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What would you do with it?

7K views 82 replies 30 participants last post by  GearDrive 
#1 ·
I have a 1979 international Scout II that I inherited. It currently has lots of sentimental value from riding in it as a kid.



Specs:

304 v8 68k original miles

4 speed trans

Dana 300

Dana 44s with 4.10s one axle has a power loc (I think the front).

Soft top with no roll bar.

Michigan scout rust with 1/2" of bondo on some of the panels. It needs complete restoration with extensive rust repair. If I keep it I'll have to let it sit for a long time before I'll have extra funds to start a project. It was stored in a barn since 1987. It is currently sitting on my trailer in a storage yard. It kills me to have it sit outside.



If this was yours what would you do?

Find a place to keep it?

Part it out?

Scrap it?
 
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#3 ·
My brother went through this same situation when our Grandpa passed away.
Our grandpa willed him an International Travel All that was in need of alot of work. My brother loved the truck and all of the memories he had riding in it with our grandpa.
The problem was he didn't have the time or place to restore it. It was to the point he was depressed and stressed with the fact it was just sitting there.
It was eventually sold to an unknown guy who said his intent was to restore it not scrap it. My brother felt that way at least it was getting the attention it needed to make himself and grandpa happy.
My brother was and still is content with the memories.
Hope this helps :thumb:.
 
#8 ·
Definitely don't part it out.

I'm on the fence about the rest. If I was in your situation, I'd have you either:

-keep it in dry storage until you had time to work on it and enjoy it.

-sell it to someone that you know will care for it and possibly restore it. After all, you never know when you'll get to it. Someone else may even enjoy it better than you ever could.
 
#12 ·
I wouldn't get rid of it, but that might just by my inner scooterbuilt talking
 
#32 · (Edited)
I would keep it, lift it and drive it.

Scout are great rigs. I know I loved mine, too bad the Sate of California didn't.



Thanks, this what I want I to look like. I would really like to find a running IC 392 or 345 for it.

Keep it for sure. Why does it "NEED" to be restored? If it's just because the body is falling off, then it's probably still useable as is for now, while you save up for the big "restoration". Put $50 bucks a month in a coffee can, and in ten years you'll have a nice stash of monies to start the restoration. Till then, wheel it as is in simpleton form.



I've seen this happen too many times, where it's decided something "just can't be used as it is" because it's not nice enough. Then it sits forever, waiting for the stars to align, or lottery be won. The reality is that it doesn't HAVE to be a show winner to be fun. It doesn't HAVE to have a lift, engine rebuild, or disk brake conversion to be cool. It just needs to run to be fun.



If the body is rusted beyond repair, then a body replacement will be needed eventually to be "fixed" or restored. If it's being replaced completely, then why worry about the body on it now? Let the body keep falling apart and put a few dollars into the drivetrain to make it work for now.



If you "keep it going" now, it's harder to lose focus on the end goal of restoration, and even more memories will be made.



You won't hurt the frame, leaf springs, axles, transmission, or transfer case as it is. If the motor doesn't run now or comes apart sometime, you can always stick another used engine in it.
it's been sitting for 20 years. It needs everything gone through, brakes, lines, fuel lines, gas tank, blah blah. I might as well take it completely down and start from the bottom up. The guts are solid it just needs lots of repair panels. I don't want a half assed shit box that is slapped together. I want a nice project to take the wife and kids to the dunes and to get ice cream, go to the beach in ect up north. Doesn't "need" a full resto? No, but I don't want a clapped out beater. These are becoming less and less common and I would like to turn it into something nice like this:






I may have found some temp dry storage for awhile. Permanent storage will take a few months to get cleaned out.
 
#27 · (Edited)
Keep it for sure. Why does it "NEED" to be restored? If it's just because the body is falling off, then it's probably still useable as is for now, while you save up for the big "restoration". Put $50 bucks a month in a coffee can, and in ten years you'll have a nice stash of monies to start the restoration. Till then, wheel it as is in simpleton form.

I've seen this happen too many times, where it's decided something "just can't be used as it is" because it's not nice enough. Then it sits forever, waiting for the stars to align, or lottery be won. The reality is that it doesn't HAVE to be a show winner to be fun. It doesn't HAVE to have a lift, engine rebuild, or disk brake conversion to be cool. It just needs to run to be fun.

If the body is rusted beyond repair, then a body replacement will be needed eventually to be "fixed" or restored. If it's being replaced completely, then why worry about the body on it now? Let the body keep falling apart and put a few dollars into the drivetrain to make it work for now.

If you "keep it going" now, it's harder to lose focus on the end goal of restoration, and even more memories will be made.

You won't hurt the frame, leaf springs, axles, transmission, or transfer case as it is. If the motor doesn't run now or comes apart sometime, you can always stick another used engine in it.

Story time!

I have a scout that was given to a friend and I when we were about sixteen. It had no centimental value whatsoever, and my friends old man thought we were nuts, but worked on it with us anyways, despite continually saying we were nuts to do anything but haul it in for scrap. It was rusted terribly. We got a 4x6 jammed between the door post and the trans tunnel, on top of the frame/body mount to hold the drivers side of the body up. We could actually crawl through the hole in the floor, and the rocker didn't actually exist. The 4x6 worked great, because when we put down a piece of 3/4" plywood to make a floor, we were able to nail it right down! We welded the doors and the tailgate shut stuck some sort of round fuel tank in the back with a new line to the pump, and headed out wheeling. Shortly after we took the hardtop off, and pounded the rusty fenders out to fit some 33" Armstrong TruTracs with busted cords on it.

We ran it like that for nearly ten years, two tracking, hill climbing, mud bogging, and whatever. I used to take my nephews out riding around in it, "mushroom hunting", or looking for squirrels, to go fishing, or whatever. It's been broke for many years now, the spider gears in the rear end stripped out while doing reverse donuts at a mud bog, and I've never gotten around to welding them up, and I certainly don't need it. They've moved further away now, and rarely get up here, but they still love telling their stories of the Scout to anyone who will listen. How they had to climb in because the doors don't work, "like a race car", how they thought it was on fire when the radiator hose came off, the hood opens up backwards, and all the seats were mismatched.

We've got our own stories of it. How the whole exhaust could glow red hot at night if we beat on it hard enough, a tire once spun itself all the way off the outside bead, then went back on while driving, the doors bouncing open and closed like wings when bonzaiing up a hill (why they got welded shut!), giving girls rides at mudbogs, how it was a recovery machine, towing home all the "good rigs" time after time.

Of course, none of those memories should have ever happened, because it wasn't worth using it as is, and "needed" a restoration to be useable. It is and since we got it has always been a giant pile of shit, but theres a dozen people who love it, just because of it.

I haven't started it in five or ten years and it's probably seized. It should have been scrapped when we got it, and it should be scrapped now. I'm not going to though. Someday some teenaged relative is going to want to ride in it, or fix it, or whatever, and we'll pour some atf down the cylinders, work it loose, weld up the rear end and go wheeling, creating a new story in itself.

The same time we scored ours for free, another school mate bought a nice one with a fiberglass body. He soon pulled out the strait six to put in a Caddy engine, and it has never run again. Who knows if he's still got it or sold it off, but I know for sure that we had more fun in our free POS that wasn't worth dicking with.
 
#28 ·
Back in the 80's a buddy of mine used to wheel scouts because they were cheap and rusty, so he didn't mind beating them up.

He would roll a 33" tire along side, sharpie the outline of the tire on the fenders, and torch the sheetmetal off for clearance. Never ran a lift, just cut or hammered stuff out of the way of the tires.

When the frame got twisted to the point where all the wheels would not sit on the ground, he would scrap it out and find another. He's likely the reason why you don't see too many these days. :teehee:
 
#30 ·
Yeah, I lost many mirrors on my Ramcharger trying to follow him through the woods.

Now I need to see if I can find some old pics, I lost most of my old photos on a house fire. I do remember taking a pic of one of his scouts upside down when he backflipped it trying to climb a hill. The only thing that saved him was he was a skinny fukk and pulled himself under the dash when it went over. We thought he was dead, until he crawled out from where the tailgate used to be.
 
#31 ·
I say find a place to keep it dry until you can restore it. Option #2 should be to sell it to me. I won't get around to restoring it anytime soon, but I don't live far from Southfield so you may get some satisfaction when you see me driving it around and knowing that the Scout is being enjoyed.

:beer:
 
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