MiniBuild 19 ~ Shop Travelette

[Damian Grihalva]

Howdee folks. I've gotten a few requests for pictures of my next shop-rig so I thought I'd post it up here.

Some of you remember my old Travelette ~ I sold it roughly 3 years ago when we needed to find a bigger house for our family. It was a great T-ette and I loved driving it. It had a 345, 5-speed, and a massive service bed to match the lift and 37" tires. 4.09 gears did decent on the highway and on the return trip coming home from picking it up, I got an astounding 12mpg without any tuning! Anyway, with its sale, we greatly improved our payments on the house, and well, I've missed it ever since.

I've toyed with buying another one, even thought about trading some work for one up north. The trade didn't work out, but after describing my plans to the owner, he kept it and completed my plans. Needless to say the T-ette looks awesome, truly a gem of an IH that more than holds it's own. A very impressive machine. However, seeing it ~ I've realized that there are allot things I LOVE about it, and some, I'd do differently.

About a year ago, I had the oppertunity to buy a 1969 Travelette from a fellow IHer for $2000. It was a steal, and the owner told me that he'd be really upset if I simply turned around and sold it for more, so I won't. Instead, I'm going to build the Travelette of my dreams.

Lets meet the new t-ette shall we?



Yes, its a 1969 1200 Travelette 2WD. The PO says that the motor has been rebuilt recently, but it developed a transmission problem (old BorgWarner Auto) which led to it eventualy being parked. Besides getting it here on a tow-truck, I honestly haven't even tried to start it.

The inside is the 'royal blue' interior that is in surprising shape. Front seats looks good ~ except for the tears and the bubbly cushion. (no, the carton of sigs isn't mind )


Back seats in fine shape.


Can't complain about the door panels.


Dash looks good too.

[Damian Grihalva]

PLANS

Not sure quite yet. But its either going up or down. Meaning, it'll be lifted slightly or slammed to the ground.

Either way, it's going to become a 1-ton dually. I've already got a Ford HP Dana60 (Dually) for it. The plans were to go with our XLC front link suspension with coil-overs.

As for the bed, I'm torn. I REALLY liked the service bed I had on my last T-ette. Honestly, I know they aren't the greatest of looking things, but man did it function well. Shadowman (a guy on POR) told me once that you never appericiate a service bed till you have one, and he was right. You don't.

Another guy from my Scout club (ROCKY MOUNTAIN BINDERS) showed me a 10 1/2 foot service bed on the back of his 2-Dr IH pickup and I just about had a heartattack! It WAS AWESOME! This rig, being a short-box, would need the frame and wheel base extended to fit.

The other option I have is to convert it to a long-bed. As I'm going to be converting it to a dually, I'll need to make it a DRW bed w/ flares like you see on late-model full-size 1-tons. I have a lead on a stock bed, but IH didn't make a factory dually without making it a flat-bed, so I'll have to come up with a decent way to make it a dually standard long bed. Which I've already got figured out, but not sure about how it'll end up.

Interior will be converted to Autometer gauges and completely gone through. I met a company at the SEMA show in Vegas that makes some really nice seats that, when I saw them, knew that they'd be color-matched to the planned color of this T-ette and have a nice IH logo embroidered into the headrest/backrest. Not sure if I'd simply re-do the rear seat to match or buy a second one for it, but we'll see.

The details of this build will be kept a little quiet as I don't want to surprise you all at once. Don't want any heart-attacks out there. I guess since I've haven't quite made up my mind on the finer points we'll all have to wait and see how this rig turns out in the end.

[reddevil1111]

Damian, I can send you pic's of how that service tub was mini tubbed for the dually axle. The PO also fabbed a big fuel tank and added it to the bed in the front. A real pain to fill up if the truck is loaded but it solved his issues of the old fuel tanks being rotted out. I have seen other fuel tanks used even those from a school bus. Let me know if you want to see the pic's.

[reddevil1111]

FYI...I found a local t-ette. I do have pic's of it as well.
Its a 73 I think...345,5spdw/od factory air,4x4, longbed and its in pretty good shape body wise(the bed is shot) the truck would need a complete frame off to run right and the owner wants 1200.00!
I just learned of a second on that RUNS! 345,auto,4x4 I will look at it soon(only have word of mouth so far on it) but the guy is asking 4k.
Gotta wait and see what happens. I want to kinda do what jetfxer has done to his, just a bit differently. So if you decide on what to do to this t-ette, could you drop me a email or phone call? I might follow up and duplicate a few things your fabbing up. Thanks,Dan

[Damian Grihalva]

Originally Posted by reddevil1111

Damian, I can send you pic's of how that service tub was mini tubbed for the dually axle. ...Let me know if you want to see the pic's.

Ya sure, eh! Not to many of them though. Last time you sent me an email is was like 1 gigabyte!

Originally Posted by reddevil1111

FYI...I found a local t-ette. I do have pic's of it as well. .........345,5spdw/od .........

OH how I'd LOVE a 5-speed OD. I can find the 5-speeds w/ granny's all day, but an OD would allow me to run 5.89s in the axles!

I want to kinda do what jetfxer has done to his, just a bit differently. So if you decide on what to do to this t-ette, could you drop me a email or phone call? I might follow up and duplicate a few things your fabbing up. Thanks,Dan

Exactly. Jetfxer's rig is one SWEET IH, and is what I had planned prior down to the bumpers, but seeing it together ~ and not trying to nit-pick or downplay a terrificly built rig ~ its not EXACTLY what I was going for... Most would be subtle changes ~ others would be bigger. Not sure if I want it that 'high' per say ~ I'm going to be fitting big rims and tires on it, just don't want it to look that lifted but still carry one...I donno, if ya'll can see inside my head, it'd make more sense.

D

[reddevil1111]

I like his bumpers they look cool. I just want mine to be a lot more stout looking. Different yet cool. I am unsure if I would go that high either. The t-ette I looked at today is a 392 auto 1210 4x4 with stepside bed. I am not a big stepside fan. The paint on it was decent from 10 feet but to be nice it would need some small amounts of rust fixed and some different colored paint. It currently reminds me of a jersey cow. I will send pics of the one I sold...and if I can strike a deal Ill show off the new one as well.

[Damian Grihalva]

Originally Posted by reddevil1111

It currently reminds me of a jersey cow.

What do they look like? Torn jeans, bandanas? I'm more familiar with Californian cows. They're happy!

[reddevil1111]

I sent a couple of pic's on the RMB email with some details. Did you get the email and ignore it? It was titled "What would you guys pay?" I try to post pics on here but the high resolution camera I have and my software stupidity just can't properly interface. Feel free to do so if you like Damian.
BTW? If you see the pic's in my post, Is the rear seat stock? I thought all t-ette rear seats folded down flat like t-all's?!

[Damian Grihalva]

Originally Posted by reddevil1111

I sent a couple of pic's on the RMB email with some details. Did you get the email and ignore it? It was titled "What would you guys pay?" I try to post pics on here but the high resolution camera I have and my software stupidity just can't properly interface. Feel free to do so if you like Damian.
BTW? If you see the pic's in my post, Is the rear seat stock? I thought all t-ette rear seats folded down flat like t-all's?!

No I didn't get the pictures, but if you send them too me I can resize them and send them back to you.

My last t-ette the bottom cushion lifted up (on a hinge) to make the space under the seat storage. It did not fold down like the t-all seats. But I could be wrong.

[Jeff Jamison]

The travelette seats(70-75) are just standard pickup seats,same as the front without the carpet/material on the back.Wagonmasters have a seat that looks like a travelall back seat.
Jeff