on being manual steering with no syncro in first gear. I learned soon enough that first gear wouldn't be used most of the time. But the Scout is tough, so in reality it is a perfect vehicle to learn on.

So then in the summer of 2003 came along and my Grandparents had decided to auction off their farm in the small town of Noonan ND and move to the much larger town of Minot ND. The Scout, along with most of the other vehicles didn't have a place in their new home so it all had to go. I've kinda grown attached to the vehicle after all these years, so I couldn't let it go. I had to keep it in the family. So I took a week off of work and got on the train for ND to help out with the auction sale and drive the Scout back home. Crazy idea, but so am I. I left for home at 5am in the Scout with my water bottle, cell phone, my maps, and a bit of cash my Grandparents INSISTED on giving me. I had no idea what was in store for me. It took me 36 hours to get home. STRAIGHT THROUGH!! It broke down 3 times, but I was able to repair it every time with a bent pair of pliers, some bailing wire, and a screwdriver. My only tools. On the trip home I had replaced the battery (unecessarily I found out later), cracked the carb so it wouldn't idle without my foot on the gas, and broken the passenger side exaust pipe right under the floorboards. By the time I got home I was deaf, dirty, and tired. I went to work an hour later. It was great.

Here are some pics of the "Scout Life"

This is me driving the Scout on the first day. The sun has come up and I'm still in North Dakota here.

Here's a field in North Dakota behind my Grandparent's farm on that warm sunny day of the auction. This is how I've always remembered it. I hope it will always be this beautiful. It's one of my favorite places.

Here's the Scout in my garage. The headlights are out because I'm replacing the body bushings. One of my first projects once I got the carb replaced. You access the front busings this way. The old rubber was crushed and the rear body mounts had bent down over years of use causing my doors to shut poorly and the top to not line up. I purchased a set of polyurethane ones to replace them. This project took much longer than I originally planned. The old body bolts were quite rusty requiring a tools such as a crowbar, sledge hammer, and 4" angle grinder to remove them. But in the end it was all worth it. I decided to add a 2" body lift while I was at it to help clear the new 33" tires I planned to install.

This is one of the old body bushings by the rear wheel. You can see how the rubber has given out over the years. This is one of the bolts I was actually able to remove cleanly by soaking in liquid penetrant overnight and working the nut back and forth. The rest of the bolts were not so lucky.

New body bushing. I added the body lift after this picture was taken. I figured as long as it was all apart, I might as well set it up the way I want.

Here's the bracket I made to extend the clutch rod after raising the body.

The throttle cable broke before I even left the farm when the soldered end broke off the pedal end of the cable. We tried to solder it back on, but we couldn't get enough heat out of our gun. So I simply pulled the cable out of the sleeve and inserted some bailing wire I found on the ground. Made for a "temporary" throttle cable for about 3 months until I was able to find a replacement. Turns out that the 1971 model Scout had it's own cable that was different from all the years before and after. It was difficult to track down.

There's a little story behind this one. I was driving home on the first day in the Scout and it gotten dark. I was running the headlights somewhere in Montana, heading down over a little mountain range. I needed a bit more light so I hit the brights switch on the floor. ALL LIGHTS OFF! Needless to say that was a scary moment as I was just making a turn heading down the backside of the pass at 70mph. Luckily there was a semi heading up from the other direction lighting the path in front of me long enough to get my foot under the switch and pull it back up. Could have been ugly. As it turns out this little switch will stick down if it's rusty, and boy is it rusty. Replaced it for $9.

(Disregard the puddle of gas underneath the rear-end) I've done so much on the truck that I'm way behind on the website. To list it off, I've replaced the front and rear axel and Pinion seals, re-painted the center console and shifters, flipped the draglink for more clearance, dropped and repaired a cracked gas tank, performed a SOA lift, custom fabbed new shock mounts, custom fabbed a new battery tray, added power steering and hydroboost brakes, removed the top-end of the engine to replace seals and re-paint, mounted a hi-lift jack under the hood, installed stainless steel brake lines, and re-conditioned the trailer hitch. At this point in time I have just over $3300.00 invested in the truck. Free labor!