This ride obviously spent most of it's early years kept inside. But there is plenty rot to deal with at some point.
Every one of the poorly finished assembly body panel seams has cancer, there was no effort put into these bodies at the assembly point to truly seal the seams in an effective manner. Thus any corrosive element migrates through any seam but is hidden for many years until a bigazz patch of rot falls out.
This rig had the oem carpet treatment originally, then a replacement carpet set was custom done at some point, both front, rear, and cargo area. But no effort was made to repair/kill the existing rot in all the seams and flat surfaces.
Then...on 8/17/87, russ's auto laundry in portland did a "rustproof undercoat/paint as needed" treatment using the old roofing tar shit to the tune of $330 1987 dollars. So that encapsulated all the rot so it didn't show...the term "encapsulate" is key...that is impossible to do chemically! So the rot has been working on all "protected" sheetmetal all these years it set outside on the lot at ernie's place. And yes, like all IH vehicles, this one leaks like hell around the cowl, the door weatherstripping, window seals, etc. So the carpet is rotten though it looks nearly new.
As I've mentioned, the two pos that we have the documentation for have spent exorbitant kinds of bucks over and over for the same thing over about a four year span in the 80's while the vehicle accumulated hardly any miles relatively speaking. Odo reading when the last repair order was written that we have a copy of on 11/2/88 was 67410, odo right now reads 68129, and the last 200 miles have been run out in the last three weeks.
On that ro, we have: a repair to the wiper motor gearbox to rethread (it's still loose and banging around at the link arm), replaced all the exhaust valve seals and valve springs again after the engine build, and then installed an aftermarket wiper delay module that does not operate. Motor was also run onna scope and gas analyzer, obviously there was something going on that was an issue (can we say carburetor???). Two weeks later, the carb was "kitted" for the fifth time and then run for a deq certificate. Cost for the smog tax? $7.00.
The engine was built over a three month period at milage 64340. The heads were surfaced and blueprinted (per the ro), exhaust guides replaced, a three-angle valve job performed at the time the comp cam kit was installed with all the block work. Obviously from the paperwork something about that valve job did not work out.
At the same time all tie rod ends were replaced, all shocks replaced, the front wheel hubs serviced, etc.
It's my "opinion"...after the $6k++ was spent on the motor and peripherals with the independent garage, it never really performed as it should (drivability-wise)...so the unsatisfied owner then took it back to bisio's to have it "fixed" (whatever that would entail). We have no ro copy for the intake of the rig at ernie's after that point, that would be a clue as to why it was left there all these years and then the roth krew recovered it last October.