Farm Truck

Boy, I'm moving up in the world, lemme tell you...

I'll wait while you pick yourself up off the floor.

...

...

Ok, that's better.

We went and picked up a few items from my Granny's estate, and one of them was this beauty:

Suh-weet!

It's a 1963 International Scout - customized. My grandparents bought it from Granny's brother in the 1970's. Around the time I was born (1978), my mom nicknamed it "The Great Pumpkin" (she was forever naming vehicles). Grandpa chopped it somehow - turning it into a pickup, more or less. You can't tell from the outside, but inside the cab, just behind the front (and only) seat where the roof meets the rear window, there are welding marks. Maybe it used to have a backseat? I remember bouncing off the interior of this while Grandpa drove through the woods to cut firewood with my dad.

The above photo shows its extrication from the shed where it has been parked perhaps 20 years or so. You can barely see a boat suspended from the ceiling above the site where the Scout was parked; Hubby first had to disengage that boat from the upper portions of the scout; a rope had finally given way, and it's rear half had come crashing down. It has a hole, but it seems the scout isn't any worse for wear.

Hubby tried and tried to get it started, and had the engine actually running (!), but the clutch has had problems for years, and without it the PTO winch on the front wasn't going to operate anyway. We had to get it back to our area (12 hour drive minimum), so we had to trailer it, which took some doing (and 3 other pickups)...

I'm sure those old ramps will be fine...

One pickup to hold and stabilize the trailer, one to run a winch through a pulley attached to the front end of the trailer bed, and a third to eventually drive up and hold the back end of those ramp planks securely to the ground. It actually went smoothly and according to plan, about which I continue to be astonished.

Around the Scout we strapped the (somewhat rotted) side boards to the trailer (it's a hay trailer my grandpa made) and packed various boxes, bags, a bed frame, four dining room chairs... and to top it off, standing at attention in the back of the Scout was a push lawnmower - you know, the kind with whirling blades and no motor? I've always wanted one of those!

We may or may not have looked like the Clampetts on the road home...

Here's a view of the svelte interior of my new rig: 

All original interior

We've made some upgrades. We've removed the dog food bag (and scrap of what looked like a sheep skin) from the seat (of course, now the hole with springs is exposed, but anyway..). We've washed the algae and moss from the windows.

And that's about it. 

I need to reattach the nylon strap that keeps the driver's door from slamming into the front fender when it opens.

We're hoping to return it to its former glory, which included both first gear and reverse, and I will have a handy mobile toolbox (and kid hauler) to use to:

     a) fix fences 

     b) transport cheap livestock from nearby neighbors 

     c) show off in local car shows.

Not really on that last one.

I bet I could brood chicks in the bed of it, though...