In 2009 I was fortunate to get the 1920 International truck. As I was looking at the pictures of the old IHC trucks I liked the old high wheel Auto Wagon. I started to look at the ones that were for sale. Two trucks were available near me. Both trucks were unrestored. One very original and one mostly original. When I finally got the price on one of them, I thought the original one was out of my range. and I bought the less expensive one. 

You really dont know what you are getting when you buy an antique auto especially one that doesnt drive or even run. You have to be prepared to deal with the issues that come with it. I got very little information from the owner on this one. I doubt if he even knew some of the problems with it. As you see from the pictures below the engine and transmission had not been disassembled or even cleaned before I got it.  Mechanically it was barn fresh.

The engine turned over but the jack shaft was stuck. It looks like someone was towing it to start it. The grease in the jack shaft bearings had dried up. The shaft galled and stuck very hard. The chain broke on the right side and was lost. The woodruff key on the left side sheared off. I tried to turn the sprocket with a strap wrench. I ended up taking the shaft out and pulling the bearings off with gear pullers. I took some parts to a friends house and used a press to separate them. I took the large bearing on the right side to be rebushed. The machinist ended up reaming the bearing out. When I put it all back together I found that the 4 foot jack shaft was bent. I bought a new steel shaft and had a new jackshaft machined.

The clutch handle and shift lever would not move. I found that there was rust on the throwout shaft that kept the clutch from moving. When I removed the rust from the collar the clutch and shift lever worked OK. The spark and throttle rods on the steering column were rusted together. The previous owner broke off the spark lever trying to move it. I heated it and worked penetrating oil in it and freed it up. I relined the clutch and brake.

I moved the body back on the frame so that I could work on the engine. I took the valves out and ground them. I went through the fuel system and cleaned and sealed the gas tank. I dissassembled the carburator, cleaned it and made new gaskeks for it. I got a new float for the carburator. I mounted a filter bowl under the gas tank. and added a 1/8 ball valve right before the carb

The previous owner had a new radiator made for it and I comnnected up the the hoses. I dropped the pan, cleaned it and cleaned the sight gage. I added oil and Lucas stabilizer. The seat was reupholstered but the leather was pretty dry. I put neatsfoot oil on the leather.

I connected a battery to the buzz coil. I could not get it to work and resistance checks showed that it was open circuited. I bought a Harley Davidson coil and used the points in the magneto to fire it. The engine was not getting good compression. I took one jug off to check the rings. They were not stuck and looked good. I put the jug back on the engine.

I have usually towed vehicles to start them after sitting for years but the drive mechanism is just not robust enough for that. I built a mechanism to turn the engine over. A 1 inch shaft with a 10 inch pneumatic wheel connected to a tractor PTO. The tire was placed under the truck and made contact with the engine flywheel. This temporary starter held together long enough to get the engine running for the first time in probably 55 years. After that I could start the engine by hand with the crank.

The drive chains that came with the truck in 1913 were 3/4 pitch and 5/8 wide. At first I thought sure that I could find some NOS roller chain somewhere. 3/4 pitch chain was standardized many years ago and there just wasn't any of the old 5/8 chain available. I ended up grinding 1/16 inch from each side of the sprockets and buying new Ansi #60 chain.  What a thrill it was to back out of the garage under its own power for the first time in maybe 40 years. I made a hood for the truck and took it to the HES tractor show in Burton July 2011.