Now this is some BangShifty coolness for you! How about a 1972 International-Harvester Travelette 1210? This tough as nails crew cab is largely stock and that’s A-OK with us. The previous owner made some modifications to the truck and we love all of them except one. For starters the thing is clean as heck, the custom interior is cooler looking and more comfy than what would have been in this work truck from the factory, the military style NDT tires provide a neat stance and attitude, and the white steel wheels are as pizza cutter narrow as we love them to be.
Then there’s the “paint”.
We have no idea why someone would have done all this killer work to a rig of such toughness and then used a bed liner to paint it with, especially in this color?! The sales pitch for the truck does not come right out and say bed liner but you can read between the eyes and if you can see the photos you’ll know exactly that what it is. Being that we have no experience with this, how tough would it be to strip the truck and start over? Is this junk near impossible to get off? Initially when we looked at the photos we figured the truck had patina from being worked over the year. The shade of tan or whatever you want to call this is reminiscent of a weather beaten look. Just no. Can you imagine how awesome this truck would be in red with those white wheels and NDTs?! C’amon man!
Happily the 345ci IH V8 is still under the hood as are the beefy axles and the automatic transmission.
You don’t see a lot of these crew cab 1210 trucks rolling about because they were not build to be comfortable highway cruisers. They were designed to haul people into tough spots or hard to get to areas where they were working. Railroads owned these, logging and mining companies, etc. They used them up and chucked them to the side. This one is amazingly well intact and has lived to have a second life.
Now it just needs a facelift.
eBay Link: 1972 International-Harvester Travelette 1210
I kind of like the khaki bed liner finish. It’s a sort of finish I wouldn’t have any qualms about taking off road or filling the bed with a load of gravel.
all that work and they couldn’t align the front fenders or the front bumper? run away, run away quickly because I bet there’s rust under that bedliner
You would wind up ruining the body trying to get that liner off. An air chisel is about the only thing that will do it. You can feasibly paint over it, but with that texture it’d never be nice. Personally I like it as is.
Mopar secret — 727 transmissions mated to 345 IH engines are among the stoutest Torqueflites made. The bad news is you can’t connect the tranny to your Mopar unless you take the superior guts out of the IH-purposed case and put them in a Mopar case.
Some of those have Ford Transmissions. Not all IH models used the same automatics. Travel-alls & pick ups have some things Scout & Scout II’s didn’t.
I drove and sold a 71 Travelall 345 with a Ford FMX it also had a check disk brake dana 44 swapped in the front, in place of the IH 5 lug drum brake front axle that the drums cost more then the truck.
I like the finish. Close enough to the original color, yet will not scratch up when run threw the woods (unless you get something good enough to do damage).
I would sell those ‘gum dipped’ NDT’s and put on 16.5 Wagon Wheels with 36 inch military Humvee tires. You know some old ‘dangerous’ MT/R’s.
I would take the interior out, sell it put in a junk yard/swap meet one. Because my trucks get used. Mud is a carpet covering I approve of.
I like the body as it is. The color seems vehicle appropriate, yet tough as nails. Oddly enough, I kind of agree the interior is overdone. Not enough that I would ever take it out, but if I had done it, it would be a little more basic.