1920 International Truck

I saw this 1920 International truck on Ebay. It was smaller than the Mack trucks, easier to haul to shows. It looked like someone started working on it, so it was a little better than the rusty trucks in a field for 30 years. The description said good wheels and bad sheet metal. To me, the wheels were not usable and the sheet metal was pretty good. Its very exciting to get it and you don't know a thing about the what you have got yet. I got it in the garage and started working on it.

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It was shedded for many years then sat outside for some more years. It was never run until I got it. Some lucky person got it and started to work on it, but it was far from running when I got it. The tube that holds the spark and gas on the steering column was rusted stuck. The previous owner broke that tube to make it steer, but still the king pins were frozen. I found an Amish wheel shop to make new front wheels and worked on making a seat and steering wheel. I retimed it and tried to crank start it. It tried but wouldn't stay running.

I got the new wheels on and towed it to get it started . I found out the hard way that first gear was in pieces in the transmission. It must have broken by the original owner, and the truck was retired with 30-40k miles on it. I couldn't find a used transmission so I had first gear made. It was a big job to get the transmission out and press off the gears in front of the bad one, then rivet the new one on and press on the front gears. I got a lot of help from my friends.