Junkyard Find: 1974 International Harvester Scout II
Here in Denver, the Jeep DJ-5 often shows up in Junkyard Finds. Another truck that forms a regular part of The Crusher’s diet in Colorado is the International Harvester Scout. Yes, there was once a time when a farm-equipment manufacturer made highway-legal light trucks, and the Scout was (and is) a Colorado favorite. Here’s a battered ’74 I spotted a few weeks back.
In this series so far, we’ve seen this ’70 Scout, this ’71 Scout, and this ’73 Scout. Today’s find has a bit of rust, a well-worn interior, and seriously sun-bleached paint.
Oh yeah, and it appears to have had a minor rollover mishap.
When IHC needed to add instructions for window-regulator replacement, they went for combine-harvester-style stenciled instructions rather than the decals that the Detroit Big Three would have used.
I’m pretty sure this is the 304-cubic-inch IHC V8, but I don’t know enough about these engines to distinguish the 304 from the 345 at a glance. Either way, it’s a little four-wheel-drive truck with farm-grade V8 power!
The blue-and-white two-tone paint is more like light-blue-and-off-white by now, but it probably looked great when new.
Are there any Scouts without a hunting- or fishing-related window decal? No, there are none.
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Had one of these in the family, even powder blue, but with a different stripe. V-8 and 4-speed all restored or rebuilt, canvas top and roll bar. Loved it for off-roading and top down cruising in the summer. But while driving it on vacation I got stuck in a traffic jam and working that clutch for 45 minutes in stop and go traffic was enough for me not to buy it when it was sold. So these basically are a redneck convertible for me, nice for the weekends, but not a good daily driver.
drove one on the farm as a teenager in the 70's the dang thing out climbed almost any other vehicle on the farm including the old K-5 Blazer. I tried to drive it threw a brick wall once after an argument with my dad but the whole wall fell down. I scratched the paint a little. on the old beast. I was tring to prove the point an Old timer told me, "you could drive them things threw a brick with barely a scratch."