Thank you for the kind words. Mechanically it is fairly good shape. The adventure will begin when it comes paint and body time.
Right now the big mechanical things (such as they are) include new and matching tires, exhaust and muffler (just a foot long pipe off the manifold), a slight miss (probably valves #1 gave me a weird reading the first time I compression tested but didn’t do it again), minor electrical, and there is still some slight softness in the brakes.
The master cylinder and some of the rear brake line has been replaced by a shop. I don’t have the facilities or second set of hands to do some stuff. I haven’t found a brake fluid leak yet but anything that old, I have to figure anything original might be a culprit. That is the price of the old stuff.
Tires may happen next month. I plan to go with some kind of all terrain radial since its off road days are mostly over.
My father had an old International that he used to plow. Workhorse, that I remember through most of my life as living in the garage until needed. There is something, I used the word honest, but perhaps there is a better word for those vehicles. there is a basic quality to them that the new vehicles don’t touch. Feel the same way about my old MGB.