TEXT BY: Christian Glazar PHOTOS: Nathan Bielski VIDEO STILLS: Ian McGee
t had been raining for days when Dale Jackson drove out to Parkersburg, West Virginia, to “try on” a new International® Scout®. “My dad’s a big guy, about 6-foot-5, and that’s how he always said it: ‘I’m going to try on a Scout,’ or whatever car he was interested in,” recalls his son, Jason. Eight years old at the time, Jason and his siblings stayed home at the family farm with a babysitter, three-quarters of a mile down a soggy clay and gravel driveway from the main road. “The following morning, I looked out to see this shiny new ’79 Scout II coated with red clay mud!”
Of course, mud is hardly an obstacle for the famously capable Scout II SUV, but Jason believes that West Virginia’s ubiquitous sticky red clay played a role in preserving this Scout vehicle for its eventual rebirth four decades later. “The clay was a natural undercoating,” he says. “Over the years it shielded it from road salt and the other elements. While it did rust in some spots, the rust was kept to a minimum and the Scout stayed alive.”
For the next 14 years, the Rallye™ Gold Traveltop was used in a way that few of today’s SUV buyers would dare, with equal emphasis on both the “Sport” and the “Utility.” It took Dale to his job as an electrician and to National Guard duty. He loaded up the family and took them all over the Lower 48 on vacation trips, and he piled it with fishing gear and chased trout in remote mountain creeks off the backroads and byways of West Virginia. One winter, they went on a road trip to Manhattan; when the family returned home on a bitterly cold day and Dale’s tractor refused to start, he stuffed the Scout truck’s cargo hold with bales of hay and went out to feed the cattle. “I used that Scout,” Dale emphasizes. “It had the ability to do whatever I needed a vehicle to do.”
"When he sits down on those original ‘pillow-top’ bucket seats, I want him to hear all the echoes of our family that are left inside from all those miles we rode together. When he adjusts the rear-view mirror, I want him to see his children as we were in 1979."
In 1988, Dale passed it on to Jason, who drove it to high school and repaired some rusted sheet metal and broken parts in shop class, painted it blue, and eventually parked it in the barn after finishing college in 1993. And there it remained for the next 28 years until Jason hatched an ambitious plan to restore it to its original condition and present it to his dad for his 75th birthday.
“I wanted to pay my dad back for everything he has done in my life,” Jason says. “He supported me and helped me beyond whatever he had to.” A frame-up restoration can be a daunting task in the best of circumstances, and Jason dialed up the level of difficulty by doing it all in secret, right under his father’s nose. He intended to bring it back to its original state. This is no restomod; it’s a time machine, with a handful of subtle and unseen improvements to improve reliability and drivability, including a Straight Steer frame brace and a Borgeson universal joint steering coupler in place of the stock rag joint.
“I want him to have that same feeling when he sees it as he did when he bought it in 1979,” Jason says. “When he sits down on those original ‘pillow-top’ bucket seats, I want him to hear all the echoes of our family that are left inside from all those miles we rode together. When he adjusts the rear-view mirror, I want him to see his children as we were in 1979. When he grabs that original steering wheel, I want him to remember the feeling that no obstacle ahead could stop him. When he drives it, I want him to feel like he’s driving the most unique vehicle on the road!”
The downside to “unique” is that it can take extra effort to track down the right parts and expertise, but even 40-plus years after the last Scout vehicle rolled off the line, a vibrant community of enthusiasts remains committed to the brand’s legacy. Jason tapped Old Iron Offroad in Tennessee, Circle S Welding and Mountaineer Auto Body in West Virginia, and ScoutCo Products in Virginia to help bring this project to life.
One of the most distinctive features of any Scout vehicle is the graphic package, and the woodgrain appliqués proved to be one of the hardest parts to get right. Long out of production, finding original unused appliqués can be like finding a needle in a haystack, and Jason wasn’t satisfied with the available reproductions. Just when he was ready to give up hope, Super Scout Specialists in Ohio let him know they had just come into possession of 200 boxes of NOS Scout appliqués in unmarked boxes. The first box they opened had exactly what they were looking for: woodgrain shadow. “I took it as a sign,” Jason says.
Over two years, friends, family, and specialists invested about 300 hours in the project, with just a few close calls when Dale — who also happens to be Jason’s neighbor — nearly discovered the work in progress. “He got into a building where I was dismantling the Scout at the beginning,” remembers Jason, who has a ’79 Scout of his own, and whose son, Luke, has a ’79 Scout Traveler™. This gave him a plausible cover story: “I told him we were cannibalizing his original for the good parts for our other Scouts. He acted surprised, then shrugged it off and said, ‘I’m glad it will live on for you and Luke in other Scouts.’ But I could tell it broke his heart.”
The stage was set for the big reveal when Jason casually asked Dale if he’d like to attend the annual Scout Nationals event in Springfield, Ohio, in June 2023. Dale enthusiastically agreed, and Jason entered their reborn Scout II into the show’s All Vehicle Build-off, dropping it off in Springfield ahead of time to maintain the subterfuge. By the time they arrived at the event, Dale was just about the only person who was unaware of what was about to happen.
“We had to walk through the displays and Dad wanted to see every single one of them,” Jason laughs. “When we got into the Build-off show area, he struck up a conversation with someone, completely unaware that his own Scout was right over his shoulder.” Finally, they got him to turn around; the crowd cheered, and though Dale will be the first to tell you that he hates to be surprised and never wants to be the center of attention, a huge smile spread across his face.
“In my whole life I have never seen my dad speechless, but on this day he was,” Jason says. “I will always remember watching him get into his Scout, turn the original keys for the first time in over 30 years, and listen intently to that original 304 run. He said it runs better now than when it was new!”
It not only won the Build-off, it took Best of Show, Best Scout II, Best 1979 Scout, and Best Display at the 2023 Nationals. Later that summer, it was named Light Weight Division Champion at the Harvester Homecoming in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and when it returned to Nationals in 2024, it was named Grand National Champion.
As hard as he pushed it during its days as a daily driver and all-around work vehicle, Dale is content to let his reborn Scout II have an easy second life. Today, its only job is to transport him back in time, and to look good while doing it. “The one thing you won’t find on it now is any more of that red clay,” Dale laughs.
Watch the full story of Jason and Dale Jackson’s Scout II™ restoration.
