Rebuilding an American classic
While it isn’t a frame off restoration, it was designed to be a daily driver on a budget. And we’re very happy with what we were able to do with it.
Tearing it down
As with any build, the more you take apart, the more you find that needs replacing or rebuilding. This build wasn’t any different. After years of patch work, everything from the wiring harness to the reverse light switch needed to be torn out and replace.
The Chicken Creek touch
Along the teardown, we noted items we wanted to replace, upgrade or flat out change. One was the door inserts. They’re typically a simple steel plate so we wanted to add a little creative touch by converting them to custom wood panels and integrating the door handle with them.
At home in the country
Scouts were originally designed for, and sold to, farmers for use along with other International farm implements. What better place to put her than back on the farm.
If it’s bent, fix it
As we continued the tear down, we noticed little things like a bent bumper, small dings and damaged trim. This was all removed, dollied out and refinished where salvageable, and replaced where it wasn’t able to be saved.
Details, details
The paint on this Scout wasn’t bad. The hood was sunburned, but the rest looked great after a cut and buff. The hood was repainted after some clean up and smoothing work to remove the bad layers of paint and sun damage.
With a new bumper, polished trim, and small details like grill insert and light trim match painted to our secondary color, the front end on this Scout looks stout!
Top grain leather
I always like to have an anchor to design my build around. For this Scout, it was the paint. Since we weren’t repainting, all of the design hung off making sure it schemed well with the color we were given.
And baseball stitches
We opted to use two leathers on the interior: One real, one simulated. The real leather was used on the seat inserts while the other was used on high wear areas like edges and bolsters where most leather gives out over time.
Details, details
Final details included paint matching details to the secondary paint color: Porsche gunmetal grey. Matched details included seat frame, dashboard, speaker boxes and more. In addition, grey seat belts were added to pick up the trim color as well.
Additional touches
Because the stock steering wheel doesn’t allow anyone over 6 ft tall to get out easily, we retrofitted it with a wheel two inches smaller and it works like a charm. Other details include the Porsche gunmetal grey dashboard, updated “antique” style gauges and matched leather shift boot.
Wood grain accents
To bring the wood accent from the front doors through the vehicle, we added the wood feature to the side shelves with the same burned/oiled style as those in the front.
If you’re interested in building your own International Scout, let us know. We can source the base vehicle, produce a truck in your budget, and get you on the road with an American classic.
Check out the Bullitt Boy build. A 1982 Honda CM450
Chicken Creek Customs 