I’ve decided to start a new series with occasional posts focusing on interesting junkyard finds of older subjects that I’m personally not particularly familiar with and just don’t have the time or resources to do a lot of research on. However, the subjects and pictures are too good to just sit locked up in my digital devices. There won’t be a focus on any kind of vehicle in particular, with the exception that there’ll never be a plastic bumper, so they’ll all be of at least a certain age, the way we tend to prefer them here.
So without further ado, here’s the first one, an IH B-series pickup with 4WD but powered with an inline six as opposed to one of the V8 options. Produced between 1959 and 1961, these were preceded by the A-series and succeeded by the C-series. As with most pictures here on CC, click on them and they should enlarge for more detail.
Great find, I love how the numbers and letters on this era of IH are some applique that falls off once they get this old.
Looks like a lot of good subjects in this yard.
Luckily, the three digits that didn’t fall off the speedometer are the most important ones!
I just noticed that, trying to figure out what those gauges were for!
You’d have Temp, Amps, Fuel and Oil. You did not need a Tach as you’d listen to the 6-banger scream, and you’d surely hear it. Certainly more informative than a modern dash with a flashy tach but idiot lights or L-N-H gauges.
While not padded, at least the passenger had a smooth surface to crack his skull on during a crash.
Then someone sticks the take off for 120v electrical box right in the middle of it.
Genius!
Love the truck, though.
Love it. I’d forgotten what a curious dash design these had; very 1958, almost Googie.
That manufacturer’s plate rather suggests that the marketing department wasn’t involved in inflating or deflating the hp figures: 140.8 gross certified hp, and 115.1 net certified hp. No BS there. Although the difference between the gross and net is a wee bit wider than I might have expected.
And in some ways it looks like a modern dashboard only it is screen that is mounted like that and it is in the middle.
In later advertising for the SV they note how its net was a greater percentage of gross than those “car engines” found in Brand C and Brand F
It sure isn’t with this six, though. The net hp is only 81% of the gross. It’s 88% on the 226 slant six, and 86% on the Ford 240 six.
I’ve still got Ramblers on the brain, as that grille reminds me more than a bit of this:
Front of truck looks very Trabant to me
+1!
I’d believe someone if they told me the grilles are interchangeable…
The emptiness of that engine bay is really something to behold.
It really makes you look at a modern car and wonder what in the world all of this STUFF is FOR!
(besides running a hundred-fold cleaner, three times more efficiently, starting every time you turn the key for decades at a time, filling the cab with 40-degree air when it’s 110 outside, running up 15,000 miles between oil changes and not killing you in a 30-mph collision)
I had a ’56 Chevy Pickup with a straight six. I loved it, as you could climb in under the hood and sit on the fender well and wrench on the engine. I remember it went to Hell in a handbasket one day at college in 1984. I had to have it towed. The shop called and said it needed a new carb- the old one was not worth rebuilding. Being a very poor college kid I asked how much. The answer was under 100.00 including the tow and new carb. Yeah I loved that truck.
Wow, great junkyard Jim,
This one looks like you could reinstall the manifolds and drive it right out of there.
Although this had to have had a punishing ride, kind of makes my back hurt just looking at it.
Looking forward to more of these!
That dash design was quite predictive, with a big screen sticking up out of the main structure.
My ’61 had the same dash.
Occasionally, the speedometer would squeal and tapping on the glass would make it cease.
Until that day that it didn’t, and in my frustration I tapped a little to hard.
Eventually I swapped for a ’66 Chevy C10. Not as tough, but infinitely more civilized.
I miss the days of $200 pickups.
Hmmm…
Was this the only pickup to offer stacked quad headlights? Not very common on cars, but it seems like International stands alone on the pick up side.
Perhaps the first, but not the only.
There you go- I knew there were more out there some where.
Mopar too (picture from internet)
That’s a Black Diamond engine. There were two back-of-block types. Same pattern, but oriented slightly different from crankshaft. Just enough to really screw up an interchange attempt.
Interesting feature, the crankcase was through-driiled between rods, so that the throttle linkage could pass from accelerator pedal located on the left, to the carburetor, located right.
Notice the twist-lock plugged cord threaded through the cowl?
“Notice the twist-lock plugged cord threaded through the cowl?”
Yep- Thinking it some how ties into the control box on the dash.
I’d reckon you were pulling my leg if that accelerator mechanism wasn’t clearly visible in the picture. I’ve spent years accusing the French of weird underbonnet non-sequiturs, and yet here’s a mid-west farmer’s simple truck built with a hole in the engine – to get to an accelerator!
I am reminded of the Mini, where the engine originally faced with carb and exhaust facing forwards, but problems of carb icing were encountered. So they hastily turned it round, giving the world 50 years of a screaming transfer gears and bastard-cramped maintenance.
That truck looks really solid! If all of the missing parts are there, it wouldn’t make a bad driver if you didn’t mind putting in some work. The engine would certainly need going through – it looks like it’s been open for quite a while. Then brakes, probably a radiator, tires…I’m being romantic here – it might be better to find a nicer one. 🙂
Still, neat truck!
I’d be surprised if a half-day’s work and $50 in parts wouldn’t have it driving out under its own power.
My Dad had a similar power inverter installed (underhood) on the ’69 F-100 I bought from him when we moved to the farm in IL (no longer worked by then so I removed it).
Is that AC outlet connected to an inverter or an engine driven alternator? At a guess it’s the ancestor of the AC inverter screwed to the transmission hump of my 2002 truck.
Some connected to directly the 12v alternator’s stator. Regulator would be switched out of the field circuit allowing for 120v AC output. However output was not at 60 Cycles, instead at whatever Cycles alternator produced at given rpm
A lot of marine alternators have an AC output tap.
That pickup bed is what Studebaker used since they couldn’t afford to tool up one of their own.
I think Studebaker used the late ’50’s Dodge pickup bed. The IH bed was used only by them, but well into the 1960’s as I recall.
I miss wrecking yards like that, under skies like that, on days like that.
The richness of the interior layout combined with that fourth spoke in the steering wheel positively creates the illusion of lavishness. ANd with that curved windshield one might consider that truck a total trend setter.
When I worked for an IH tractor dealer in Seattle I got the job of driving a brand new one like that from the IH factory outlet in Tacoma back up to Seattle. It was red, but otherwise was configured very much like that one; 6-cylinder, 4-speed floor shift, 4wd. Brand new, it was a clunk.
Can you tell me where you found this?
It looks exactly like the one my grandparents had that I drove in High School 40 years ago.
It was (and still is actually) at Cheyenne Auto and Metal in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
This was my Grandfathers truck!!!
Where is this!!!!!!!!!
Hi Dan, did you go and see your grandfather’s truck? Did you buy it from the scrapyard? I’d love to know…
I found this 2-1/2 ton 1959 B150 from southern Alberta. Trailered it home as it hadn’t run in years, had it running and driving in a week. Now it’s cruises down the road no problem. Sure gets looks where ever I go. Using it every week as I work on the mechanical.
Has a Factory AMC 304 V8, 4 speed manual transmission with a 2 speed eaton differential. Once I got it home found it had 19000 original miles.