Yet another project found me. I wasn’t even looking for a project, but I stumbled across this truck on the interwebs in January of 2013, a 1948 International KB-1. The seller had listed it on Ebay, but it didn’t sell so I negotiated a price with him and had it trucked home. It was originally a Bell Telephone service truck. It was at some point sold to an electrical contractor, thus the “Rodgers Electric” still painted on the passenger door. At some other point in time, the rear end grenaded and the truck was then parked in a field in Arizona for 32 years. The guy who put it up on Ebay drug it out of the field and had got it to run just good enough to drive around the yard, but nowhere near road worthy. He admitted he was in over his head with the project so he decided to pass it on to someone who could finish it. I guess that would be me.
I had to replace every piece of rubber on the truck, as well as rebuild the drivetrain. I rebuilt the original “Greeen Diamond” 214 cubic inch flathead 6 cylinder by finding another complete engine and making a good one out of two. I replaced the clutch, the 3rd member in the rearend, made a wire harness, machined my own kingpins, rebuilt the brakes, replaced all the glass, all the weatherstripping, new upholstery thanks to one of my buddies who does that stuff, new headliner and floormat, and about 47,000 other little miscellaneous nuts, bolts, and parts.
Here are some pics:
One of the interweb pics:
Finally at home in Jan '13: 
Engine rebuild:
That’s not good…
And neither is this…
Stripped:
All cleaned and going back together:
And finally back where it belongs:
On the road again…in a VERY long time…:
The maiden voyage was in October last fall. I only had a few weeks to drive it before I had to put it in winter storage before returning to my ship. I was back home for March and April and had some time to shake it down and fix a few minor issues. I then left again and just got home a few weeks ago. Since then I’ve been pretty much using it as a daily driver. It’s not fast, but you’ll get there.
Here’s a few pics from just using it and some shows/cruise nights I’ve brought it to. At this point I consider it done. I have no plans for any paint or body work, just drive it.
