Date: Wed Jan 26 2000
Time: 17:06:46
Title: Thor
Story: My first, and only binder so far, is THOR. THOR is a 78 SCOUT II with a 345 2bbl, T-19 wide spread, and a whole lot of rust! I bought THOR on April 30th of 1999 for $900 because I needed something 4 wheel drive and cheap. My 65 convertible corvair left me high and dry on the highway I decided it was time to buy real transportation. Boy did I get it! It's been 8 months since I bought my scout and the once project corvair is leaving for good to get me some money to restore my baby. I have only replaced a water pump gasket, starter, alternater, and battery since I bought the beast and it has been a dream. I've put almost 15,000 miles on it allready! It has 70,000 showing but THOR's badly rusted body suggests there is more (and it doesn't have a 100,000 place in the odometer anyway). THOR has taken Storm mtn here is colorado many times, including the trip that claimed the starter. That night was the only night the scout stranded me. It wouldn't have been a big deal except my buddies bronco did the same to him so we had to hike down. Next morning, with a new starter, THOR fired right up and played on the MTN for another whole day and all the nest week and the week after until we finally got that beeping bronco running again. The last weekend there was a foot of fresh snow on the trail and we made it to where the bronco was stalled in record time! No other vehicle could take the abuse poor THOR has taken and run as well as he still does. This spring I am going to try sell the Corvair and my MR2 so I can give THOR the help he needs to come back to its old glory days. As tough as this truck is now I can hardly imagine what a fresh rebuild and a few mods will do for it. The day I bought it I headed to Denver looking for anything that had 4wheel drive and ran. I had a grand in cash and newspaper. THOR was the first Scout that I looked at that night and also the last. The lady told me it probably wouldn't fire up the first try since it hadn't been started in 6 months but with one turn of the key and no gas pedal it fired right up and purred. The next day I got tags and insurance and went straight to the bone yards to play. A jeep was stuck in the Big Thompson river and I had to cross the spring swelled river. Keep in mind that this is the same river that wiped out the canyon and much of Loveland in 1976. And we were under a flood watch since the river was rising a foot an hour! Well my boots and jeans were soaked at the other side but the scout went right across and proceeded to pull the CJ-5 right out of the river. Had I known the once partly above the bottom of the door in water jeep had a spring over and 33 inch tires I probably wouldn't have tried it. But THOR earned the name for the Viking God of Thunder because of it. He tamed the growing river without hesitation. The kid driving the jeep was very gratefull. Those jeepers are right about one thing: I don't understand the Jeep thing! I'll take an IH anyday over a Jeep!
Keep the IH alive,
Jonathan
Contributer: Jonathan Goldsberry
