Winter is gone and Spring has Sprung!

Sorry there has not been posts in such a long time. Shortly after our last post, my husband did fix the steering box but not to his liking. Shortly after that we had a special visitor. Randy's grandpa came to play. Randy's grandpa is a retired war veteran and after the war, he was a mechanic. He loves cars and especially the antiques. So, Grandpa and Grandma, came over for lunch and Grandpa tinkered with the truck with Randy. He was very impressed with it, up until this point he had only seen pictures of it. After tinkering, Grandpa took it for a little ride. The grin on his face was one I will remember forever; pure bliss. Grandpa also gave Randy some advice, we cannot wait to have Grandpa over again, even if it is just for a joyride.

So, we live in Canada, it was a very long and cold winter. Jubee was put into the garage for the winter. A good 7 months she had to sit there. It was also so cold (like -30 to -40 Celsius) that Randy just couldn't get outside to work on the truck.

This past weekend, we finally had some nice weather. Jubee is ready to see the sun and warmth again. She has a new fuel pump now. The difference the fuel pump in starting the truck was awesome. What a difference, She seems to run a lot steadier as well. Next project is the steering box is coming back out again. Randy repaired it at the end of last summer but not to his liking, so he is going to take it out and fix it the way he wants. I am hoping and thinking, that after that, the big mechanical problems are done and we can start on the aesthetics....which at this point is going to be the most costly thing.

The plan for the summer, Randy wants to drive her to and from work. So here is hoping the steering box is repaired and he can do that.

All ready for the Car show........

and the steering box went......

Grrr......

So Jubee was already for her first car show, in our hometown. She was running the best she has ever been and we had numerous visitors throughout the day checking her out. Late the night before the car show, my husband backed her up and moved her in the driveway so it was easy to get out in the morning for the car show. He moved her and as he was driving her back into the driveway, the steering box went.....

Disappointment came across my husband's face, and I instantly felt sad for him, he had worked so hard and my gosh was she sounding beautiful.

He knew exactly when the steering box went and was hoping he could fix it inn time to take it to the show. He worked on it from 830-1030pm that night, but it wasn't coming along for him, even with the neighbours help. 

It was really disappointing Jubee didn't make it to her first car show, but we went later on in the day to check out the car show anyways. There were over 230 cars there, and our poor Jubee would have been the only one without a beautiful paint job (yet). However, a lot of people told us that it doesn't matter just to bring it anyways. If she made it she would have been the only International pickup truck there.

As I type my husband is working on the steering box, here is hoping it is not as bad as the gas tank.....but it won't be......because my husband is an awesome mechanic.

Gas tank installed

Gas Tank is installed....
It has literally been months of gas tank troubles. From it being completely rotten, to finding a replacement. When a replacement could not be found for it, we decided to reach out to our metal fabricating friends and see if they could help us out. Did they ever!!! The skills of our friend Aris were nothing less than exceptional. He built us a beautiful gas tank based off of the original. Who knew one could get so excited over a gas tank. But really it is exciting. My husband then rubberized it to protect it and help it last longer so the gas tank is not an issue again. Gas tanks are not a nice thing to replace and my husband does not enjoy replacing them.
So after rubberizing it, he mounted it back in it's original position and hooked it all back up. Gas is now in the tank.
Jubee has been sitting outside for the last week getting a little sun and a LOT of attention. People have been stopping by to look at her and talk about her. Not many people are familiar with the International Harvesters but we have met two gentleman who have a passion for them. They were a real joy to talk to.
With the new gas tank installed, and her motor running, we are going to bring Jubee to a local car show and show her off. She doesn't look pretty yet, but she runs and being a Golden jubilee edition she deserves a little attention. The kids in the neighbourhood still think we have Mater in our garage, so maybe we can make it look like him for the car show, but I doubt my husband will allow this.
I have included pictures of the fabricated gas tank we had built. It is a beauty for those of you who can appreciate how hard it was to find one, then to have to have one made.

Gas tank problems finally solved!!!

We have finally been graced with some half decent weather, saying this I mean, it's not freezing cold, and we can actually get outside and enjoy some sunlight. The last couple of weekends have been nice, so we got the truck (Jubee) out to see some sun. Well, apparently, that was just what she needed. She sat out in the sun, of course drawing people into our driveway to come have a look and ask questions. But after several hours, my hubby tried to start her up, and boy did she roar! I think she was tired of the frigid winter we had and was happy to see the sun.
With all the people stopping in or driving by slowly, not a lot got done on her, besides her being admired. Which we are okay with as we plan our next steps. The children in the neighbourhood all think we still have Mater in our garage and love to come by and look. It's cute, on a side note, Mater from the movie is actually based on the 1951 International pickup model, so the kids are kind of right with respects to the looks.
Thankfully, our gas tank problems are finally over. We have some friends who are metal fabricators, and we asked them if they could give us a hand with this troublesome gas tank. They are going too. We sent the gas tank to their shop and hopefully we will have a new gas tank for her soon. Finding one to replace it was very difficult because we wanted to remain as original as possible. To get anything shipped to us was well over $500 so this turned into a great option for them to fabricate the same gas tank.
We are always looking for more information on the Golden Jubilee and it is hard to come by. But the more we do find and the more we learn the more excited we get and finish the truck up.

It's been a long winter.....

Well, it certainly has been awhile since I have last posted on the blog. With winter it is very difficult to get out and work on Jubee. We have had a really cold bitter winter, with lots of snow, so our time is spent snow shovelling. However, I am happy to say that over the holidays we got to see Grandpa. Grandpa told me that he read our blog and thoroughly enjoyed it. Grandpa is my husband's grandpa, he use to be a mechanic, and I think he is falling in love with our Jubee just like we did. My husband will ask Grandpa for advice on Jubee as he is more familiar with the mechanics of them, how lucky are we to have Grandpa!?!
Anyway, my husband went to start up Jubee, and unfortunately she will not start now. Most likely because she has been in the garage all winter and frankly it is bitterly cold out. With temperatures ranging from 0 to -35, she is not a happy camper. So no big deal we will warm Jubee up and try to get her running again.
Meanwhile, we are still with the gas tank dilemmas, still trying to find a way to do the gas tank, to keep it as original as possible without breaking the bank.
I was online tonight and found some beautiful mirrors, but they were round and the ones on Jubee are rectangle.....so the research began, which is original? Well I am certain that when Jubee was manufactured she did not have any mirrors. So I think we can choose to have mirrors or not, and if we do have mirrors I am voting for the round mirrors, purely because I like them better. But maybe this is something Grandpa can decide.....

So Grandpa P, after reading this, let me know if you think Jubee should have mirrors and if so, shall they be round or rectangle?

Gas Tank Problems still...

Well, the gas tank continues to be an ongoing problem. We had a friend take the old one to make us a new one, and unfortunately that did not pan out. We have been quoted to have the original gas tank fixed at on average about $500. So, needless to say fixing the old one is not an option at this point. A new one is what we are looking for, either one that will fit, or one that we can have made. So the search continues.....

Jubee is being a difficuly old gal

Since getting it running and moving, Randy wanted to tweak the motor a bit to get the truck running better. Since adjusting it and playing with it, she will not stay running now, so back to stage one of getting it going again. He also removed the gas tank as currently we had to run the truck off of either a marine gas tank or a gas can. Pulling the gas tank, we learned why we could not run the truck from the gas tank. It is ROTTEN!
The gas tank is original, so it is rotten, falling apart and full of crap. If you have ever smelled old rotten gas, it is a smell unfortunately you cannot forget. It is so strong and terrible. Anyhow, finding out we needed to put a new gas tank on the truck, several phone calls were made and we cannot get one for this truck. Luckily, Randy has friends in all sorts of places and a welder friend of his has offered to weld us one. The tank itself is pretty much rectangular shaped, so it should be easy enough, and my husband being the great mechanic he is, will be able to figure out how to mount it and get a spout for it so it can be put back in like original.
Since dropping the gas tank, in the spout hole, we found the inside was full of a mouse nest. It was rather large but nothing a shop vac cannot solve.
Jubee has been out getting some sun the last week, which draws people into the driveway to come see her. It is nice except it feels like someone is always over. We noticed on our truck that it has a head ornament that we have never seen in any other pictures of the international trucks. We had a local gentleman drop by, who he himself owns two classic cars, we asked him about the hood ornament. The ornament seems to fit so well with the hood design we assumed it was original, this gentleman had a look at it and told us it is for a Chevy vehicle. We immediately started to worry if the hood was then original or a Chevy hood, just how perfect the ornament fit. We went back online and it appears it is original hood.
Randy and I also attended a local car show to get some ideas and see if there were any other International trucks there. There were none. It made me want to get this truck running again so we can bring it to the car shows and have people look at her, although she is not painted.
So for now, the goal is to get her back running, and hopefully make one car show this year.