Nicholas Fluhart

After the leaf springs were successfully installed, I decided to paint the chassis and select the tires to be used. Choosing which color to paint the chassis will depend on the color of the cab and other components. While the truck was currently sporting, albeit severely weathered, a red cab, white bed, and dirt colored chassis, the original color of this truck was green. There are a variety of good looking paint schemes that I could use. However, one thing is for sure, I’m not big on “bling”. Rather, I want something industrial and period correct. I had a few ideas rolling around in my mind when my dad happened to bring by the latest issue of Classic Plant and Machinery. The cover features an old dump truck and wheel loader. Although the truck on the cover is not an International, I like the classic paint scheme and I think with a little modification I could create a similar scheme that would look great on a Loadstar. Below is a pic of the magazine cover:

You’ll note the green cab, black bumpers and red chassis. For my Loadstar, I decided on a green cab and red chassis while the bed, fenders, and bumpers would be black. Once I visualize a finished product, the excitement carries me through all the hard work to complete the project. So here we go…

The first order of business was to find some decent tires. The current tires are 8.25-20 and severely weathered beyond use. I didn’t want to buy brand new tires for a truck that I would only use once in a blue moon, so I decided to pull the wheels from my decommissioned F-700 winch truck. They are slightly weather checked but are light-years ahead of the Loadstar tires and will work fine for occasional use. Slightly larger, they are 9.00-20 already on Dayton rims, so they should bolt right on. We pulled the old wheels off the Loadstar, carried them out to the country and swapped them out on the F-700. Once I got the 9.00-20’s home, I steam cleaned them.

Since the chassis had so many years of caked on dirt, sand, crude oil, and asphalt, it required thorough wire brushing (we used a knotted cup brush on an angle grinder) and washing. Once adequately cleaned, we first primered the chassis and then painted it red. I used Regal Red oil based industrial enamel with a catalyst hardener added for durability.

Back to the wheels. I’ll note, the rims with the 9.00-20’s from the F-700 are wider than the rims that came on the 1600 Loadstar. The rears fit fine, but the fronts rubbed the tie rod ends so we had to break down the front tires and mount them on the original narrow front rims. Not fun, but it had to be done.

I painted the rims black with silver around the outer edge. Here’s what they look like on the truck…

That wraps up the fifth installment of the Loadstar Project. More to come…