A Multiple-International Harvester Home Is a Happy Home: Members’ Rides

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What’s better than one classic International Harvester SUV? Two International Harvesters, duh. Autopian member Bill Dugan is living the dream with both a Scout of many colors and a shockingly clean Travelall, plus—until recently—a couple of trusty Honda dailies.

(Welcome to Members’ Rides. This is the weekly feature where we look at people who became members of the site by signing up here and parting with a little of their hard-earned dough to keep The Autopian going. Our plan is to do these every week! Today it’s Bill’s turn!)49753562736 5eaeff5eae 4ka

Sadly, Bill’s Honda Accord got Torchinsky’d hard by a deer—sorry, Torch, your bad luck with deer means you’re a verb now—and he’s looking to replace it with a midsize pickup or SUV. Fortunately, his family’s Honda CR-V is still truckin’ along, as reliable as ever.

Here’s Bill to tell us more about what’s in his garage!

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Tell us a bit about yourself! How did you get into cars?

My name is Bill, and I live outside of Baltimore, Maryland. I’m the creative director an an environmental NGO [non-governmental organization—Ed.] in Washington D.C. (yeah, I know, it’s a dichotomy, but life is short).

I’ve always loved cars, and I used to stay up Friday nights to watch the one-two punch of “CHiPS” and the “Dukes of Hazzard.” When I was 12, Dad bought a repossession agency and I worked as the lot guy (starting cars, moving them around, keeping things running, getting them out for the banks and lessees) until I went away to college. Bought a Scout in 1997 and apart from a six-month break, have had one ever since. I wrote a bunch of Cars of a Lifetime (COAL) articles for Curbside Classic.

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What’s in your current automotive fleet?

  • 1976 International Harvester Scout: Nicknamed “Peer Pressure.” A harlequin of different body panel colors, painted purple by the previous owner over gold flake metallic. It’s my second Scout—two of my friends convinced me to buy this right after my daughter was born.
  • 1963 International Harvester Travelall: My 2023 project, and it doesn’t have a name yet. Bought out of the back yard of a guy selling it for his brother—no, not sketchy at all. Not running, with no title. I got it through the Vermont Loophole mere moments before they shut that down. I’ve been working on it all year, got it running, cut a whole bunch of rust out of the cowl this summer and replaced it as my first welding project.
  • 2006 Honda CR-V: One of two family haulers. It’s a manual—the wife prefers stick. 160,000 miles, runs like a top. Solid, dependable. I wish I had another.
  • 2009 Honda Accord: Gray, reliable, automatic, boring. Recently taken out by a suicidal buck two days before Thanksgiving. I am currently on the hunt for a new vehicle.

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The Honda CR-V the day Bill’s family brought it home.

What got you into Scouts (and International Harvesters in general)?

The shortened version of the story—my roommate in college drove a Traveler (a longer wheelbase Scout, like Andrew Collins has) back to college from spring break and got me hooked. I had always loved ’60s and ’70s trucks, but there was something about an orphan brand with a completely removable top that I really liked, and I drove his Scout a fair bit while we were in school. I was driving a Mazda B2000 at the time and when I got an adult job after college and had some disposable income, I bought my first Scout. I will say this: the old-school IH community is like no other. There are so many amazing folks involved in running and fixing them who would give you the shirt off their backs.

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Bill’s first Scout, “Chewbacca.”

Another good story about the gap time between Scouts (which is actually more like a year now that I look at it): My first Scout was rusting in the driveway while I threw all my money and time into our new house. My wife works from home and had some clients over for a meeting, and they were talking about logo inspiration. One of the clients mentioned maybe using an old truck like a pickup or Scout, so my wife asked if he’d seen the Scout in our driveway, which he hadn’t. He was ready to buy it on the spot, but his wife told him they should probably wait, as Christmas was coming up.

The next day, she called me and asked if she could buy it for him for Christmas. I told her to bring a mechanic to look it over, and whatever they said, I’d honor that price. We made a deal and she surprised him with it. He spent the next year or so redoing the whole thing with his dad and it was better than it had ever been. Along the way, we got to be great friends, and he and another friend convinced me to take a chance on my new Scout at an auto auction. This is why it was christened “Peer Pressure” (being purple, I think I dodged a bullet there).

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Taking the Travelall home.

So, how did you end up with the Travelall?

I’ve had Scouts for 25 years, and I’d been looking at something different but related for a while. I had the opportunity to jump on another cheap Travelall about eight years ago and an IH pickup a little after that, but the time wasn’t right. Coming out of COVID and itching for a project, I started looking at cheap trucks up and down the Mid-Atlantic. I couldn’t find anything that wasn’t overpriced or completely rotted out for a year or so, and then this Travelall showed up. It looks a lot worse than it is—the lack of rust on this truck is kind of astounding considering it sat in a backyard in Maryland for six-plus years. It checks almost all the right boxes—manual, V8, four doors, and no rust. Future plans include air conditioning, power steering and a brake upgrade to a dual master cylinder with front discs.

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The interior of the Travelall wasn’t too shabby, either.

What are you looking for to replace the crunched Accord?

I just got the settlement check in hand. We’re between a midsize pickup (Ranger, Tacoma or Maverick) and another CR-V or intermediate SUV of some kind. I really want a quad-cab with an exterior bed, as we’re looking at life changes and need a hauler pretty soon. But I also want something with reasonable gas mileage, which rules out the Ranger, Tacoma and Ridgeline.5k7a1941(1)

Cars of a Lifetime is such a cool series, too—and shares a lot in common with this column, come to think of it. What’s your favorite COAL article?

Of mine or someone else’s? I think Paul Niedermeyer’s (the original site editor) pieces were great, and the articles from a fellow named Aaron, but there have been a lot of really good series there. I find the best ones often aren’t about cars at all. The one I liked writing the most, I think, was about my old VW bus.

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Travelall work in progress.

Lastly, what would be in your dream garage?

That’s a tough one. I’d love to have a ’68 Mustang Fastback, a Ferrari 246 Dino—hey, a guy can dream—a ’60s Vespa 150, an airhead BMW…the list is long.51289264203 07ca1d159d 3ka

Thanks, Bill! If you’re a member and want to be highlighted, please check your email for a link to a survey you can fill out. If you don’t want to be featured, that’s also fine. Go here and join today!

All photos credit Bill Dugan.

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13 thoughts on “A Multiple-International Harvester Home Is a Happy Home: Members’ Rides

  1. My dad bought a brand new International Travelall in 1974, and although (or perhaps because) it was plagued with issues, it became a legendary car in our family. He named it Igor (pronounced “Eye-gor”, named after Marty Feldman’s character in Young Frankenstein).

    In terms of styling, I always thought the Scout II was the best-looking vehicle in its class, far better than the Bronco, Blazer, Ramcharger, Land Cruiser, you name it.

      1. I wish I could remember. I’ll have to ask him about it, but it was something like the oil pump, heads, and/or head gasket.

        There was also the time when I went to get something out of the truck, and unknowingly nudged the gigantic shifter into neutral. Later when I was playing at my friend’s house, a neighbor kid came up and said “Did you know your dad’s truck is in the street?” It had slowly rolled down the driveway and settled in front of the house. (Fortunately we lived on a cul-de-sac at the time.) I thought I was a dead kid walking, but my dad was cool about it.

  2. Before I bought my Suburban, I strongly considered getting a Travelall. I just love the looks of them; the curved glass front and back, they’re unique, they’re cool. But then I started cruising the forums and while people love them, they sure are hard to find parts for. I’m not tin-knocker, so I went with the Suburban since it shared so many sheet metal components with the C10. Heck, I was even able to make quarter panels out of bedsides.

    I’d still like to own a IH some day. I 4WD, single headlight C-Series would be just fine.

    1. I was a bit terrified of this as well. It’s certainly not as easy to find sheet metal or C-series bits as it is for either generation Scout, but they’re out there. And to be honest, these trucks are so bare-bones in terms of actual stuff, it’s not as hard as you might think. I got super lucky finding the rear curved glass for the passenger side, which seems to be the rarest of all things. I was able to find bench seats, west coast mirrors, spare lights, interior parts, and some pre-’70’s engine bits this summer. Thankfully the engines are pretty much unchanged since the 60’s so I’ve already got a lot of spares for the 304 in the T’all.

      1. I’ve struggled with a few Suburban specific parts on my ’65. The floor pan is mostly the same as the C10 from roughly the front seats forward, but different enough that I had to do some custom fabrication to do it. The seats aren’t exactly rare, but they are expensive as hell, and unique to the Suburban (GMC ones are different too). I lucked out and found a complete set for about half to third of what they are actually worth.

        Luckily all the Suburban specific glass is flat, so numerous places sell it. The gaskets were pricey though.

        Everything else is so C10 shared that it hasn’t been a problem, or just required minor tweaking. A few things I should circle back and fix “better” by they are fine for now (sliding glass window frames).

        If I had bought a Travelall in similar shape, I’d probably still be saving up for glass.

        I’m not hating; I still love them. But I didn’t want the extra work, cost, or confusion. I’ve got as much going on as it is now…

        I go to the Carlisle part swap almost every year, and you rarely see any Binder stuff. That being said, a lot of the stuff you see for GM and FOMOCO is straight up cheap junk.

  3. Nice! I only have one International, a 1970 1200D, which I’ve found to be quite good for towing stuff:

    https://live.staticflickr.com/4452/37059200994_cab88ba0a0_c.jpg

    https://live.staticflickr.com/4884/45822223474_1f5b38e164_c.jpg

    and hauling stuff:

    https://live.staticflickr.com/8824/28922354940_e177771927_c.jpg

    but mostly I’m going to take this opportunity to mention CornBinder Connection. I’ve got a subscription, but even if I didn’t, I’d still mention it for the sake of the name itself, CornBinder Connection:

    https://www.cornbinderconnection.com/

    1. Right on Mike! Love the truck. One of the friends I mention above has a ’75 1200D. The Cornbinder Connection is a great publication by very cool people (they have a booth at IH Nationals every year). Also where would we be without the Binder Planet, a forum that has been going for over 20 years:

      https://www.binderplanet.com

  4. When I was in Grade 8 (c1978) the local International dealer used to display the latest models in the local malls (I have no idea where the brick and mortar shop was, I never found it; maybe there wasn’t one). I thought that the soft top Scout II was the coolest thing I had ever seen. I would still love to find one and drop a 4BT into it.

    1. The idea of having a topless Scout at the beach was one of the reasons I bought my first one. I soon learned just how much salt air does not like rust-challenged 70’s sheet metal. But it sure was fun!

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