I've re-joined the IH world after an eleven year absence
and I'm so excited to be back.
In my younger days I had a 1980 Scout II diesel that I bought in 1986 with 48k
miles on it. Completely stock, owned by a family that had no idea what a 4x4
was, it had never been off road and once I cleaned the jelly off the back seat
and waxed the paint, she looked brand new. Jump ahead nine years, job had changed,
house I was renting sold, had no where to keep the Scout which now had 150k
miles, 2" body lift, suspension lift, 33X12.50 tires, detroit locker rear,
trac-loc front, 304 V-8 from 1971 Travalall and a few dings from the Rubicon
and Sierra Trek. The spring hangers were braced, the power steering pump braced
at the frame, drag link braced (after replacing the first bent one) and many
other mods. Spent a lot of time on the phone with Rod at Giddum up Scout and
later Anything Scout back when they were still in Redwood City.... ah days gone
by.
Had to sell the Scout in 1995 and watching her drive away was like watching a brother go off to war. Saw her once a few years later and she looked good. Guess the new owner was in love too. Jump ahead again, Saturday Oct 29th: Had to work and there is nothing to do, but the office has to be staffed. Thank God for the internet! By 6:00am I was on Craigslist, and there was the post. For Sale, 1978 Scout Terra runs good. $1350.00. A simple post with three pictures, but I was hooked. I printed the post, grabbed the phone, then remembered, most people are not up at 6am on Saturday. Pacing the office waiting for a better time, I started thinking; we've just bought a house and my wifes job is uncertain right now....Oh Crap! the wife, I have to tell her. Phone call home, I tell her about the truck and she's non committal so I drop it, but I do call the number and get a voice mail. A whole agonizing weekend goes by with no call back, but the wife grudging gives me the green light BUT says to offer $1100 because she is NOT paying asking price for anything on Craigslist. CRAP! 1100? This guy is going to tell me to get lost, but OK. I call the number again and there's an answer. He still has the Scout AND he'll take $1100. Oh happy day! Co-workers think my dancing on the desk is odd but not unusual. Thursday Nov 3rd. Drive 168 miles after work to get my Scout. I ask the seller point blank; would you hop in the Scout and drive 168 miles home on a work night with large looming rain clouds? He said yes and that's all I needed. I was gone!!!
It's tough to examine a used vehicle in the dark with a flashlight. There were two huge puddles of oil underneath, the engine compartment has rusty evidence of a badly leaking radiator, the was no oil pressure reading from the stock gauge nor the mechical gauge hanging by the nylon tube under the dash, but the motor sounded smooth and quiet. The back window is missing so the cab is full of leaves and dirt, the seats are tattered and torn. Only one dash light works and it's on the non-functional oil gauge. Fuel gauge reads full, but seller tells me it always reads full and I should stop at the station around the corner. We complete the transaction and away I go. WooHOO!!! she's all over the road, brakes are nearly to the floor, she's pinging BAD on accelereration and cutting out. The leaves and dust are blinding me, it's dark and I just missed my turn. I'm so happy and excited at this point, I'm grinning like a maniac. I whip into a gas station and put 19.7 gallons (19g tank) and gas pours out of the tank. I tell Kara I'm going to hurry before all my money evaporates on the parking lot. We get on the freeway and come to a grinding halt where we spend the next hour stuck in commute traffic at 8pm. Truck is doing good, worried about the temp a little but can't see the gauge. Use cell phone screen as light source to read temp gauge, looks good. Finally get moving, at 60mph she's smooth and stable, slight vibration, feels like a u-joint. Hmm starting to rain now, umm, do the wipers work? Lovely, no knob, having trouble turning wiper shaft. Yea! wipers work quite well. Getting closer to home, I'm starting to relax and then we start up the mountain to home. The mountain is Mt St Helena, the road is HWY 29 and for 13 miles there is not one straight stretch. There are six to 12 percent grades, tight turns and few places to pull off. I believe the original highway engineers in the 1930's just followed a rabid squirrel over the mountain and paved where ever it went. Scout's a little squirrely (ha made a pun) in left turns but OK in right turns, wife doesn't notice anything odd following behind in the supurb comfort of our Ford superduty diesel. Finally get home about 11:30, I'm exhausted but still grinning.
Next installment: The first look in the daylight and why I should have trailered her home......