Stored 41 Years : 1967 International 1200 Travelette
I love trucks like this 1967 International 1200 Travelette. They’re no-nonsense work trucks from an era when people turned their heads and looked whenever they saw a four-door pickup, unlike today. This great looking truck can be found here on eBay in Bradley, South Carolina with no reserve and a bid price of just over $1,000!
You can see a few areas that have had work done on them but overall this is a very good looking truck, in my opinion. In looking at the photos, you can really tell that this truck is solid and the seller says that it was in storage since 1978 until recently.
There are the usual dings and dents that go along with being a 52-year old pickup and it really does look solid if you check out the photos. You can see a huge platform on the rear and this truck was used by a contractor for building houses and also for camping, which explains the rear platform. They’ll put on the factory bumper if the buyer would rather have that. Yes, please.
This is a classic example of how taking an hour to clean up and clean out a vehicle may have made a difference in the selling price. It’s just a guess, of course, but dang, this would be a good looking interior if they would have cleaned out the “stuff” and vacuumed it and just made things look as good as they could look. The back seat looks good, condition-wise, but it would have looked so much better if it were clean back there.
The engine looks like it could use a severe detailing, or not. I believe that this would be International’s 266 cubic-inch V8 with 155 hp. The seller has done a bit of work on it after getting it out of the former owner’s storage spot, including cleaning the tank and the carb, changing the oil and adding brake and transmission fluid and it now runs and drives as it should. This looks like a really solid looking truck and it could end up being a good deal. Have any of you owned or driven one of these big Travelettes?
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Comments
If this wasn’t the blunder of the century, automotive wise, the decision to stop making these gets the prize. I bet some aged IH boardroom exec. in some rest home, still shaking his head. In their wildest dreams, and ours too, I suppose, never , ever thought this would become the best selling vehicle in America. Great project, personally, I’d ditch the motor for something more eco-friendly ( I can smell the gas from here), but you sure don’t see many crew cabs of this vintage, of any make. Just the name, crew cab, suggests they lived a rough life.
I agree, Howard. Or, even for International to get out of the personal vehicle market, in general. Just think of what interesting trucks (and, cars?) they’d be making now. The 1961 I-H Travellete was supposedly the first mass-produced four-door pickup, at least in North America. I was going to put that in the story but then it automatically forces people to spend hours searching for another, earlier instance of a four-door pickup being mass-produced in North America.. ha. It’s just human nature.
Do you know what happened to the truck if it sold where it went?
I own the same truck my grandma bought new in 67 she ran a boarding house in Downtown Seattle and had several kids. It last ran back in ’89 when my family took it to Disneyland was 2 years old coming back it got a rod knock and sat for many years of the camper on the back of it broke down in my yard I eventually found a 67 travel all four by four to get the running gear and the good 3:45 V8 out of it the rear end of the travel was all smashed and Rusty so I scrapped it out but I kept all the spare parts. This is the exact same as mine the color and everything.
The greedy auto workers union killed IHC light trucks.
I wouldn’t completely blame the union but it sure didn’t help. IH was good to its employees but once the union got a stronghold, it pretty much called the shots from there. Binder just wasn’t visible enough. It should have had its products in everyone’s face like the Big Three, but it was selling its trucks through farm equipment dealers and big truck agencies. It should have teamed up with other dealerships and got out there showing its wares. Patrick Foster, in his book, International Trucks, explains a lot of what happened to Binder. It’s a sad story in many ways…
Sounds like Chrysler in Kenosha,,,
I own a nicely restored 1968….
Rust, Rust and more rust… Sure it may have been stored but in an extremely humid environment, just look at the rust and pitting on the gauge bezels that tells the story. These trucks are well known for their rust, sills, rockers, doors, cab corners, floors, all the usual places. Someone who buys this with the thoughts of restoring it will have north of $20K in costs (unless you are able to do all the metal work yourself) for a truck that at best is worth $10-$12K in “Good” condition.
The first 4 door was 61, but International came out with the first factory crewcab in 57, but it was a 3 door. I own the first one built, May 1957.
We had some of these in the Park Service as well as regular cabs. It was always a good laugh when whoever was driving would forget and throw their gear in the bed and then open the back door to get in. (No, no! I never did that of course!)
Not familiar with these, even though I am old enough to have memories from the time they were produced.
Questions.
1)is that a fuel filler cap in the passenger FRONT fender? if so, where does the tank live…
2) sheet metal pressing at rear corners of the cab seem to indicate the possibility of having glass in the corners. if so, was that an additional cost option or something that was discontinued by the time this one came off the line? single piece or a 3 piece setup?
Trucks with the dual tank option had the tank filler in the front passenger fender. Tank was right under the front seat, under the floor pan. At least it was on the 72 I had.
Paint it dark Air Force blue. Tons of these in USAF service in the 60s.
Now THIS is how I remember them. Long Wheelbase, Crew Cab, or in western prairie jargon: ‘Hutterite Wagon.’ They always got them with the long wheelbase and they were LOOONNNGG trucks. Amazingly enough they could still turn sharper than most other trucks with a standard wheelbase. Binder was really good at finding a way to get past a lot of handling issues. Really too bad it chose to abandon the light truck division because they built good trucks. And I never had many problems with the Holley carbs–Howard…
That’s because you the mechanic guy, and I’m the driver guy. In Loadstar dump trucks with these V8 motors(392) we never dared shut them off, almost told not to, until the end of the day, or you’d never get it started again. At idle you could almost see the gas dripping. We didn’t care, the gas pedal was on the floor all day anyway.
Ha! I knew that would get a response. Actually percolation was somewhat of a problem with the Loadstars, especially the earlier ones with the butterfly hoods. All that heat from that wide V8 in that limited space. I had a neighbor years ago that had (2) Binders: a B170 and a Loadstar 1700. They were both V8 powered but the Loadstar always had percolation problems while the B- series seemed to start and run forever. Out in the field at harvest time you would often see the driver of the Loadstar open the hood and leave it that way until he had to meet the combine again. The V-Line trucks had those 2-Storey (teapot) carbs with the float chambers on top (Fords used them in the early to mid 50s too) to help diminish the percolation problem. Today, with the ethanol in fuel, there is an increased problem with percolation and vapor-locking. My ’49 Chevy has had some issues even…
I’ve seen (and once worked on) Dodge crew cabs of this vintage, but never an International. Very unique.
Deserves a frame-off restomod.(with someone else’s money) Lift kit…fat tires…winch…500hp crate motor…cut a sunroof…paint.Basically SEMA level.
Used to see these a lot back a few decades ago. One of my brothers worked for the California highway department and they ad some of these as did PG&E. The county might have used a few. I even saw some in the orchards of Northern California.
God bless America
Sold Thousands of them!
Auction update: this fantastic Travelette sold for $5,400!