Junkyard Find: 1971 International Harvester Scout
Because I live in Colorado, I see quite a few Scouts in wrecking yards— this ’70 and this ’73, for example— and most of the time I don’t photograph them. IHC pickups and SUVs, sure, but the Scouts just blend in like DJ-5 mail Jeeps. This ’71 had a cool custom paint job, plus I’ve realized that all Scouts are interesting, so we’ll check it out.
It’s disappointing that you can no longer buy a new street vehicle made by a farm equipment manufacturer.
Did all Scouts get the Canadian seal of approval?
I’ve never been much interested in off-road machinery, but I must admit I’ve been tempted to buy a Scout (or a Subaru Justy 4WD) since I moved to Colorado.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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Yes all Scout II and 70's full size trucks carry the transport Canada maple leaf on the certification sticker. What we really need to see is the metal data plate to see if it is one of the ones stamped Scout 810 instead of Scout II or to see if the grille is spot welded or bolted to the valance panel to know if it really is one of the last 1971s or the first 1972s.
I've always been curious where exactly you BOUGHT an International Harvester vehicle. It's hard to imagine trucks being sold alongside tractors, especially since car and truck dealers are far more ubiquitous than tractor dealers...