I have no idea why there are at least three International Harvester Loadstars around town. I featured this one in my last DOTS but it was dark and rainy at the time.
The top shot is actually a recreation of a photo I took of another Loadstar that turned out very well. The two others can be found in the DOTS below. When you compared them, you can see the red one above actually has a weird panel screwed down on the hood where there should be bare sheet metal. Also of interest is the fact that all three are stake side flatbeds.
The IH I saw was in much better shape than the others. The sun damaged red paint needs to be redone but it was in overall excellent condition. Just look at those amazing color matched wheels!
It is a rather space efficient design for a conventional non cabover truck, much less one so old in design. You have to wonder how restricted the engine bay is with that short hood.
The interior is actually the nicest I’ve seen in an antique commercial vehicle. The leather or vinyl (?) bench is a striking shade of red with some interesting design embossed on it, a nice touch. I like the color matched glove box.
This generation of Suburban is one of my favorite GM trucks. There is just something so right about them. I can’t say the running board is really my style though.
They are big vehicles. Very large indeed. But if you were to place this next to a modern Escalade, it would almost look small.
Nice little Datsun. It’s got the 5mph impact bumpers unfortunately. Great color though and no visible rust!
A sneaky Wagoneer. Those vinyl wood appliques really don’t weather the sun very well.
Many many Mercs! There is a German specialist place that mostly concentrates on W123s, almost all of the diesels. The guy I spoke to also says he does lots of air cooled VWs but hasn’t had one in the shop for a while.
He seemed very proud of this beautiful yellow diesel coupe he had purchased. The perfect MB Tex interior isn’t too unusual but the exterior was very clean.
That’s a wrap! Which leaves me with one question:
“Which one of these cars would you drive home in?”
I would take the little blue Datsun and hope and pray it isn’t half bondo and half rust.