Mazdeuce needs a project - for a project......

I have a Mk IV Mini Cooper Shell and a very special VTEC Subframe.....

In reply to TeamFAST:

I just sent you a PM.
Because my wife reads my threads and made me. Apparently she'd rather have a Mini than kitchen cabinets.

I'm sure the mini has similar storage capabilities.

mazdeuce wrote: In reply to TeamFAST: I just sent you a PM. Because my wife reads my threads and made me. Apparently she'd rather have a Mini than kitchen cabinets.

A woman's gotta have goals.

Really looking forward to this COE build.....

In reply to Billy_Bottle_Caps:

Me too.
Did a bit of internet sleuthing and it looks like Texas doesn't consider something a "big" truck until a GVWR of 26k lbs, or a combined rating of 26k, and below that I don't need a CDL. At least that's what I think. I'll clearly need to talk to some people before I go tooling around the neighborhood.

In reply to mazdeuce:

We have 6 bobtails at my company in Dallas and any old goof can drive them in Texas. And yes, if you are over 26k elpoundos you need a CDL.

Reading through the thread now. Fun thought, at least in my mind.

Start with a half decent car (Maybe needs body work or engine work or both etc...) What ever it is, a unique or good looking car. and Make a "Budget" show car. Not necessarily super expensive, but something good looking, modified and fun to drive. Built in the Grosh.

Got here from the Unicorn thread- this is shaping up to be fun to follow along!

A question- this truck isn't air braked, is it? It looks too small to be, but I don't know a whole hell of a lot about older medium duty stuff. The reason I ask is my day job happens to be with a company that designs and manufactures... everything in the air system of modern commercial vehicles- I would be happy to offer advice on air systems and modernization of older systems, if you need it. Plus, having air on board is super useful, especially if all the infrastructure is in place for the braking system.

I of all people love me a COE, so I highly endorse this build. However...I am struggling to picture the story line for this one. The problem is that our protagonist must suffer and overcome odds and nemeses along the way so that he may come out the other end a stronger and better person.

After the Grosh and the Panzervagen this build is going to look like the Green Berets taking on a rowdy kindergarten class. You have gotten too good at your craft. You need seductive, complex and treacherously flawed adversaries!

Now, that all said...Getting this heap to the Grosh is certainly going to be a story worth following!

In reply to Aeromechie:

It has hydraulic brakes, and interesting ones at that. I may make a switch to air, but to be honest, I'm way over my head as far as my knowledge of MDT stuff goes and I'm going to need help. When I get it home I'll be digging into the stock systems to see how and why they did what they did, what works and what should be thrown away. My understanding is that most medium duty trucks at that time (and even now) were built for short haul work. The engines and gearing are really for around town work and hauling crops and machinery in from the farm. This makes them fine for driving to car shows or hauling lumber from Home Depot, but pretty crappy for converting to a motorhome or hauling race cars across the country. On top of that, because of the GVWR, they have different rules for licensing and insurance in a lot of places. So to answer NOHOME, that's the foil here. I'm purposely purchasing a truck that isn't at all suitable for the things I want to do, functions on 60 year old mechanical systems that are almost certainly less capable than modern 3/4 ton trucks, and may be almost impossible for me to license and insure. Because I have an undying love and appreciation for things being the way they are, I don't want to just drop the cab on something more modern. All you end up with then is a modern truck with an exceptionally noisy cab, where's the fun in that?
If my life goes well then I'll eventually run out of things to learn about and explore, and reading about me doing the same old stuff will be boring, but I don't see that happening soon.

I'm switching my suggestion of a Fergus R63 powertrain swap to putting an R63 powertrain in this thing!

The mention of rockwell axles and 4 wheel steering on page 6 got me too wondering if you could modify your silverado into a mega quadrasteer.

mazdeuce wrote: So this morning I didn't know what I wanted, but I knew I wanted something to write about. By lunch I had it narrowed down to either a challenge car or a Ferrari. Both rational decisions. By dinner time I was making a deal on this: Not that this eliminates the possibility of any other projects, but how could I say no to that face? Build thread incoming in a bit when I sort out travel plans. Real work is months away, but holy moly am I excited. The whole lot of you have been incredible and I'm going to work properly hard at this to tell a story and tell it well.

Stacey David had an International project truck on his Gearz TV show. It started out nearly identical to your truck, but was built into a tow truck with a bunch of modifications:

You can find excerpts of the episodes on Youtube, this appears to be the first one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNyQGjPnZMI

I think his build went in a whole different direction from what you have planned, but it still may be useful as background information.

In reply to stuart in mn:

Huge thanks! He's still one of my favorite TV car guys. He always seems to like what he has and to have fun.

I spent the morning watching all of the episodes that have the international in them. The build is completely different than anything I'm imagining, but it was entertaining anyway. I got to see a bunch of the cab and frame structure which has set my brain in motion. I'm excited.
I also need a forklift. And a crane.

Yeah, he went kind of extreme on that IH wrecker build but I figured there would be some good reference material in the videos.

As an aside, I spent one summer during college at a small factory in my home town, driving a Chevy C-50 cabover box truck (this style cab, but with a box on the back):

Most of the job was short hauls between two manufacturing facilities, but occasionally there were a longer trips of a few hundred miles. I enjoyed driving the thing, but those long trips in a 1960s cabover weren't exactly comfortable or luxurious. I imagine that IH will be similar.

There's just so much.......unknown. I haven't driven a MDT since high school and that was maybe a half dozen times. I don't know how the axle/transmission is geared, how the brakes work, how stiff the stock leafs are, how I fit in the cab, any of it. Right now it sounds like the truck has a GVWR​ of 19k lbs. That would mean something like a 9k lb front axle. I checked, and those are very big chunks of iron, the 4x4 ones even moreso.
I'm waiting until Thursday to start the build thread because that's when we hit the road. The more I read, the more I learn, the more I realize I'm way out of my knowledge zone. As before, it's just a bunch of parts bolted together, so making it work is just a matter of work, but the R63, the Insight, and the RSX-S (my last three projects) are all closely related compared to this. This is out there.

It may be big heavy duty components, but it's still solid axles, a ladder frame, and leaf springs. Mechanically it's a typical american V-8, with manufacturer specific quirks like they all have. So from a technical standpoint I doubt you'll be seeing anything outside your comfort zone. Other than pulling out the 1/2" and 3/4" drive sets more often, and needing weight carrying gear to lift stuff, you'll be juuuuuuust fine.

Also GVWR is your maximum LOADED weight. Curb weight is going to be, ironically, about the same as the R63. So that also gives you something else to consider. Are you going to be hauling 12,000lbs of cargo? A set of modern 1 ton pickup axles, and drivetrain, would be both easier to work on and not compromise your capacities. Plus parts will be more available too.

Same thing I tell everybody on a project like this. Take your time, define what you want to do with it, and build toward that goal.

TeamFAST wrote: I have a Mk IV Mini Cooper Shell and a very special VTEC Subframe.....

This actually made me laugh out loud at work. This is what finally got me to register. I am selfishly happy to see you doing another write up of anything. Thank you again for sharing with all of us. If you get the mini, you can trailer on the rig, also, write that up too! :P

mazdeuce wrote: I spent the morning watching all of the episodes that have the international in them. The build is completely different than anything I'm imagining, but it was entertaining anyway. I got to see a bunch of the cab and frame structure which has set my brain in motion. I'm excited. I also need a forklift. And a crane.

And a backhoe....don't forget the backhoe for the moat.

In reply to Longboarder29:

A friend actually pointed out that swapping a pair of forks onto the right backhoe could solve all my heavy equipment dreams.

In reply to FunkyCricket:

I haven't heard back about the Mini yet, but we're just a couple of days from the new adventure starting..........
I'm terrible at building suspense. I get too excited.

All the medium duty trucks I've worked on were fairly similar to light trucks/cars but heavier. The brakes will have a couple quirks depending on the booster they use and there's probably a couple extra differences with the tilting cab. I was pretty young when my dad had gas Internationals but the only regular problem I remember was changing points. Properly adjusted drum brakes work well and shouldn't be an issue once you've driven it a bit and gotten used to them. Just going through it and making sure the brakes are good, the lights work, and maybe swapping in an electronic ignition should be a good start. I'm fairly confident that mission creep will take over from there and amuse me.

The old Backhoe I picked up is actually locked. Umm, get in touch. I bet you can get a writeup, or soemthing and i can get you a deal on a Ford backhoe.