After sitting in the back yard since 1983, My 1961 International Scout was beginning to feel neglected. Fortunately, Scouts are difficult to offend so my Y2K project was pretty short. I cleaned out the rats nests and found shreds of what had been new Dodge van seats underneath…. And a lot of now-unidentifiable residue that looked strangely familiar.

The underhood had fared no better. I started with a rake, went to a leaf blower and wound up with Gunk and a pressure washer. The engine was still there but time and my rodent friends had done a number on some of the soft goods. The good part was they appear not to have liked the particular type of plastic I used when I re-wired it back in the '70s. That wire was as good as new… as it should have been. Even at surplus prices, the Teflon™ insulated corrosion resistant computer grade wire I had used cost more than I paid for the vehicle. Still, it was pretty cheap.

A quick shine on the points, a new sediment bowl to replace the one broken by some long-past cold Winter night, a battery and it was ready to run. Almost. Gasoline ran out of the tank about as fast as I poured it in. Time to install the new tank I had bought for it 20+ years ago. That done, and a little gas in the carb for encouragement, ol' Scout fired right up and ran exactly like it did in 1983. Lots of pumping and some brake fluid in the clutch master cylinder got the hydraulic clutch to working…. sorta. The brakes weren't nearly so kind.

A guy with a bad back who is in a business where everything weighs a bunch needs a way to move stuff and I figured this rascal would be a good candidate. When I was much younger and stronger, I tried to knock a few dents out of a fender. Not hardly. My favorite forceit wrench (a short-handle, 3 pound crosspien hammer) had no effect what-so-ever! A close look at the body metal thickness got me to wondering how it could have ever been dented to start with. It absolutely had the necessary ballast to lift whatever needed lifting.

A few weeks of prowling the local steel yard provided "drops" of appropriate size and shape at minimum cost. Kind of a strange feeling because I don't recall ever buying new steel for a project before. I made up for it by pulling out all my eBay "buying stuff cheap" tricks to procure the hydraulics.

Several weeks later, all my plotting and planning gelled into a hydraulic crane that looked like it should lift anything. It had been a strange experience. I'm not sure if I had forgot most of what I once knew about welding or if the absence of gaps, rust and rough edges had me in strange new territory. Whichever, I did decide I like chop saws.

First tests indicated looks weren't too deceptive. The pump was supposed to be good for 3400 psi and lifting my 240 pound sidekick didn't even register on the hydraulic pressure gage. I needed something bigger to lift. I had a point to prove to either me or the naysayers who doubted a starter motor would pass for a hydraulic pump power source.

Right to left, we find a standard single spool valve mounted on a slotted angle support. The yellow thingie below the valve is a couple of spray paint caps. Once faces south and shields the rear of the on/off switch while the other faces opposite and shields the toggle end of the switch.

Slotted angle was used for the entire frame because I had it and it is easy to work with. The surplus .50 cal. Ammo can-turned hydraulic reservoir comes next and is followed closely by a filter and the Ford starter motor-powered pump.

Should I ever decide I need the Scout for something other than a pack mule, removing five bolts will allow the whole mess to slide out as a unit onto a couple of sawhorses.

Sharp-eyed browsers may wonder: Yes. That is a standard pipe fitting on the cylinder and yes, I do know better. By the time I scraped up enough pocket change to get Northern Tool to send me real hydraulic fittings, I had already been forced to use it. I'll swap it out before any more heavy lifting. Sometimes I'm forced to push my luck but I don't like giving it any more hard shoves than necessary.

Now a Scout that can lift almost anything is neat but after a few years I started getting lonesome for some brakes. Fifty years of using them seems to have turned into a habit. The best brakes an early Scout ever had were pretty poor. I've seen larger brake drums on go-karts. Alas, junkyards are now operated by safety monitors. I longed for a set of 11 inch Ford pickup brakes but the safety monitors got really nervous after they forced me to admit I wanted them for an International Harvester and therefore couldn't tell them what model Ford truck I had.

eBay doesn't have that problem and one fine day I blundered into a complete set of front disk brakes from a Jeep Cherokee. With a low bid and a hunch I could make them work, I bought them. I did a quick look when they arrived. They looked do-able so I stuck them on the shelf for better times.

Better times came three years later when the young son of a friend of mine offered some help. Boy! Did he say the wrong thing! After shoving him through all my long-postponed gotta-do stuff, I rolled in the Scout. Anxious to get the heavy work done before he caught on, I opted for rebuilt calipers instead of cleaning up and rebuilding mine. That when the fun began.

"What the hell are those," said the local parts man.

"Jeep Cherokee, 'bout '88 model I believe."

"I have never seen Jeep brake calipers that said Mitsusumimoto on 'em," said he.

"Uhhh," said I. The old eBay "fast one" trick.

A real parts man wouldn't give up easily and this one didn't. We eventually figured out my '88 Jeep Cherokee brakes actually came from a '78 Toyota Hilux. With pads and calipers in hand, I went to see what other surprises lay in wait.

As you might figure, there were some but the big one was how well everything fit