Finding a clean, unmolested 1964 International Harvester Scout is getting tougher every single year. Located in Milton-Freewater, Oregon, there’s a red Scout 80 showing what’s claimed to be just 53,000 original miles. The seller’s friend posted it here on Craigslist with an $11,000 asking price, and it reportedly runs and drives great. It’s an honest, early-production survivor that thankfully hasn’t been hacked up for rock crawling or left to rot in a damp field. The squared-off sheet metal wears a classic red finish that looks right at home on the trail. For a ’64, you get the iconic fold-down windshield and the sliding side windows. Up front, the unmistakable IH logo sits dead center in the wire-mesh grille. The paint still holds a decent shine, but you’ll want to pull the factory documentation to see if it left the factory in this exact shade. Overall, it’s a solid, rust-free looking rig that screams pure utility with no unnecessary chrome weighing it down.
Climb inside, and it’s basically a tractor with doors. You won’t find plush carpets, sound deadening, or fancy trim codes here. You get painted steel, a simple gauge cluster, and the bare minimum needed to keep you moving forward. Notice those vacuum windshield wipers mounted up top? That’s a classic Scout 80 calling card. The cockpit feels entirely mechanical, right down to the floor-mounted shifters controlling the gearbox and the transfer case. It’s the raw, visceral 4×4 experience you want from an early International.
Here is where things get interesting for us purists. The Craigslist ad lists the engine as a “6 cylinder.” If you know your IH history, the 1964 Scout 80 came standard with the 152 cubic-inch Comanche inline-four, pumping out 86.9 horsepower and 135 lb-ft of torque. International simply didn’t offer a factory inline-six in the 1964 Scout 80 lineup. So, either the seller checked the wrong box on the listing, or someone squeezed a later-model engine into the bay. If it’s stock, that 152 is bolted to a bulletproof Warner T-90 three-speed manual and a Dana 18 transfer case sporting a 2.46:1 low range. The seller also notes it has lockers, meaning this mountain goat will crawl up just about anything you point it at.
In 1964, IH stamped Scout 80 VINs ranging strictly from FC83952 to FC107760. To crack the code on this specific truck, the next owner needs to order the Line Setting Ticket (LST) from the Wisconsin Historical Society. That piece of paper will spell out exactly how it rolled off the Fort Wayne assembly line, confirming the original paint, engine code, and factory gear ratios. With the low mileage and a remarkably straight body, this rig is a prime candidate for a high-quality driver or a rolling preservation project. So what do you think about this 1964 Scout 80?
These are so basic and the perfect utility vehicle. It’s capable of going 65 and will go about anywhere. My father bought one to plow the parking lot in the winter months. Yeah it would push a 7′ plow without hesitation. Summer was just a good utility vehicle. Didn’t ride great and was noisy but who cares. It was utility. Good write up and next owner needs to take care of this old gal
Got a chuckle out of the opening sentence, “not molested”? Ahem,,,these were SUPPOSED to be molested, not this hoi-paloi , oh, no, I have a chip in the paint, crowd. You “locked ‘er in”, and wham, bam, oops, big dent in the rocker,, no biggie, we got back to where we wanted to go. I don’t know about 65 mph, it just wasn’t geared for that although, a rarely ordered O/D was available. 50 will seem like the world is coming apart( and it is). Not said, but I’ll say it, this was IHs middle finger to the CJ. Motor aside, it had virtually the same parts, and splitting hairs really, which was better. Costing about the same about $2100, it sure gave Jeep a run for its money, practically unchallenged for years. I read, IH did make a fancier “red carpet” series, ( that did not necessarily have a red carpet), but was rare, under 3,000, compared to 100K “regular” Scouts. For many years, IH and Jeep enjoyed this market, until the Bronco showed up, and then, of course, the documented US SUV killer, the Landcruiser, put the final nail in, and IH foolishly backed out. These were simply the best.
The seller doesn’t call it a survivor, which can be said about any car/truck of that age that still exists regardless of condition, they just make a vague miles claim that can be interpreted as original. It’s pretty beat for $11,000, might be rare, but that only goes so far at attracting potential buyers. The listing has been up for 14 days, and counting.
Steve R
I love these old Scouts, right up to the last year. Your right, very hard to find and if you do someone either watched too many Sunday motortrend hack shows or not much left to work with. I cringe seeing shows about guys cutting these up. Ruin something else for your rock crawling dreams! Too many creative minds that lack creative talent!
I count 4 spark plug wires in the photo you posted …
Came here to say that
e If the engine bay photo is accurate, it appears to have a four-cylinder engine. The distributor has five wires, one for each cylinder and one for the coil. The gas station where I worked used to have a 1960 and later a 1969, both were great, slow workhorses.
I used to have a Tonka Toy International Scout. Probably about a ’63 or so vintage. Red with a white removable top & an angle snowplow. Almost got run over in the alley behind my parents house plowing snow on my hands & knees during a storm. The driver usually had half a snoot full by early afternoon on Saturdays so I was lucky. Wish I still had it for value.
It was originally white as seen on the firewall images.
Not sure, but most anyone will rather deal with dents than rust outs. Also not confidant about the ‘original mileage’ claim, but who really cares, as at this stage of life, just to witness one without missing every square inch of original sheet metal, is a feat in itself.
Great find. (I know of two locally, one an ex govt. rig with slightly more miles, but zero rust. And another sitting in a quonset about two miles away from the farm I grew up on, that was bought new in the mid ’60s and hasn’t been used in 55 years. Also red with a white top)
It would be fun to take a closer look at that gem in Oregon to see how close to keeping it ‘as found’ or doing a full body and paint to bring it back, would be.
Hi Mrgreenjeans, hows the Captain? He did? Bullwinkle too? I’d say, 20 years ago, I went to a junkyard in N.Wis., and an entire field was FULL of Scouts. Naturally, being Wis., most were pretty wasted, I’d say maybe 30 or more. I asked about them, and the new owner said they were there when he bought the yard. I went back couple years later, all but maybe 5 were left. He said he junked most of them. When I bought my GoldWing, also N.Wis., the guy had like 4 or 5 Scouts sitting in a woods, all REALLY wasted, but he claimed they all ran. Scout always seemed to play 2nd fiddle to the Jeep, but sure made a dent in Jeep sales.
Okay, so the Landcruiser didn’t kill the Scout, poor management did.
Howard, it’s such a sad story about what happened to IH. They went from a power house corporation to bust so quickly.
I’ll never forget the day that the Scout showed up in our part of the country. The dealer wanted to stick his toes in the water and see where things went. He ordered five and they all came in at the same time. He had them all sold by the time the last one was unloaded off the carrier. With an open house coming up and no hope of replenishing stock so he talked the new owner into holding off taking delivery until his event was over. From then on Scouts were ever-present at the dealership.
I never got used to opening the hood and seeing only half of an engine in the bay. It always looked like half the engine was missing.
I look at trucks like this and think that they would be great to have, only drop the rest of the engine in that bay as well. A 266 or a 304 would really wake one of those up–as if a Scout needed a waking up.
I would have to say that most of the Scouts out west were the pickup version but the SUV body had a presence as well. The only place I saw an open-body was on the coast.
I don’t ever remember seeing a slide in camper on a Scout. That’s a great idea!!! Also, I agree with Geomechs, not just International but also the Pontiac 4 cyl as well, just always looked strange with one bank of cylinders missing. I’ve always liked Scouts.
This one is really beat up. Dents, scrapes, and lots of red paint trying to hide it all. Even the driver’s door has been abused! About 8 years ago we were touring the country with our 5th wheel camper and happened to be in southwestern Texas at a campground. In comes a standard length Scout with a half cab. And you can tell by the rumble it was a V8 of some kind. It had serious sized wheels and tires. But not sticking out of the fenders. It must have had some serious rear springs as it was dragging a 30′ 5th wheel camper behind it. The Scout was level as was the trailer. So you could tell that the Scout was set up to do this duty. The owner wheeled that set up in and parked it like that’s all he did for a living. I wanted to go talk to the guy. But he was in the camper before I had a chance to amble over and was gone the next morning when I got up. Just an odd site of a Scout dragging a large 5th wheel behind it.
I think someone needs to educate the seller that with a 5 digit odometer it starts over from zero after 100k miles because otherwise this thing has been driven Awfully hard for those claimed low miles
My Brother had one of these Scouts w/ a v8 good little unit , traded for a Ford Bronco , a better unit !
A vey interesting vehicle, Thanks Bruce… IF there is NO rust and Bondo under that red paint it looks like a solid Scout with some “Battle Scars” to prove it has been used. A little high priced, but it will make someone a handy weekend work horse, part time daily driver, or if needed some off road pleasure. That little slant 4 has the torque to do the job and parts are still readily available.
Wife and I went to a hillclimb right after we were married, so about 1971. There were 2 or 3 new Scouts there with the new V8s. Unfortunately, they all grenaded the differentials before any could finish. So, dropping a V8 into this is probably a bad idea without some serious work.
The 152 4-cylinder was literally a 304 V8 cut in half and a plate replacing the other cylinder bank. The distributor is still an 8-cylinder unit, with every other tower blanked off on the cap (visible in the photo) Mechanically indestructible, but you could hear them rust from your living room. I’ve had five so far, a driver-grade 1964 restoration under a cover in the shop now.