Last week, Jim Grey showed us a Corvette parked on the street in NYC, and with a good dose of bumper rash. Well, here’s counterpart to that; a sturdy Scout II with very intact (and high and sturdy-looking) looking bumpers. I’m guessing other parkers tend to keep their distance.
Hmmmm, second post in a row… I see an IH week coming soon?
I pushed a NY Taxi onto the sidewalk with a ’72 Dodge Dart.
I wonder what the Dart could do to an IH Scout?
+1 owning a 61 scout I would like to see that…
Traipsing in and out of Manhattan for many years in “regular” cars, I drove my brother and sister-in-law in for a concert one night in his Wrangler, and it was a revelation just how much more adeptly it handled cobblestone, raised manhole covers, and of course the potholes. It was after that trip that I realized just how ridiculous I’d been for all those years, driving and parking newer and higher-end cars in NYC. I’m not sure, however, that I’d want to park a metal-bumpered vehicle on Manhattan streets, because believe me, there’s nothing that deters the average street parker from playing bumper cars while squeezing into those spots. I’d expect the metal bumpers, however more durable they may be, to be mangled and dented in no time. My Saab 9-3’s bumper covers were scarred and pock-marked by the time the car was 6 months old. Fortunately the car was black, so I learned quickly that touching the scrapes up with a black Sharpie and going over the “repairs” with a bit of spray wax made it look ok for at least a few weeks, by which time there were enough new battle scars to render my efforts useless. There’s not much to be done besides having the plastic bumper covers repainted or replaced prior to trade-in. (I’ve also replaced more outside mirrors than I care to remember, which taught me that heated mirrors with imbedded lighting were another futile extravagance that would only cause heartache when they had to be replaced.)
I’ll bet that this Scout’s nice high bumper height might discourage “bumper cars parking” since it would probably hit well above the bumper on most other cars.
From the looks of the incorrectly mounted license plate it does appear that someone may have tried to play bumper car parking and their bumper did indeed go under the Scout’s leading to the bent plate. The plate should be mounted so that it is backed by the bumper not hanging below it.
With respect to the front bumper the ends are vulnerable since it is more or less a simple C channel of not that thick metal. In the center however it is backed by a very beefy cross-member so no way is a modern car, with a plastic cover backed by Styrofoam, going to do any damage to it in that area.
Out back it appears to be wearing the factory waffle plate step bumper and those are extremely strong and no car with rubber baby buggy bumpers is going to do anything to it in a park by braille situation.
Yup!!! Any short wheelbase big tired 4×4 is amazingly well suited to sketchy urban brawling. The conditions in areas like this aren’t much more gentle than what’s out in the boonies, so poor roads that will chew up dainty fwd cars won’t even faze a rugged 4×4. On my last Jeep I quickly dumpsterized the cheesy factory front bumper in favor of a Fabtech shorty tube bumper. Its beefy enough to mount a winch and put my aux lites up high and tight. A few cars tangled with it in braille parking attepmts…it sent them limping home!
Last time I drove in NYC was around 1984, to the New York Auto show. I was driving a 1972 Ford Gran Torino wagon at the time, for which I had paid the princely sum of $175. The thing was such a heap that it didn’t make the cut for my COAL series.
Pop declared that we should drive it into the city, rather than his car because it was “the perfect car for Manhattan”.
The stereo was duct-taped to the transmission hump because I couldn’t be bothered to actually install it into the dash. The tailgate window was gone due to an unfortunate firewood loading incident.
That car sat parked on the street for 6 hours while we had dinner and went to the Auto Show at the old Colosseum. Nobody touched it. As I drove it, no car would get within 10 feet of me – not even the cabbies!
Pop knew a thing or two about beaters, having grown up in Manhattan. Pop was right in his decision to take the wagon.
This Scout parked in NYC reminds me of the old 1970s TV show McCloud, in which Dennis Weaver played a lawman from New Mexico who was on a special assignment with the NYPD. The main plot always involved the country boy closing cases that gave the big city police problems.
This Scout looks so wrong in that location, which is what makes this picture so cool.
With this one obviously being pieced together it is hard to determine what year it is. The Grille however is from a 73/74 and with the deluxe interior package based on the holes surrounding the slots. That is where the bright trim would be bolted on. If there were holes around the headlights it would be a 75 as they gained the square trim surrounding the headlights. The 73 was painted body color and because of that it was spot welded to the valance. The 74 would have been painted a silver and because it was painted separately it would be bolted to the valance. However since those parts are not factory color those parts could be either and the fact that the repaint of the front sheet metal doesn’t match the repaint of the windshield frame or rear quarter all bets are off as to what year it really is.
As noted in the Travelall story, my experience driving my uncle’s IH pick up in Tel Aviv was that car drivers avoided it like the plague for fear of being mangled by its bumpers so it was actually easier driving it there than, say, a Citroen 2CV or some other small city car. You needed to find a place to park, but that was a problem for EVERYONE in Tel Aviv already back then (the late 70s early 80s). These days I would only drive there if someone paid me – a lot.
There is a reason that when I go into down town Seattle I prefer to take my P71 complete with wrap around push bar. It does make it harder to parallel park on the side of the road and limits the spaces it will fit into but on the road people tend to give me a wider berth.
i shot this one. i’ve seen it in the neighborhood before but i don’t think it’s street parked daily. most new yorkers are not concerned with bumper rash. i see new maseratis and teslas on the street all the time. even the valet parking garages often park bumper on bumper. a few people keep a rubber bumper guard in the trunk which they use when they park. another common trick on suv’s is to install a small step bar in the trailer hitch.
Here is mine.. It lives right across the river in Hoboken. Very illegally parked in this photo.
beautiful! this one belongs to my brother. he keeps it upstate.
Both are nice. You can find pictures of both of my SIIs here:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-cornbinders-of-a-lifetime-part-two-1973-scout-ii-cab-top/
and here:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-cornbinders-of-a-lifetime-part-three-1972-scout-ii-traveltop/
wow, i just read both of your coals. great stuff! i don’t know how i missed ’em the first time round.
I had an old ciera that was beat to crap on the outside. bashed in fender, rotten paint and more dings and dents than I could count. best car ever for parking!
had one time I was waiting for someone and a lady parked ahead of me so close I couldn’t have walked between the cars. when I politely pointed this out she got snotty and basically told me to pound salt, it was the only spot on the block.
when I told her to take a good look at what I was driving and did it look like I really would care how I got around her car she suddenly decided parking her shiny new car the next block over and walking back wasn’t such a bad idea!
I am on the look out for a Scout. Could you guys that own them or had them in the past pipe in and tell me what to look for when looking at one. I would want one with a V8 and automatic transmission. Also the detachable fiberglass top for those times when you want need a/c/.
In searching through CL ads I’ve noticed that many of the Scouts advertised have rust even in the West coast. How common is this?
Thanks
The first thing you need to know about Scouts is BinderPlanet.com. Contained there is pretty much anything you would ever need to know about all types of IHs and a whole lot you don’t need to know.
Rust is the number one thing to check for. Frames can crack behind the steering box. There were not a lot of differences in the V8 powertrain over the years. 78-up got catalytic converters.
Early Scout II had drum brakes all around Some 74s and all 75-up have discs. However there are like 3 different recipes to add discs to the earlier trucks, so drums all around shouldn’t be considered a deal breaker.