This former fire department truck sure has a lot of color! The 1960 International B110 stepside pickup shown here is listed here on Craigslist in Newberg, Oregon. The seller is asking $3,500 for this “very solid little truck”. It’s one cool Cornbinder!
The seller’s price is right between the original MSRP ($3,335) and the low retail ($4,100) in the NADA guidebook. That seems like a fair price for this pickup that seems like it’s in fair condition. Obviously, someone has started either a restoration or they were thinking of turning this IH into something else, maybe the R-Word (restomod?). I’m not sure what the deal is with the 14″ wheels, the seller says that this truck should be 16″ wheels. Finally, smaller wheels on a vehicle instead of huge, oversized ones! There is no mention if the original-sized wheels come with this truck or not. With these little wire wheel covers and the way that the rear is higher than the front, I half expect this truck to start hopping up and down on its hydraulic system-which it doesn’t have.
The interior, as you can imagine, is pretty sparse on this truck; and would be on any truck from this era. The seller says that there are no power accessories but that everything works. I’m guessing that by “fire department truck” they mean that this is one that the fire chief would have driven as opposed to one that would have been loaded down with fire-fighting equipment. It would be fun to see a period photo of this truck back when it was still in use by the fire department.
These are the only two interior photos but you can see if you squint that it’s in decent shape. All kinds of parts are available for this truck if you wanted to restore it back to stock or to fire department spec, or to something else all together. This one has a 4-speed manual and a 266 V8, the biggest engine offered for the B110 this year. That’s a good thing, isn’t it? The bad thing is that there aren’t any photos of it. But if it’s in the same condition as the rest of the truck is, expect it to be usable, but to need a little restoration, at least appearance-wise.
This truck will need window and door seals but, again, lots of parts are available. This is a great looking project truck, usable now so you can drive it for parts runs and just plain ol’ fun runs, but not so clapped-out that it’ll need to be taken apart piece by piece unless you’re doing a concours restoration. How would you restore this former fire truck? Would you take it back to original spec, fire department spec, or restomod?
I would probably say if it had been a Fire Dept. Truck, I bet it was a equipment truck or even a brush fire truck, or a small water tank truck. The local Vol. Fire Dept. I belong to at one time had 2 utility bed trucks one that we fought brush fires with and another that we kept extra SBCA air tanks in, plus various tools in for whatever we needed. That is probably why the bed is a different color it might have been added after the utility was removed
Get the correct size wheels and tires and it goes up 30 points.
I am very curious to your statement that this truck is priced at just a little more than the original msrp of 3300 plus dollars in 1960. This sounds quiet pricey for 1960 for any new pickup truck. I always thought of an IH as being on the low scale but I never owned one. I did the fleet buying of trucks for a large corporation from the 60’s til early 80’s. We bought Ford only and they we bid through Ford dealers and of course there was special pricing at cost plus in most cases. We also bought the basic 240 6cy. with standard 3 speed and short wheel base and heater only. I can never remember paying more than1300-1900 over probably 16-18 years for a new basic truck. It seems to me that 3300 for a slightly upscale IH which was bought usually by a farmer the most frugal buyer you would have. That is a shocking eye opener if this is indeed true
Hi Ron, I can remember newspaper ads for basic pickups from the late 60’s. The prices always started below $2k.
You could very well be correct, Ron. I was going by the NADA guide which lists that as the original MSRP. Our former 1969 Ford F-250 cost $4,000 when it was new so I’m thinking that somewhere in that low-$3,000 range is probably close for this IH.
While never a fan of any vehicle with “stacked” headlights, you got to admit, this looks pretty unique. Aside from the red pieces, there’s really no reason to think this was a fire truck, and not just a red pickup, Seems like a “hodge-podge” of various trucks. I believe fire chiefs rode in style, and not pickup trucks, but maybe. This was not a popular truck for IH, and I feel they ruined what a nice truck the A series was, and these were replaced by the C series in ’61, so that makes these quite rare. Great find, as usual.
Nice basic truck for the homeowner or shop mechanic, none of this full electric crap that something is bond to quit working before it’s paid for but after the warranty runs out. I like it.
Drove one just like that in Eastern Oregon- brand new. Already had the exhaust exiting directly up through the front fender like a tractor. It was common for any truck, large or small that was going to be used in the wheat fields to be modified like that. A wheat fire is a terrifying event. It can get so hot that it creates a horizontal tornado that rolls along the ground at several miles per hour, usually on a broad front. Hot gasses rise and the fire sucks in air behind it. Nothing short of it burning out or coming to a road or bare field will stop it. Knew a farmer that tried to drive his pickup back through it to escape, but didn’t realize that there was only a vacuum behind the fire line. No oxygen for his truck or him. Terry J
That looks like a once popular orange-like color that I used to see back when there were a lot of these trucks around. I’m sure the bed was changed sometime in its past although the tailgate might have come off the original. I actually liked these trucks. They could be decked out quite nicely in their day. My Dad had a ’60 Travelall which he thought would offer Mom something to heard us six rug rats around in style. It was about as welcome as a turd in a swimming pool if the truth be known. It got replaced by a Dodge station wagon a year later. I was disappointed because I preferred the Binder…
Note on color Cornbinder! The ad stated the chassis was ex- fire truck. Cab is Walla Walla school district truck, had 2. I took the cab for my 59 project. (Excellent) The fire truck had a utility box. Was converted to a service truck, A Dana 80 rear end was installed.The tires are on my Dura – max? Way to big for the 110. Hence the different tire size . Has standard rear-end now. Have 3 stock wheels. Pickup box off a 62? All numbers match. Colo. Title. The cab color is OEM, COPPER RIVER PINK? Note original mileage is 83,000. Runs super, just slow because of tire size. The fire truck was rattle canned flat black, note hood. Hope this helps clear the air?