1967 International COE, Small Adventure

In reply to OldDave :

Two intake options for the future, either the 392, or there is an aluminum 4bbl available for the 345. I'm purposely trying to limit scope creep here. It would be VERY easy to get caught up awesomeness and miss the journey along the way, which is a perfect opening to the last bit of automotive gold from my vacation..........

After the proper museums, and with air temp up to a balmy -6 F, 96extcab blindfolded me and led me to a warehouse with a padlock on the door. We both put on every piece of warm clothing we bought and he slid the door open about 18 inches to keep the cold in (I'm sure it was even colder inside) I was shown each individual truck. Told it's story, where it came from and why. What was wrong with it and where it was going. Twin stick transmissions, transmissions with low, direct and high on the stick giving something like 18 gears. Switches on the dash for slippery. Hundreds of unlabeled pull knobs. This is a collection that is somewhere between a dream and a nightmare. You walk in and are presented with an amazing collection of trucks. The more you learn, sit in them and walk around, the more you see the work, the hours and the dollars needed to get just one of them to where you would want it (I kept thinking of Ferdinand) and then you move on to the next one. And the next one. And you add up hours and it all becomes sort of overwhelming. 
Like both of the museums, I could have spent a whole day here, if not more, photographing and writing down what I learned. Instead we walked and talked and I sat in the trucks and opened the hoods and crawled underneath them. I finally took off my gloves and snapped pictures until I couldn't hold the camera any more, about five minutes. 

Special attention to two trucks in the warehouse. The first is Stubby. This is a 1966 International, just like Ferdinand, but with a wheelbase slightly over six feet. It's the clown car of trucks, absurdly cool. 

The second is the green fire truck in the background of this shot, and in the shot after it. I've been subtly trying to convince 96extcab that he wants me to drive it home for a project. It's 4x4, super singles on all four corners, and in great shape. Because of it's location in the building there's no way to take good pictures of it, but I'm sure it would look just fine in my yard. 

I can't tell if this is a cautionary tale or an instruction book or an opportunity. I do know I need to go back when it's warmer, when we can bring some big charged batteries and fire a few of them up. I want to bring back a pocket full of cash but I'm pretty sure Mrs. Deuce is going to read this and have my name taken off the bank account. 

"but I'm pretty sure Mrs. Deuce is going to read this and have my name taken off the bank account. "

Too late

Love those Dodges........

Wow.

There's a lot going on in the building.  A lot.  I can safely say I'll be inheriting no shortage of project vehicles.  (There are 5 more outside of the building, and 2 at other locations).

That is one huge freaking building, 96

 And an awesome collection.  

This is on top of the bin of stuff that needs to be painted. Notice how the water looks all hard. 

That's because it's cold. If I lived north I'd just have to grit my teeth and bear it because there really isn't another option. Living in the south I can crawl back inside and shop for big stupid trucks on ebay and wait for it to warm up. Go ahead, make fun of me, I deserve it. 

96extcab said:

There's a lot going on in the building.  A lot.  I can safely say I'll be inheriting no shortage of project vehicles.  (There are 5 more outside of the building, and 2 at other locations).

Can i come next time and call dibs on one?

Man, that 1960 Ford 4x4 is the bomb.  I want it.

My dad has a 50,*** mile 2wd '60 Ford that he has turbo'd.  Stock Y block and all.  I've wanted a 4x4 version ever since he built his!

Holy Moly, how often do you even see a '57 Dodge cabover?

This project is getting way to connected up with cold considering where it is. Texas has provided a second chance at artistic snow shots in one year. I didn't do as well this time, but I did get my new camera body so at least they're proper pictures again. 

With the engine awaiting final assembly (using the outdoor parts washer isn't happening in this weather) I'm going to push a bunch of stuff into a corner. I currently have 10 cars, an Airstream, a car trailer, and a scooter and they almost all need something. The truck needs new lower control arms, the FJ just got a water pump and I'm going to replace the radiator preemptively as soon as the new one comes, the Miata that just needed a timing belt now needs the motor to come out, the V needs new tires, even the Volt has a slow leak on one tire. On top of that, all next weekend I'm going to be working on the One Lap car in Austin, we've got two track weekends on the calendar to prep for One Lap, I've talked my way onto a Gambler 500 team in February, and, you know, parenting. 
Emotionally I need to step away from needing to get things done on this. I need to get both of the Miatas off to their respective owners. I need to get most of the cars I own back to proper tip top shape. I need to get a floor in the Airstream so that Hans could come get it if he wanted to for some reason. If I don't do those things I'm going to crack and start selling things off just to regain some sense of sanity and I'd rather not do that. 

Not enough hours in the day eh?  This weather does kinda crimp ones style.....'cept for splittin' wood  cya

braaaap said:

Man, that 1960 Ford 4x4 is the bomb.  I want it.

My dad has a 50,*** mile 2wd '60 Ford that he has turbo'd.  Stock Y block and all.  I've wanted a 4x4 version ever since he built his!

'83...they made those trucks forever.  That one has an 8.2L Detroit that was not very popular when it was released, and still kind of sucks...

I hate to post 2x in a row, but while I've got the chance I will.  The 59 C-500 COE is a basket case, but a neat truck.  We needed the trailer it was usually stored on, so there are a few videos of it getting shuffled around.  Dad has a Powerstroke, I have a 3/4 Suburban...yet here's how we moved it ($1500 winter beater to the rescue!!):

And then a good chance to see old stuff being used to move slightly newer (1 year) stuff:

914Driver said:

Holy Moly, how often do you even see a '57 Dodge cabover?

NOHOME said:

In reply to OldDave :

You just laid out the justification for why I went with a FITECK EFI  for the Molvo.

The carb will always beat the efi in any defined task IF the person tunning the carb knows what he is doing. But over a broad range of operating conditions real time, closed loop tunning is always going to win. Again...subject to operator ability; nothing is foolproof.

I've stared into the EFI abyss long and hard, but have to say while intriguing, it seem's just too easy. 

mean while I have been buying and stashing a matched pair of 454 TBI throttle bodies, along with a Mega Squirt 3 box to bolt onto a tunnel ram on top of a 488ci BBC that (if I live long enough) will go back into my rejuvenated 1957 Chevy 210 Sedan Bracket One car some day. (right after I hit the lottery)

Sunshine. Work. Time to stop sitting around. 
The Deucelings got a zip line over the holidays and I put it up when we got back. It's fun. It's also a GREAT place to hang parts to paint them. These are the shift rods. I could tell you that I want them to be red so they stand out, so that they get noticed, because the column shift in this truck is one of the coolest parts. I could also admit that I'm sure I bought a rattle can of black when gathering supplies before Christmas but I'll be damned if I can find it. I didn't want to go to TSC to buy one, and red is cool, so they're red. 

I re-cleaned the cross members so they're ready for me to mix up paint, and then just started attacking more of the brackets and bolts. It would be reasonable to just replace a bunch of the bolts, and that will happen with some, but I love the IH markings in the top of them, so I clean them. 

And then there was a honk, the mail lady had a package for me. I opened a box to find this. 

The note says there's a story, and since I'm rendered speachless by kindness, I'll let the guy who made this tell it when he opens the thread. 

Awesome, I hoped everything would arrive safely.

As some may remember, back around OLOA 2017, I built a lifted wagon for my daughter, and mazdeuce hooked me up with some awesome vinyls for it. 

Well, since then I'd been trying to think of something I could do as a way of saying thank you. At the time, I was still building a foundry. So I aquired some Mercedes aluminum that I'd planned on casting into a key ring of the R63, as it had just been completed.

Roughly R63 shaped. I got as far as getting the pattern cut out and primed, and deciding it just wasn't very nice looking. Some time went buy, and the plasma cutter arrived, So I thought I'd just cut it out of aluminum. That didn't work out at all, I can't even share pictures. 

Some more time went by, and I purchased the 3d printer, just in time for the GRM holiday game, and a mention not of falling out of love with the R, but of it not being a center stage item anymore (I'm paraphrasing). That helped me a little bit because there are exactly 0 ready made prints of R class anythings. So I started stalking build threads and printing forums, looking for something like Fergus, or Ferdinand, or the 911, something that would be around the stable for a while. 

That is when I discovered the truck. It's a 1949 Chevy Cab over. Not exactly a Ferdinand replica, but closer than the International that I found. 

In my attempts of getting the printer setup, I totally missed the New Years game, but I was determined this time to actually get it done. I really can credit trying to get this printer as WHY my printer actually works now, and wasn't just discarded in frustration. 

I really thought I had pictures of the frame printing, but I can't find any. That is the Cab, about 30% done. 

I still feel bad about the steering wheel breaking off. 

The whole project was a learning experience in print layout and setup. It took several days to figure out the proper way to print the wheels so they could come off the bed and possibly still attach to the frame. 

Most parts actually friction fit very well, I was surprised by that. After making sure everything roughly went together*, I packaged it up, and spent another week writing and rewriting a note before just putting it in the mail as was. 

For all of the things I've learned following threads like the Grosh and the Unicorn thread, on top of the vinyls, I wanted to give something back, but I wanted to actually make it, and learn while doing, like the writer of those threads did. So thank you again Mazdeuce, Seth, for being an inspiration and letting us all live and learn vicariously through you. 

* why roughly went together? Because the only way to really put it together involved glue, and I wanted it to be inspectable, modifyable, maybe  a fun distraction (I didn't know about the Miatas at the time I packaged it). 

If I didn't mention it in the note, If/when you decide on a bed style for Ferdinand, or if it changes colors, I'll be happy to send down the modifications. 

And a final note, if anyone wants to make this project themselves, It's on thingiverse. BE WARNED, the stl files are FULL SIZE. All parts of this print were scaled to 3% before printing. But if you have a REALLY big 3d printer, please, make a thread printing your own. 

In reply to RevRico :

It's beautiful stories like this that keep me coming back.  Oh, and the cars.

Got to hang out with another real person today when I went to a swap meet with 759NRNG. Had a good time but there was a notable absence of IN parts. There was one crusty 1961 Scout for sale that had the four cylinder in it. That was fun to look at and while I was explaining to 759 that the four is half of the 304 eight and used the same heads and valve covers and all that I had an old dude who decided that he NEEDED to educate me on the fact that IH didn't make their own motors and they were all Chrysler engines. 

It was a fun time, I was veeeeery tempted to figure out how to stuff a big semi wheel dolly in the back seat of the Accord, one of the guys had two of them. 

My ex's parent's have a 1948 Diamond T and along with that are members of the Antique Truck Club of America.  I fondly remember reading the club magazines at the farm. They often have articles about how a lot of these old truck systems work, which may be useful.

(sorry for the thumbnail pic - it's the only one I could find of the T)

Lots of awesomeness in that big warehouse.  I’d get in trouble there for sure if they were in a selling mood.

In reply to Cotton :

I mean...everything has a price.....

How about 1200 dollars? A guy in Ashley, Illinois posted this on Facebook marketplace today. 78 International Cargostar. V8 gas motor 10 speed fulton transmission, can drive it home.  Randy Edgington 

In reply to Miller Lake Monster :

That would be a good base for something fun like a resto-mod CXT interpretation.

If it weren't for the fact that it's the later wide cab version, I'd be all about it. Someone should grab it though, it's cool.