I think its safe to say we have a bit of Scoutmania right now here at the Autopian. Especially our Editor-In-Cheese David, who was actually at the event, saw the pre-production cars, and even plopped down his own cash as a deposit on one! He’s smitten, and his enthusiasm seems to be infectious, just like his pink eye was a couple months ago. I’m not immune to either Scoutmania or pink eye, so I’d like to take a moment to remind you that the original Scout had some incredible examples of the sorts of cars we call Glorious Garbage.
International Harvester, as its name suggests, wasn’t really a carmaker, even though they did make cars. Well, trucks and SUVs, but still, you get what I mean. Their core business was agricultural machines like tractors and combines and that sort of thing. So they weren’t always the most adept at selling and marketing cars, and sometimes their attempts lead to some strange, half-assed and desperate solutions. Like the Shawnee Scout.
And, yes, Shawnee in the name refers to the Shawnee Native American tribe, and yes those are tomahawks and feathers on the rear quarter graphics, and yes it’s the most crude sort of stereotyping and appropriating and commoditizing of a people as you can imagine. It was the ’70s, nobody was particularly thoughtful about this sort of thing. That’s not to excuse anything, but just to give context.
The Shawnee Scout was the result of International Harvester realizing in the late ’70s that things could be going better, so they got an ex-AMC bigwig, Jim Bostic, to help them out. Bostic was smart enough to realize that it was unlikely IH would be able to sell a bunch more Scouts, so instead they needed to make the Scouts they did sell higher-margin things. Less basic, farm-spec Scouts, more high-profit Scouts, whatever they are.
Bostic’s idea of a more appealing, higher-profit Scout seems to have come about in part from what was likely his work at AMC with Hurst, where they partnered to make the popular SC/Rambler special edition fast rambler.
Hurst stepped up again with the Shawnee Scout, though this time there weren’t really any notable performance enhancements, just some mildly questionable body modifications.
What’s amazing about the Shawnee Scout was how much of the Scout II metal was removed and replaced with a combination of plastic and air. Here’s what the big modifications were for the Shawnee Scout, according to the text on the back of a press photo:
“Shawnee Scout” was developed in cooperation with Hurst Performance Products as unique high style street and off road performance four-wheel drive vehicle. The two-passenger Shawnee Scout has a distinctive targa-styled roof with integral roll bar and removable roof panel. The rear storage area is protected by a lockable tilt-up molded tonneau cover.
The Shawnee Scout in some ways seems like an experiment in how leaky Hurst could make a Scout II. The roof is replaced with a targa-style hoop and removable panel that almost definitely would leak, the doors, most comically, were replaced by these fiberglass inserts that allowed the use of flimsy canvas Jeep-style doors, also prolific leakers, and the rear of the car, freed of any seats, now had the truck bed area covered by a plastic hinged tonneau cover that I suspect, if given the right amount of rain and a chance, leaked too.
The whole thing is pretty fun, I have to admit, and as ridiculous as I find those inserts that allow for decent doors to be easily replaced with crappy doors, I kind of love them, too. The changes all do allow the Scout II to become as open and bare as any Jeep CJ of the era, and it does seem like this could have been a flashy something to get people to remember the Scout exists.
The predicted cost for the Shawnee Scout Package would have come to about the equivalent $15,000 in today’s money, though, kind of a hard sell as it also significantly impedes the utility of the Scout, if you make the grave error of looking at it rationally.
In the end, only three were ever built, two of which are known to still exist today, and you can see one of them in this, holy crap, hour-long talk about them:
I’m not sure a three-off really counts as Glorious Garbage because I usually like to say that to qualify for this important honor, it needs to be a production car, but what the hell, I’m feeling magnamous.
In that same sense of magnanimity, I’ll loosen up the Glorious Garbage gates and tell you about some special edition Scouts made by an outside company instead of the OEM: CVI.
CVI, or Custom Vehicles Incorporated, a company that seems to have come from another company tellingly named Good Times, Inc, made what appears to be a bewildering variety of special-edition Scouts. Part of why they got into this business may have to do with their location, which was right by the IH factory in Fort Wayne, Indiana. They were almost all just decal-and-paint kits with a variety of stick-on plastic things, sometimes including center-console coolers, = but they were undeniably fun.
Take the Hot Stuff edition, for example. Vivid red paint, lots of hot-color stripes, a blacked-out hood, and $6 worth of 2x4s acting as wooden bed rails. Silly, sure, but, again, fun.
There was also one called the Shadow, and another one almost indistinguishable called the Raven, and these were imposing black-painted Scouts with silver stripes and, most excitingly, some of the biggest window louvers I’ve ever seen. Look at those things, covering the whole long rear quarter windows!
Also, that model has to be the least well-paired with that car of almost any press or brochure photo I’ve ever seen. A suburban mom with a Dorthy Hamill haircut just isn’t what I’d expect the target market of a murdered-out black SUV to be, but what do I know? Am I a late-’70s/early ’80s midwest focus group market analyst? Not even close. At least not yet.
Okay, one more of these, and I saved the most bonkers one for last. CVI wasn’t the only company out there making special edition Scouts – a company called Midas Van Conversion made a bunch, too, and they would sometimes do small runs for special clients. Clients like the most famous ginger ale maker, Canada Dry.
I’ve seen different numbers for how many of these were made in 1979, but it seems around 20. These had Canada Dry livery, with ginger-ale colored stripes over a forest green base, with the Canada Dry shield logo on the rear quarters. Were these used by the company? Were they sold to hardcore ginger ale and tonic water freaks? I’m honestly not sure.
Midas also made a lot of Scouts that were all sorta-luxuried out, with wildly thick shag carpet that would swallow your feet up to the ankles, and more coarse-tecxtured plaid couch fabric than a thousand church rec rooms. Also, check out the twin pop-up roof windows! And, even better, this astounding installation of a digital clock:
Just look at that thing: the angled VFD numerals, all the buttons, the thick fabric it’s encased in, the olive-quilted panel above it – wow.
There’s extra glory in this garbage, my friends, and I hope you can all really drink it in.
From what I could find, the International Scout SSII did exist, and also had those door inserts and other stuff. And I think more were produced.
It’s like, how much more 70s could these Scouts be? And the answer is none. None more 70s.
Ginger ale based special editions are amazing and every automobile should offer one.
Vernor’s edition cars tied to Chrysler’s “Imported from Detroit” era really could have worked.
All those special edition and plaid ones are so awesome. We used to have color and FUN. Somewhere along the way something went very wrong. Why do we have to live in this drab day and age? Bring back color and FUN!
The youth pastor at the church I used to go when I was a teenager (mid to late 70’s) was a salesman at the local IH dealer. He used to drive a different Scout just about every month. I can’t name them, but he had some really wild tape and paint versions right before they stopped selling Scouts.
Do you guys also read Collectible Automobile? I ask because I’m reading the Dec issue and there’s Richard Nesbitt writing about being involved with CVI and the Hot Stuff model (sans pix, so thanks!). No matter, great fun again with Glorious Garbage!
The window louvers on that Shadow and Raven (hereinafter referred to as the “ShaVen”) remind me not only that this was the heyday of all these trim packages but that the concept of “Scared Straight” debuted during the Scout II’s run. And nothing would drive home those kind of lessons better than a ride home from detention in the jail-like back seat of Dad’s ShaVen.
I am always amazed by the amount of people offended by the theft of Native American culture especially when I go into an Indian Casino and it is filled with all kinds of Indian artwork made in China.
The wheels on the Hot Stuff edition are awesome! If the new scouts don’t have decal packages it’s a real missed opportunity!
I thought the same thing. Red pockets on the wheels and the raised white letter BFGs. Love it! The rest of it… well… the striping can stay but I think I’d have to peel the ‘Hot Stuff’ label off the doors.
Not only is the digital clock enveloped in dyno-mite vomit flecked upholstery, it has 2 olive upholstery tacks for…. decoration?
The stupid olive tacks are actually the screw covers for the clock.
It does look like total crap though. I bet I installed 1K of these clocks in vans and everything else back then.
This could have been done a whole lot better though.
Two things.
“Shawnee” was obviously a riff on Jeep’s Cherokee, which was branded on just about every Jeep back then.
Also, I AM DIGITAR, ALL-BEING MASTER OF SPACE AND TIME, FIDDLE WITH MY MANY BUTTONS AND SWITCHES AND DIALS!
Holy crap, one of our neighbors in the 80s had a Hot Stuff edition. I had no idea it was actually made by someone, as my dad and I just assumed it was some goofy stickers he stuck on the side of the thing for…reasons? It looked like a real-life Matchbox car, for better or worse. The show bar didn’t look bad with the half-cab, but the wood bed rails looked 100% home-made (in a bad way). For some reason, knowing our neighbor paid someone for all that nonsense instead of doing it himself makes it even worse, but I’m not sure why.
that Canada Dry edition Scout better be in my future
They all look like Stompers toys, and I mean that in the best possible way.
I’m not sure what contributed more to my misanthropy from an early age: psychopath father or design of the ’70s. I really think it’s the latter as I knew nobody with taste, who had old stuff that didn’t suck until my misanthropy was already established, so I grew up immersed in a constant smog of visual pollution. I can see why this is kitschy fun in isolation today, but not when it’s the only thing you know. My circle of hell will be decorated like the ’70s.
That went sideways quickly. Lol
C’mon man, it isn’t all really that bad, is it? 🙁
It was worse. European cars were the only bright spot, but I never saw them and didn’t know about them at the time, I just saw everything around me draped in fake wood, once cool American cars turned into oversized and overweight gothic nightmares, dull golds, puke greens, old-puke yellows to blend in with the cigarette stains on everything, filthy shag carpets that a 1″ square sample from would keep a crime lab busy for decades, and the smell of cigarettes and weed and stuff I don’t want to think about. That doesn’t even get into the food or the fashion. Even the people who didn’t live through it or who are victims of nostalgia and who like some of the ’70s style are likely picturing what they see in movies or TV (same with the ’80s), but as bad as that stuff was, it isn’t what the average person saw, wasn’t how normal places were decorated—those spaces were worse. But the relentless, hellish assault didn’t stop at the nose or eyes, it continued against the ears. With a short handful of exceptions (most of which were bands that formed in the ’60s), the music was utter shit, too from disco to WT rock (think “The Boys are Back in Town” type of stuff) to wuss rock inexplicably thought of as hard (KISS) to whatever the hell that folk-country-rock blend of horseshit there was that I am thankful not to hear anymore and am currently doing my best Ghostbusters’ choosing-the-form-of my-destructor strategy by purging thoughts from my mind so as to not be able to come up with an example that will run through my head for the next three days like airborne flu. Shit, I still managed to get that damn “Rock and Roll all Night” POS song stuck in my head!
I was there too as a kid, and I hear where you are coming from. I hope it gets better the further it recedes in your rear-view my friend! 🙂
The rant is more for questionable comedic effect. I’m not bothered by it in the least, but I’m glad it’s in the past. If anything, it made me better appreciate the things I like.
This is early ’70s energy in the late ’70s and I love it. The Hot Stuff is very apparent in it’s aping of the Dodge Little Red Express with the exposed wood, red and yellow striping, and colour coded turbine wheels. Meanwhile the Raven and Shadow were supposed to be takes on the Chevrolet/GMC G10 Custom and Dodge Tradesman Street Van. And the Midas Scout Traveler… I can hear the Steve Miller Band and smell the mould and cigarette smoke from here.
Interestingly the digital clocks offered in those Midas Scout II’s, Travelers and Teras were made not far from where I currently live. Not sure what they had for a building there at the time but where that address would have been located is now a shopping center, with a grocery store in case you want to pick up some ginger ale.
This wasn’t IH being desparate as these were all done by outside companies, who drove all the choices of modifications, names ect. Yes you could order them through your local Scout II dealer but you could also order them conversion van places that sold the other Midas and Good Times vans.
Now look up some real IH designed and produced Doll-Up Scouts.
Forgot to mention that the Midas Traveler was available as the first 7 passenger “compact” SUV.
I’m wondering if the Canada Dry thing was for a giveaway contest of some sort, like those Schweppes Edition BCW Ascots (Chevette based MGTD replicas) that were done in the ’80s
All of these special editions look like they were designed by folks that spent their youth indoors playing with Colorforms while normal kids were outside playing in the dirt and building up healthy immune systems. Perhaps, even immunity to these kinds of vehicular graffiti, which might account for the low production numbers. I do kinda like the Canada Dry version, but don’t let that get out.
There are a lot of Midas Survivors out there and a few of the CVIs.
Welp, I know how I’m wrapping my Scout when it comes out Canada Dry here we come!
You know, if the new Scout revived some of these graphic treatments there would be NOBODY confusing it with a Rivian. Not to mention plaid seats and headliner. Just sayin’
I suspect “right amount of rain” was ANY rain, and probably morning dew, when it came to that tonneau cover leaking. Certainly my great-uncle’s regular Scout had great difficulty keeping water on the outside, even with proper doors, windows, and a roof. All of which leaked.
Given the propensity of Scouts to be absolute world-champion rot-boxes, I am surprised Dave Tracy has only just now discovered the brand. Perhaps they can make a Rust Edition of the new one just for him?
My great-uncle actually loved that Scout (the only NEW vehicle he ever bought) so much he spent some absolutely stupid amount of money (family rumor is six-figures) having it restored to a level of perfection the factory never, ever achieved after he retired. Still has it, never leaves his barn other than on the very nicest of days. I suspect it still would leak in the rain.
What’s the cutoff point between leak and flood, ‘cause I’m thinking some of these Scouts came pretty close to allowing the latter?
A leak requires a repair.
A flood gets you a new title.
Great Uncle shoulda got the Canada Dry version.
Because that would have stayed Dry – It’s says so right there on the doors!
By the time Tracy was buying cars, Scouts had likely long disappeared (we have less aggressive sand over salt on the roads here in New England and I recall seeing one running Scout—obviously completely restored—in the last 25 odd years, maybe more. A friend’s father had a long non-running one rotting in the woods behind his house and seeing them even in that state was uncommon in the early ’90s.
I see mention of the Midas editions, but the discussion isn’t complete. Swivel seats, added a third row, and the most amazing plaid and leather interiors ever produced. Pure 70s Gold. I love them. You need more pics for that Midas stuff. I truly hope to rebuild my 71 Travelall interior using HEAVY inspiration from those interiors.
Yup the Midas models were the lap of 70’s luxury including the price tag which was well into Cadillac territory.
Don’t forget the passenger map lights and matching plaid cooler! I’ve only seen one out in the wild with the cooler intact. My roommate in college had a red Midas Traveler with the swivel seats and two benches intact, but he’d ripped out the plaid roof before he drove it back to school.