What? We Don't Show Enough Scouts?

hinking of minting a Scout? No? Well, Dooley Pula of La Mesa, California, has a ’62 International Scout that will make you want to build one. Capable in intensely off-roadish situations, Dooley’s Scout has rock stamping as money making down to such a science that he could create his own coin mint. Capitalizing on the Scout’s larger-than-Jeep but smaller-than-fullsize dimensions, this Scout was able to traverse one of the notoriously narrow trails—Panamint Valley’s Surprise Canyon.

Cashin’ in on 4x4 power, the Scout engages a stock exchange ’76 IH V-8 engine with a 345 displacement, headers, and dual alternators. The 345 is backed by a ’75 T19 tranny and a ’75 Dana 20 case with a divorced NP205 to create a poor man’s dual T-case setup. A wealth of suspension modifications makes the vehicle capable and flexible. A spring-over with Chevy springs articulates the Dana 44 front axle. An additional 3 inches of body lift allow the Scout to spaciously stuff 35-inch Boggers. The key suspension modifications include scissor shackles in the rear and pivoting front shackles. All of these modifications would make stock market traders stop their sign-language lingo to watch it crawl up the rocks. You might think that you would have to be a lucky Vegas gambler to put together a project like this, but the kicker is that Dooley picked up the ’68 for $400. Of course that does not include any technical finesse or innumerable and costly parts and additions that might kill most of our pocket books.

Dooley’s project Scout has been on the road for about seven years, and he says that you should “be prepared to spent a lot more money than you figured, and you can’t put a time limit on it [the project].” He continues to make modifications on the Scout and test those mods on extreme trails. What that means is that although Dooley’s Scout is the color of money, it doesn’t mean that you’ll be waving goodbye to excessive amounts of yours if you wanted to build something like it. However, he says, “You’re going to spent a lot of time in the garage. So live near a taco shop, and be patient, especially with the complaining neighbors.”