This unusual shortbed 1964 International C120 pickup truck, offered for sale here on craigslist in Phoenix, and located in nearby Mesa, Arizona, is really appealing.
The seller does not say much about it, but offers some pretty good photos.
It’s claimed to be a rust free Arizona original truck, and does look very good from what we can tell visually here.
Aside from the condition, the fact that this International features a 345 cid V8 and a 4 speed transmission makes it very appealing. Even cooler – it’s a 4 wheel drive truck too.
The body and interior certainly are showing 50 years of use – this truck is currently licensed and looks like it is still driven on the roads though.
The engine compartment is very clean. And this and the rest of the truck really does look “all original” as the seller claims.
I really like this truck a lot. Is the dashboard cool or what? The color seems a bit unusual though, well at least the steering column and wheel.
The asking price seems just a bit on the high side at $5,800, but on the other hand, if this truck is really everything it is claimed to be, it’s a rare vehicle you can continue to drive on a daily basis, and you will really stand out from the crowd of Chevrolets, Fords and Dodges you can see everywhere on the street. Drive it just the way it is shown here, or give it a coat of paint. Either way, this truck will be a lot of fun to own and drive. Not many Internationals were made in 1964, how many are still around?
Looks like it has a ’62 dashboard and grille. ’63-’67 should have single headlights, and a dash panel with 5 round gauges.
Hi Lee,
Sorry everyone – this is a bit off-topic for the 4X4, but Lee, did you own the ’64 pictured in your reply? I believe that I own this truck now. Can we talk? would love to know more about its history. Here’s a recent picture of what I believe to be the same truck. I found that it’s VIN number and appearance matches a truck that sold at the 2010 Palm Beach BJ auction.
I never owned that truck, I found it on Google Images. Our family owned several Internationals from this time period though. Great old trucks! The V8 had great torque through a wide range. Looks like you have a nice one!
All right! Must be truck week. Love it, keep ’em comin’. 1st of all, I think this is a ’61 or ’62, as in ’63 they changed to one headlight. Again, just an incredible example of a truck you never see in the snowy regions. Anything with 4 wheel drive was used as a plow, and rusted to bits. I’m not too crazy about the IH V-8 ( I know, some liked them, everything I drove with one sucked) as I’d much prefer their 6 cylinder, but this is just in super condition. As with most trucks of this vintage, gearing will be a big concern, if you want to drive it faster than 55mph. Great find. Not many like this.
I think both Lee and Howard are right that this truck is not a 64. Here is a 63 that looks alot like the green one in the ad.
Is that just an emblem that looks like a locking hub near the antenna?
Hi Jeff, are you referring to the gas cap on the right front fender? ( with the backwards “S” handle)
Odd place for a filler tube, but that’s what I was talking about!
Hi Jeff,
That is the filler neck for an auxiliary fuel tank (a common factory option for IH).
Great looking truck. 1st gear in these old trucks has a top speed of about 4 miles an hour. Most people started in 2nd gear unless they were pulling a heavy trailer. Without a heavy load by the time you got into 2nd gear the truck would be nearly stopped anyway. It would be interesting to see someone who had never driven one of these old “granny gear” 4 speeds drive one of these for the first time. I think this would be something to buy, maybe give it a cheap paint job. Wait until a friend was bragging about how tough their newer 4X4 is and then show up in this old beast (better if you showed up in this when they were stuck and you had to pull them out).
OH BOY if this was closer and a automatic, wife won’t drive stick here in Missouri I would be all over this as I’ve never owned a IH and maybe it’s time. This one just looks way too cool !!!
Hi JW, can’t go wrong with an older “cornbinder”. Just make sure you get a pre ’69 and not the “D” series that replaced this one. They were miserable trucks, and led ( in part) to IH getting out of the light truck market.
I’ve owned several…nothin’ you can do to make ’em purty but lift ’em and stuff huuuuge rubber under ’em….they are brutes and virtually bulletproof…seems like plenty of $$ for the old girl, but who knows?
I owned one identical, but 2wd, years ago. I loved that truck, but don’t break the dash glass….you loose all your gauges.
I had 4 or 5 bobtail Loadstar IH trucks with this engine and the MV404 engine. I loved em.While the pick up’s were always a bit awkward looking, they were good trucks from my experience anyway. This truck looks great to me, the seller took the time to post great pics, but then says so little about the truck. Guessing he didn’t think his ad would get national exposure, and expects locals to just stop by and look.
Howard A we called ours “Binders” too
She’s aged well, so I wouldn’t mess with her too much. Just sort the mechanicals and start hauling some hay.
Off course, I am an IHC guy…….I have a 68 that we are doing right now. As said, the year is wrong. These 3/4 tons used a strange large 6 bolt pattern on the lug bolt/wheels. It is nearly impossible to find tubeless rims for. The rims can be built but most places want like 1000.00 for the set. I am changing my axles out to later ones to get away from them. I guess I got a good buy on mine. It has a factory 5 speed overdrive transmission, 38K orignal miles, a 12,000 winch on the front it always had a camper shell so the bed is perfect and a 345 engine with 410 positraction differentials. I thought I paid all the money at 3000.00. It runs and drives well. We are changing wthe axles out to some from a 71 parts truck that is still on my trailer and adding power steering. I am not a fan of the 6 cylinder engines. They are good but best used in heavy equipment like loaders where they were common. The V8’s are great engines built with the best of everything. The torque curves are incredible and they run at – good RPM. My dad owned several at a time in one of his truck companies, they would run 500,000 miles consistently. The only problem with them was with sodium cooled valves and all the forged parts they were expensive to rebuild. He could buy a premium 4 bolt main for the GMC’s new for 1/2 the price of rebuilding the IHC 345. I think this truck is closer to a 1960. I had a 63 for a couple of decades. It had single headlights and the modern dash. I disagree with Howard about all the 4X4’s being plow trucks…..even though many were, just as many had campers or were used as utility trucks. The USFS had many used by rangers here in the west that were painted Forrest Service green. The Air Force used vpcrew cab. versions as alert crew trucks on SAC bases…..lots of different uses. When dealing with an IHC, always start by getting a line setting sheet. It is the order that was used to build the truck at the factory. I just ordered 2 of them for my new aquaitions, 20.00 each…..The 68 3/4 ton and my 74 scout. All IHC’s are custom built and ordered by someone for a specific job. There are few standards and they drive the parts guys nuts trying to deal with them. That is also the reason people love or hate them. A low geared farm truck Is frustrating to put on a highway and a highway truck is not a good rock crawler. There were thousands of variations available from the factory. The end installed Diesel engines in them back to the early 60’s.
On the gas cap location. IHC never used in the cab fuel tanks like the big 3 and always mounted there tanks on the inside of the frame rails for safety. The fuel cap in the fender was for the auxillery tank.
I’m no expert on them but I had a Scout II with the 345 and loved the engine. The low end pull was great – with an automatic, taking off nicely from a stop sign it felt like there might be an ocean liner propulsion system hidden under the floor. And one of my favorite things about that engine was on cold mornings on startup, listening to the beautiful music made by whirring of the timing gears. This was no double-duty passenger car engine put into a truck, no way. Someone up the thread wasn’t impressed with the IH V8 but I sure was.
where did you get the line setting sheet from?
I have 62 c120 4×4
thanks in advance
Here’s the Quick Guide to IHC light duty (or the Light Line, as International was fond of calling them) model years, as I understand them.
Starting in 1953, they changed the style (often only very slightly) roughly every other year. The ’53 R-series was pretty much identical inside and out to the previous L-series, except the front end with all the vertical bars was replaced with a large grille mouth bisected by a horizontal bar featuring, for the first time, the famous Loewy-designed IH logo (sometimes called the “Man On A Tractor”) replacing the triple diamond logo on the hood IHC had used previously. The ’54 was identical to the ’53. (My dad was a masonry contractor and had two R-100 pickups.) In ’55 the R-Series was replaced by the S-Series which was the same cab but new more modern looking sheet metal forward of the windshield. Again, the ’56 was identical to the ’55. 1957 saw a completely redesigned cab for International’s Golden Anniversary as a truck manufacturer. This new much more modern looking cab featured a wraparound windshield and would continue through the 1968 model year although the dash was changed for ’63 and sheet metal forward of the windshield continued the two-year cycle. ’57 and ’58 (now called the “A-series”) had a grille similar to the S-Series (but not the same) and single headlights topped by turn signals that fit into a sort of squared-off bezel. I always thought it was very good looking. (We had a ’58 A-110.) The ’59-’60 “B-Series” kept the same fenders but went to stacked dual headlights and a fine egg crate design for the grille, which was no longer painted white but was bright metal–it appeared to be stamped aluminum. In ’61 they went to the style shown on this truck–horizontal quad headlamps, the wide concave grille and new fenders. These were called, you guessed it, the “C-Series.” Again the ’62 was identical to the ’61. For ’63 the quad headlights were dropped for good and the new design was single headlight flanking a now convex egg crate with the word “International” in the center. For some reason, they continued to be the “C-Series” but now went to four digits instead of three. In other words, the C-100 was now the C-1000, the C-110 the C-1100, the C-120 the C-1200 and so on. The IH badge on the hood lost its “wings.” Fenders the same as the ’61. In fact, those fenders would remain all the way through ’68. Dash was redesigned with the former “gauge pod” that had started with the A-Series replaced by a large round speedometer with two smaller round auxiliary gauges on either side. A very straightforward, no-nonsense, functional, easy to read approach. My dad bought a ’64 C-1100 new (in beautiful 501 Adirondack Green) and that was the vehicle on which I learned to drive some 4-5 years later. For ’65, now called the “D-Series”, the IH badge was simplified and the letters were now red and black with a chrome border. This badge also continued through ’68. The grill now consisted of thin vertical bars still with the “International” badge in the center, now slightly redesigned. The steering wheel was “modernized’ and slightly smaller and they went from gray to beige as the interior color. For ’66 it starts to get a bit confusing. The ’66 was identical to the ’65 but for a horizontal bar bisecting the vertical bars in the grille. And it was now the “Series-A” with the four-digit series number now followed by instead of preceded by a letter. My dad had a 1300-A lowboy dump truck with a V-266. ’67 saw a new grille of a fine black mesh and I believe they were called “Series-B” and the ’68 Series C was the same as the Series B except there were now squared off bezels around the headlights, federally mandated side marker lights and a new Series identifier badge that was much larger and integrated in with the side marker lights. The Series badge continued the practice that had started in ’61 of making no reference to the “Letter” of the series, it showed only the number. 1969 saw a completely redesigned cab which I believe were called Series-D. I thought the new design was unfortunate. Opinion is subjective, but I thought they didn’t look nearly as good as the trucks they replaced, and I hated the long horizontal speedometer that looked more at place in a passenger car. They would be the last International light duty trucks (except for the Scout) and were dropped after the 1975 model year.
Now where it gets tricky is that often, trucks from one series might not be registered until after the new series was introduced but they were allowed to be assigned the model year as the year in which they were registered. So you will see S-Series trucks that claim to be ’57s and these were sold alongside the A-Series, and late ’64 C-Series identified as ’65s and so on.
But that’s the guide, as best as I can tell, from having grown up with these trucks.
Very nice truck. It isn’t a “short bed”, though: it’s a fleetside type, which is quite unusual for a 3/4 ton. Most had stepside beds with short runningboards (which I happen to prefer). I would also bet that this one, because of the big V-8, has a good highway cruising speed for anything other than the freeway. I’ve owned a number of IH trucks back when these were contemporary, and loved them all – except for not being available with cruise control they were the best – along with Studebakers.
A 3/4 ton short bed is really rough on the kidneys……the hiway ability depends on the differintial ratios. Certinally the engine is capeable. The long beds are 6 inches longer than the big 3 trucks. It made camper manufacturers crazy trying to fit them. This is probably a 304 V8 the only thing big about it is the physical size and weight of the block. The same block was used for everything from 266 to a 404 V8. My 4.10 ratio with the overdrive transmission is comfortable at 70 or more.
Nice truck.
Price is very fair.
I like this truck but I have to agree with some of the comments in that it’s a ’62 at the latest. I might add that it still sports a generator which gave way to an alternator in ’63. I’d like to have this at my place…
Wow! No one mentioned (whispering) “patina…”
Almost looks like home-made patina…sanded etc….makes no difference and I like the truck but just sayin’……
I thought that very same thing Denis, but I agree it IS a neat truck…
Here is my ex USAF quite rare 1967 International Harvester 1200-4X4-131 Cargo Pickup Truck with Four-Door Double Cabin; served in Greece in a nuclear warheads base as a radio transmitter carrier with Registration Number “USA OIF-002067”. For more click here: https://flic.kr/s/aHsk3TAr36
Yes, that is a ’61-’62 C120… I have a 1961 Ex-USAF, C120 (¾ ton), 4×4, 4-door, Travelette (crewcab)…
In 1961, International Harvester was the first company to make factory production 4-door crewcabs.