Date: Tue Jan 25 2000
Time: 08:04:11
Title: 1970 International
Story: I'm in the US Army and I was at my folks house prior to leaving for a one year tour in Korea.
International colors run pretty strong in the family blood and I really wanted one badly. One day, I read
an add in a local classified add paper which read "70 International Pickup, needs carburator, starter and
soap. $500 OBO." I drove out to see the truck in what turned out to be a pretty well-to-do neighborhood. "It" was parked by a beautiful house on a nice piece of land out on the island. At first
glance, it can only be described as a light green pond on wheels with a large lumber rack. It was beginning to literally grow things out of rain gutters, etc. It had obviously been sitting for a few years. The owner, a sucessful business man said his brother gave it to him to repay a debt and his wife was bugging him to get it out of the yard (don't we all know the latter half of that statement). I told him that I'd give him $250 for it and he agreed, as long as he could keep the lumber rack. I pulled the 4bbl carb off the 392 (5 speed trans) and took it home. On the way, I picked up a starter and a carb rebuild kit. I rebuilt the carb that night and took it, the starter and a can of gas over to the truck the next morning. I replaced the starter, put
the "rebuilt" carb on and chose one of three tanks to put the gas into. After figuring out which way to turn the gas tank selector on the floor and also the one on the dash, she fired right up with a nice throaty dual exhaust 392 cube rumble. You should have seen the look on the guy's face. He had obviously written it off as a piece of trash. I asked him where he wanted the bed dumped at (construction waste, water and swimming animals), he gave me $50 back and asked me to take it to the dump. After a $20 dump run and a week of scrubbing, I had a pretty nice WHITE 70 1200 series 2wd with a 392, 5 speed. I eventually replaced the carb with a new 600 Holley, put new chrome wheels and tires on it, and tuned it up. After about a year, I got an itch for a Scout and sold the truck to a guy in our club for $1400. Not only did I get my money back (plus a bit), all of the fun the truck provided was free, excluding gas costs! The truck's continuing to make it's recovery and is still barking the tires into fourth gear.
Contributer: Pete Rogers
