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Short Bed 4-Speed: 1974 International Harvester Pickup

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What an honest-looking pickup! With a short bed and a four speed, one could argue that this was even a sporty in its day. And with an opening bid of $900 and no reserve, it’s certainly not expensive (at least at the moment). The truck is advertised here on eBay and is located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Jim S and I both spotted this one!

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Like I said, an honest truck. One that you could drive and not really worry where you parked. As a matter of fact, I’ll bet Porsche owners move over when you pull up next to them in a truck like this in traffic! And yet, it’s still presentable, and a lot more solid than most International trucks I’ve seen.

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While it may be a short bed, it’s still quite usable. I’m not sure how many of these were made versus the long bed style, but I know this is one of the first short bed Internationals I’ve seen. The Ford wheel covers don’t work for me, but I did find this set on eBay, although they are the 4WD version. I think I’d look a little further–those aren’t terribly attractive to me.

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As you might expect, the interior is pretty plain, and the bottom cushion doesn’t match the back one (although both seem to be in decent shape). While I’m sure the carpeted dash top is covering cracks, at least someone cared enough to cover it with something! All the glass seems intact. The seller states that there is some rust in the bed and above the windshield; that latter corrosion may be difficult to fix.

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And here is the inline six cylinder engine. It looks like it’s has some recent maintenance including a new hose or two and possibly new plug wires. While it’s hardly spotless, it is decent enough for a driver like this. This isn’t a truck I’d restore; it’s a truck I’d use! What would you do?

Comments

  1. Avatar racer99

    I’ve never seen one of these at a show — I’d be real tempted to do a light resto-mod on it and use it as a driver. Nice ebay ad with the videos by the seller BTW.

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  2. Avatar DENIS

    slammed, stuffed, big v-8, scuff n spray. all on the cheap.

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  3. HoA Howard A Member

    FINALLY, an IH pickup without that awful 345 V-8!!! I know, some liked them, I didn’t. This, oddly enough, was probably the smartest move, putting AMC’s 258 engine ( and the 401) in these trucks. It was short lived, and was dropped in 1975, when only IH’s 345 was available, and the series ended in 1975. Somebody knew what they were ordering when this truck was new, and looks like a great truck. The way it’s set up, it would be almost unkillable. Great find, I never knew they used AMC motor’s in the end.

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  4. Avatar Dave Wright

    Well, I have to differ with you Howard. The 266-392 V8’s were the best engines of there time. Forged Pistons, rods, crank, sodium cooled valves, everything was rebuildable down to the smallest parts. My Dad had a couple of truck companies that piled the miles on 3/4-1 ton trucks. He had a 345 that went 700,000 miles. He also liked the GMC 350 “Premium ” engines, 4 bolt main and well balanced at the factory. He would get over 400,000 on many of those. The advantage was when the 350 gave up, he would buy a factory new crate engine for 1200.00, the IHC was more like 4000.00. IHC is one of the biggest engine builders on the planet, the only reason they used the cheep 258 I’d because there was a huge demand by other companies for the IHC foundries to build there engines and they ran out of production space to build there own engines. My 1975 Scout has a 258……. It is worn out in 75,000 miles. I am replacing it with a late model Jeep fuel injected 4.0 but I surely wish it had the IHC V8. My 1963 1100 pickup with a 304 went 300,000 miles before my ex-wife blew a heater hose and continued to drive it. When we pulled the engine apart, you could still see the machine marks in the cylinder bores and there was not enough taper to warrant a rebore. The 345 in my 1968 1200C is like new, off course, it is a low mileage engine but it will sit for months at a time, you pull the choke, it fires and runs immediately. This pickup is a light duty inexpensive version frequently bought and used by busisnesses for general odd jobs. Probably not a bad truck, just not up to the standards of the rest of the IHC line. IHC’s were very expensive compared with the common car based competition like Ford and Chevy. Quality costs money.

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  5. Avatar geezerglide85

    I had one of these back in the early 80’s. A1970 w/ a 304 and three on the tree. I paid $650 for it. I remember it always being sidelined with carb issues. It had an infamous Holly 2brl. We could never get it to run right, plus a lot of nickel and dime stuff. I sold for $250 on credit but never saw the money. Does anybody know if the 304 was an IHC motor or an AMC? Mine had the long box, but I remember one running around town that had a short stepside and 4wd. That was a sharp looking truck

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    • Avatar jrmedsel

      The 304 was an IHC motor. I’ve had two 1968 pickups that ran the 304 with a Borg-Warner automatic transmission, and had no issues with them over many miles. Like most things by International, these engines were over-built.

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  6. Avatar jim s

    sold for $ 2550.

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  7. Avatar Danny

    I had a 1960 VW bus and bought a 1965 1500 engine, which blew shortly after I got it. So I said no more air cooled for me. I bought a 1966 IH 1100A Travelall with a v304 and a 5 spd overdrive T34 transmission. I got a 1967 Holiday Rambler 27R and an equalizing hitch. Sold everything that would not fit into the truck and trailer was sold or scraped except for my ex-wife and my 3 kids. We left NJ and got all the way to PA and snapped an axle shaft. The IH dealer had one in stock and we were on our way to NM. The heater in the trailer quite, the pipes froze, we moved into a rental. Ex wife and kids stayed in Albuquerque and the Travelall, Holiday Rambler and I moved to El Paso. I bought a 1968 1200C v304, Holly 2 bb. narrow long bed and never could get it to run right. Then I bought a 1971 1310, v304, 2bb Holly, with a 9 foot long flat bed off a Ford. I transplanted the T34 to the 1310 and put the 3 speed from the 1310 into the 1100A. I sold the serial number plate for $100 and the rest of the Travelall to some very nice Mexicans who did not care if there was a serial plate. They went over the bridge to Juarez.
    The 1310 got the strongest equalizing hitch welded to the frame and I could pull the Holiday Rambler without the equalizing bars hooked up. I moved to Louisiana and eventually opened a truck tire sales business and used the 1310 as my service truck. My 1310 was a single real wheel and I bought another 1310 with duel wheels, I was going to swap wheels. But I found out that the spindle on the duel wheel model was bigger and the king pin was also bigger. So I had to swap the entire I beam and I redid the king pins. Also the rear drums had the short studs and the offset was wrong so I had to use the drums off the other truck. I sold the other truck for $600.00. Michelin paid to paint my truck yellow. I closed the shop in 1986. I had a customer who had tubeless wheels and I got two of them for the front, the rear still had lock ring drop center wheels. The worst ones to dismount. So 20 years later I had my 1310 in a pole barn and Katrina dropped 17 trees on the barn. One rafter hit the roof of the truck and peeled the roof off the windshield, without breaking the glass. So my 1310 is sitting in the back yard. When I last started it up and drove it the brake pedal went to the floor. Right front wheel cylinder was leaking. I am looking for a donor IH pickup with a rust free cab. That is going to be as hard to find as elephant teeth.

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