Better Than Most? 1961 International Scout 80 4×4
In only two decades of production, International Harvester created a rugged, legendary, and dare I say iconic vehicle that’s still popular today. The seller has this 1961 International Scout 80 pickup-style 4×4 posted here on craigslist just southwest of beautiful Bozeman, Montana, and the seller is asking $5,500 or best offer. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Gunter K. for sending in this tip!
From 1961 to 1980, these rugged, mostly 4×4 vehicles were sold and they live on in our minds, and for the lucky ones among us, in our garages. I have never had one but this is the one I would want, a first-year pickup Scout. They came with either this pickup cab or a travel-top full cab, but I think the pickup version is much more unusual and better looking. Whether it’s as functional for hauling things out of the elements, yeah, probably not.
The first version, the Scout 80, was made in 1960 for the 1961 model year, until 1965. Then the Scout 800 took over from 1966 to 1971 with welcome upgrades such as electric wipers and updated engines. Ok, an 800 would be nice, too, now that I think about it. You can see that this example is a bit rough around the edges, but it looks much better than a lot of them that we see here on Barn Finds.
Whoa, scratch that last statement, the interior is rougher’n a cobb. There will be some welding to do here for sure, and the seller says that it does have rust on the floors, as you can see in the photo above. Thankfully, replacement floors are available if the next owner doesn’t feel like measuring and cutting out their own. The pickup bed looks good, with the expected heavy coat of surface rust. It’d be a heck of a way to haul your Rokon 2×2 motorcycle – just sayin’. It also appears to have some sort of fuel tank piping going on in the back of the cab. I’d want to get that sorted out ASAP.
The engine is a 152-cu.in. inline-four – basically half of a 304 V8. It would have had 92 horsepower and 142 lb-ft of torque when new. The seller says that it runs and drives, it has a three-speed manual with overdrive, and this could be a decent deal. Hagerty is at $7,600 for a #4 fair-condition Scout pickup and $16,100 for a #3 good example. What’s your offer on this Scout?
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Comments
Some may notice, I’m not my usual happy, chipper self today, broke a dam tooth on a Walmart cookie that probably had a bolt in it, but it’s tough to continually see this kind of pricing on rusty junk. I mean, come on, this thing, at best, would be a plow truck and a crude one at that for $500 bucks, tops, you have to get a plow too, clearly worth more than the truck. Somebody tell me, and not the author who obviously can’t shoot himself in the foot, but what is the attraction here? The O/D? Good heavens, anything over 30 mph is a death sentence anyway. I’ve never seen a Scout with O/D, why bother, several jokes come to mind, but plow trucks don’t need O/D. I really think we’re past the point of no return, old forgotten unusual stuff like this is the new cash cow, and by golly, drag that old Scout up here. Felix, we’re going to be rich, rich I tells ya’, rich as automotive journalists,,( cough),,
Oh, watch out for Walmart cookies,, :(
I haul for Walmart, maybe I was the concrete cookie culprit.
I had one, that thing could go anywhere. I used to take it ice fishing and go through snow up to the bumper. Unfortunately the bodies were really prone to rust and most of the ones around here fell apart.
Great little rigs, tough as nails, they served their purpose well. I had a 62 back in the 70s, never had a problem. Not sure about that o/drive, never heard of it. Restoring one now days could be quite an undertaking, there’s no reproduction parts, so you’re at the mercy of collectors. There’s an International guru in a little town west of Denver, who has an array of trucks and parts, but I’m sure they don’t come cheap. I’m intrigued every time I drive by.
You’re right. While mechanical parts were all off the shelf items, there are plenty of parts. They may have an inch of dust on them, and the rubber has been deteriorated since I was in HS, but body parts are hard to find. The CJ and the Scout used similar drivetrain, and while I have seen ONE Jeep with O/D, I think they were more common than IH. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, bought a Scout 80 to go over 30 mph.
Several( many?) years ago, a junkyard in N. Wis. near Ladysmith, had a FIELD full of older Scouts, 30 or more, easy. When I asked about them, the guy said they were there when he bought the yard couple years back. Looked like a lot of junk and returned a couple years later, all but maybe 5 were gone. The guy I bought my GW from in N. Wis. had 4 of these in his woods. Not one had a body panel, but he said, they all ran.
Actually I used to drive my old Scout 65 on the highway, but she was screamin for mercy.
Y I bought my 1st gen bronk. The 80/800 were tops to me (back then) and just found wrk in need ofa 4WD. It was ’82, IH just out of lght trucks, I got the Bronk instead as fed law was “only make replacement prts 7 yrs after bankrupcy”.
Used it to get into home building sites (we did top to bottom ‘cept septic and drive) 20 yrs, retired to log skiddin up toa neighbor’s band saw mill nother 30) now onto a restore for a daughter. Change back to a 70/30% street/road.
I still wonder if I picked right.
8^ )
My dad bought one new in the 60s, I still have the sales receipt. He had to pay extra to get it with antifreeze.
What was the sticker price new?
After tax, $2448.76 out the door. Can you believe it????? I tried to attach of pic of the end price and couldn’t.
Howard, I remember seeing quite a few CJ2s and 3s with Warn overdrive (4th shift lever). When I first started reading classified ads as a small boy, I wondered why so many winches, hubs and overdrives were worn out, until I finally noticed the spelling and capital W. An overdrive in Jeep made it much more useful; you could drive it to your hunting spot rather than towing it). Oh yeah, and the few people I knew with early Scouts did not think they were so tough, especially the rear axels.
Had a few. I had one with slide windows that I filled the doors up with pour insulation. It was warmer, and sounded like Ford doors closing. But I’ll bet it rusted fast!!! Ranchers in Nothwest Colorado that had jeeps welcomed these for a few years (faster, warmer ) then went crazy over the First Broncos. ( much faster, but rolled easier dodging deer )