1966 Scout 800 Sport Top
Tell us about your Scout:
While living in NW Florida following high school, I was looking for a 4wd jeep when I ran across a classified ad in the NW Florida Daily News for a 1966 Scout located near Destin. At the time, I knew nothing about Scouts or IH. Drove out to look at it, and ended up bringing this IH home with me. It ran a little rough and had some rust as you would expect from a 18 year old vehicle used to run the Florida beaches by a couple who lived most of the year in Montgomery, Alabama. They were the original owners, and the Scout had all of around 17,000 miles on it when I bought it. I've owned it continuosly since buying it in August 1984.
When not attending the local junior college part-time or working part-time, a large part of my time was spent buying old cars, fixing them up and painting them, then reselling them to fund another project. So I got to work tearing the old Scout down and fixing the rust along with what little mechanical work it needed. In general, it just looked like hell but ran great. This Sport Top still had all the original factory special trim pieces that came with the Sport Top package. Amazingly, this stupid 20 year old threw nothing away but the front seats (rusted out springs and general poor condition), the original rear ashtrays (badly rusted), and the rear seat storage pocket for the pull-out side windows. Should not have thrown any of that away.
It took about 6 months to get it all fixed up with my dad's help welding in rust patches. I did the body work, paint, any mechanical repairs, and found a couple of old pull-off seats at a local thrift store (still in use in the Scout today). I tried to match the original color using paint chips at the local NAPA, but accidently picked a turquoise blue metallic which was not the original color. Many years later when I found out about line tickets, I discovered the original factory color was Bahama Blue. That color was one of the best mistakes I ever made, as the truck has received compliments on this color for the past 40 years.
I wheeled this old Scout all over the Eglin AFB reservation before driving it across country for college at New Mexico Tech in Socorro, New Mexico in the summer of 1986. Then I drove it up to NW Montana for a summer job at the Troy Mine near Libby, Montana in the summer of 1988. I rolled her on her side just outide of the Cabinet Wilderness near Libby that summer, but a local dude helped me pull her back on her feet and she started right up. The old Scout carried the scars of that roll-over and some bent rocker panels from wheeling across New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado until I finally got around to another round of body work and paint in 2018. What took 6 months in 1984 turned into a three year project from 2018 to 2021, but it came out looking pretty good.
She now has about 78,000 miles on the odometer, but still runs great. I don't take it wheeling any more, but I have driven it under its own power to IH rendezvous as far Wickenberg, AZ and Gunnison, CO. These things have too much dignity to ride on top of a car hauler across the country.
And back to the turquoise and white color scheme: if it is true that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery", I am feeling very flattered. Since bringing her to car shows after finishing this last paint refresh in 2021, I have seen an explosion of similar colored Scout 80/800s across the internet!
When not attending the local junior college part-time or working part-time, a large part of my time was spent buying old cars, fixing them up and painting them, then reselling them to fund another project. So I got to work tearing the old Scout down and fixing the rust along with what little mechanical work it needed. In general, it just looked like hell but ran great. This Sport Top still had all the original factory special trim pieces that came with the Sport Top package. Amazingly, this stupid 20 year old threw nothing away but the front seats (rusted out springs and general poor condition), the original rear ashtrays (badly rusted), and the rear seat storage pocket for the pull-out side windows. Should not have thrown any of that away.
It took about 6 months to get it all fixed up with my dad's help welding in rust patches. I did the body work, paint, any mechanical repairs, and found a couple of old pull-off seats at a local thrift store (still in use in the Scout today). I tried to match the original color using paint chips at the local NAPA, but accidently picked a turquoise blue metallic which was not the original color. Many years later when I found out about line tickets, I discovered the original factory color was Bahama Blue. That color was one of the best mistakes I ever made, as the truck has received compliments on this color for the past 40 years.
I wheeled this old Scout all over the Eglin AFB reservation before driving it across country for college at New Mexico Tech in Socorro, New Mexico in the summer of 1986. Then I drove it up to NW Montana for a summer job at the Troy Mine near Libby, Montana in the summer of 1988. I rolled her on her side just outide of the Cabinet Wilderness near Libby that summer, but a local dude helped me pull her back on her feet and she started right up. The old Scout carried the scars of that roll-over and some bent rocker panels from wheeling across New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado until I finally got around to another round of body work and paint in 2018. What took 6 months in 1984 turned into a three year project from 2018 to 2021, but it came out looking pretty good.
She now has about 78,000 miles on the odometer, but still runs great. I don't take it wheeling any more, but I have driven it under its own power to IH rendezvous as far Wickenberg, AZ and Gunnison, CO. These things have too much dignity to ride on top of a car hauler across the country.
And back to the turquoise and white color scheme: if it is true that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery", I am feeling very flattered. Since bringing her to car shows after finishing this last paint refresh in 2021, I have seen an explosion of similar colored Scout 80/800s across the internet!
