How Not to Buy a Project Vehicle: The tale of the 1975 International Pickup

Filed under: Classics, Truck, Work, Humor

1975 International Pickup Project Vehicle – Click above for high-res image gallery

Fifty miles. After 16 grueling hours of nonstop cursing, bleeding, sweating and huffing gas fumes from the open jerry can in the floorboard, I’m less than an hour from home, laying on the oil-soaked asphalt of a truck pull off on the side of I-40 with antifreeze in my eyes. Both of them.

Admittedly, this was not part of the plan.

Confession time: I spend an inordinate amount of time in the autos section of Craigslist. That site is like Krispy Kreme doughnuts dipped in crack cocaine for any connoisseur of bad ideas, and I, loyal readers, am the world’s foremost authority on poor decisions. So it should come as no surprise that when my wife took off for a business trip for a few days, I turned to my other mistress – the thought of securing an inexpensive, tough as nails long-bed pickup via the wonder of the internet.

I landed on a 1975 International 150. The listing read like my ultimate wish-list for a truck – International? Check. Three-quarter ton? Check. Four-speed manual with a divorced two-speed New Process 205 transfer case? Check. From California with minimal rust? Check. According to the post, it even had a mere 40,000 miles on the clock and had spent most of its life languishing on a farm out west. The posting even said it ran like a top. By all accounts, the truck was exactly what I wanted. Sure, I could have easily nabbed a local Ford F-150 or Chevrolet Silverado, but I suffer from a very rare genetic defect that causes me to be sympathetic toward the International cause. There is no cure.

The only real problem was that it was located three and a half hours away in Bowling Green, Kentucky – not exactly a quick trip across town. My options were to either let the truck pass, con a friend into dragging a car hauler all the way to Kentucky for a truck I wasn’t sure I was going to buy, or wing it.

I’ll take door number three, Monty.

Gallery: 1975 International Pickup Project Vehicle