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Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Alameda has a fair number of International Harvester vehicles (we had a Favorite DOTS IHC poll with the last one , and the 1948 KB-2 pickup won), most of which seem to get regular driving time. Today we're going to check out a no-frills truck that's eager for the collapse of civilization, at which point it will become more valuable than all the Rolls-Royces and Lamborghinis in the state put together. Most of the time, when I see a jacked-up 4x4 with big mud-slingin' tires in a context as distinctly urban as this, it strikes me as a silly vehicle. Not so with an International Harvester! This Scout might not be a '72, but the grille is a '72. No doubt some parts have been swapped here or there, so there's no telling at a glance. If it is a '72, the available engines were a (non-AMC) 304 V8 and a 196-cube four-cylinder. Base...
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Welcome to Down On The Street, where we look at old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Another Truck Monday has rolled around, which means we can contemplate work vehicles as we descend into the salt mine for the day's tasks, and this week's DOTS truck is another example of farm equipment maker International Harvester's road machinery. It's been a couple months since our last Scout in this series, and this is the oldest one I've managed to find on the island so far. In '72, you could get your Scout II with a 196-cube four-cylinder engine (that's 3.2 liters, for you fans of the metric system and/or really big four-bangers) or a 304-cubic-inch V8. No, that's not an AMC engine- genuine farm equipment here! Breakers breakers, any takers? It's been a while since CB radios were relevant; whatever vestige of CB that the cellphone didn't kill, cheap and powerful FMS/GMRS radios finished off. Still, a...
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PaulN continues to send in photos of interesting machinery he's found in Eugene, Oregon, and today we're going to look at a "Suzuki Jeep," otherwise known as a Suzuki LJ . I've never seen one of these in my life, but apparently some were sold in North America back in the day. Make the jump to read Paul's description and check out his indestructible '66 Ford truck. galleryPost('DOTSBESuzukiLJ80', 8, 'Suzuki LJ80 Down On The Oregon Street'); I saw it twice in as many days; the second time I went and got my camera. Looks like a former Air Force truck (Dept. of Defense sticker 1979), maybe from a base in the Pacific somewhere. With those big 16" wheels and tires, it looks just like a cute little toy. I want it. Paul has also sent in some nice shots of his personal '66 Ford pickup: I washed the old Ford for the first time in five years (with a pot-scrubber), and thought I'd send you some pics. I bought this cast-iron beast 21 years ago...
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I probably shouldn't have tried to write a DOTS post a couple hours after coming home from a crazy weekend of racing, but I did... and totally spaced on the Truck Monday tradition. Not that the Datsun 1200 isn't a great car, but we're supposed to have a truck here to start our week, dammit! To make up for that screwup, I'm going with a truck I've been saving for a special occasion: a rusty, crusty survivor straight from the Alaskan bush! You don't see a lot of Alaskan plates in Alameda (Hawaiian ones used to be fairly common, with the huge Navy base on the island and many sailors bringing cars from the islands); this truck seems to have become a permanent resident, so we'll probably see boring ol' California plates on it one of these days. I like to imagine this thing grinding down some icy dirt road with a bunch of tools rattling in the back. I'm not sure whether "Scout II Traveler," "Scout Traveler," or just "Traveler"...
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We've seen an early Bronco in this series, so it's only fair that we have a DOTS Truck Monday featuring the Bronco's competitor from The General. This '71 Blazer parks on one of Alameda's major thoroughfares, not far from the Unimog and the '63 VW Transporter , and it's clearly someone's daily driver. I can't tell for sure whether this is an incredibly well-preserved original driver or a restoration, but I suspect the former is the case. Well, most likely the upholstery has been redone; there's no way it could be that nice after 37 years in the California sun. You see, a late-60s-vintage Oakland A's sticker means the vehicle is likely an Alameda native, which means there's a good chance its owner takes obsessive care of a vehicle bought new and considered irreplaceable. They don't make 'em like this no more , etc. The A's connection is somewhat interesting in the case of this truck, because the favored post-game watering hole for...
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You think Kitt and her trusty canine sidekick have given up looking for cool old cars in their Denver neighborhood? No way! After the big-block El Camino last week, we're getting a Toyota Land Cruiser that's still in service as a painter's work truck. I've given up trying to guess the years on these things, especially when they've been modified, though the side marker lights may indicate a late-60s/early-70s model here. Make the jump for an additional gallery. galleryPost('DOTSBEDenverLandCruiserTop', 6, 'Land Cruiser Still On The Job In Denver Part 1'); galleryPost('DOTSBEDenverLandCruiserJump', 26, 'Land Cruiser Still On The Job In Denver Part 2');
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We've only seen two trucks from our favorite farm equipment maker so far in this series (the '48 KB-2 and the '80 Scout ), but those aren't the only International Harvesters on the island. Here's a '76 Scout II (equipped with a warlord-style camouflage paint job) that I spotted in the same East End neighborhood as the '84 Plymouth Reliant . Though the overall look of this truck is incongruous in a neighborhood full of crypto-Mission style turn-of-the-century bungalows, but wait until the Final Days are upon us and the atomic fire rains from the skies! Then this Scout will be full of freeze-dried food and ammo, headed at top speed for the compound in the mountains and leaving the rest of us to fight over charred rat carcasses in the rubble. And what better soundtrack for that drive to the compound than a little Bad Religion? Or maybe it's just an especially menacing commuter vehicle with single-digit gas mileage. galleryPost('DOTS76IHCScout', 14, '1976...
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What year Bronco are we looking at here? Well, there's a 302 emblem, and dual fuel tanks, and a blacked-out grille... but these clues don't mean a whole lot when they're on a vehicle that's probably had more than 50% of its components swapped from other trucks during its lifetime. 1970? 1975? You tell us! Kitt has added another well-traveled old truck to our collection of Down On The Denver Street entries; now we've got a Rampage , an IH Travelall , a Dodge Camper Special , and a Cherokee. Make the jump for more photos. galleryPost('DOTSBEDenverBroncoTop', 21, 'Bronco Down On The Denver Street Part 1'); galleryPost('DOTSBEDenverBroncoJump', 6, 'Bronco Down On The Denver Street Part 2');
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Because not even a burned and wrecked 80s Ferrari can compete with a burned 70-year-old car mentioned by name in a Robert Johnson song, the '38 Hudson Terraplane ran away with the victory in yesterday's Choose Your Eternity Poll . Today we're going to skip the common theme tying the two PCH contestants together and return to that perennial battle between two of the globe's contenders for the Hell Machine Crown: Italy and Great Britain. Here we have two mighty PCH superpowers, each vying to put one of its products in your garage... and France is waiting to take on the winner tomorrow! How did it come to this? We've gone over a month since our last Alfa Romeo in this series. That's like having a hockey team with no Canadians! That's why we're going to skip the frivolous sporty convertible Alfas and go right for the no-nonsense four-door sedan, with this 1974 Alfa Romeo 2000 Berlina . It's got a Buy It Now of just $2,000, it runs and drives, and it's...
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Even though we saw a Dodge truck just a couple weeks back , it's been much longer since we saw our last Dodge pickup . That means it's time for us to feast our eyes on this industrial-strength Power Wagon. The grille design means it's either a '70 or a '71, but once again I'm (mildly) ashamed to admit I can't figure out the exact year of a DOTS vehicle. Power Wagon experts, fill in the blanks! In any case, this is one of the last of the original American Power Wagons. What a name: Power Wagon! Too bad there's no reactor in the bed, because then it could be the Nuclear Power Wagon. This truck lives on the island's East End, in a parking-challenged neighborhood, and it's clearly someone's daily driver. Must be fun parallel-parking this brute! Sure, it gets 8 MPG and the ride feels like a shopping cart in a rock quarry, but the driver of this truck can snort in derision at drivers of luxurious modern pickups. galleryPost('DOTS70PowerWagon'...
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