For fans of rare trucks, truck shows are always a good place to look around. This year at the Mid-America Trucking Show, one unit stood out as a rare look into trucking history.
The truck is a 1981 International Transtar II Eagle 4070B cabover with the special “Midnight Eagle Brougham” trim and paint package. Dusty Veldkamp, the primary builder on the truck’s recent rebuild, said as he understands it, there were only about 250 of those special-edition 4070B trucks built.
And if that’s not rare enough, the truck was spec’d from the factory with a Cat engine, making it one of only about five built just like it, Veldkamp said.
A red Cat? According to Veldkamp, International required the red paint on the engines when they were put in the trucks. He confirmed during the rebuild that Cat colors are indeed underneath the red paint.Video and photos by Lawson Rudisill
Veldkamp, out of Paynesville, Minnesota, restored the truck for Regal, Minnesota-based David Voss. Over the course of about five years, the truck underwent a full restoration -- “top to bottom, front to back,” Veldkamp said.
“We matched everything as original as we could as far as the cab and everything goes,” he added. “We completely redid the interior. All the paint is to the factory paint codes. The motor is painted with the factory paint code. We did as much as we possibly could to make it original.”
Dusty Veldkamp with the rare 1981 International "Midnight Eagle Brougham" 4070B that he helped rebuild for David Voss. Veldkamp's full-time occupation is as a paramedic on an ambulance service, but he previously worked in body shops for around 15 years. His work on trucks today is "very part-time," he said.
That project included painting, polishing, cleaning and reupholstering everything on the unit, replacing parts as needed, when possible. “We had to hunt for quite a few of the parts on it,” Veldkamp noted. “We got the best of what we could find, although there’s only so many of these left in the scrap yards.”
One of the only things that didn’t get replaced during the rebuild and restoration was the dash panel and gauges.
Veldkamp handled all the body work on the rebuild, while Paynesville Chevrolet did the paint work. One of the painters there, Veldkamp said, had been around trucks his whole life and was familiar with the old International units.
Veldkamp credited fellow International Eagle Brougham 4070B owner Troy Link with a lot of the help in finding the original factory paint codes and ensuring the rebuild was as close to original as possible.
The 3406 Caterpillar engine and accompanying 13-speed transmission were rebuilt during the restoration process as well by Zieglar Cat.
Inside the rig, apart from the original dash, Sis Upholstery in St. Augusta, Minnesota, reupholstered the seats and all the other interior work done to it, Veldkamp noted.
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Dusty Veldkamp: There were 250 of these made, and only five, I believe it was, with the Cat in it. And this is one of those five. We don't know if there's any other ones on the road with the Cat right now. My name is Dusty Veldkamp. I'm, I'm from Paynesville, Minnesota. The truck parked behind me is an '81 International Midnight Brougham, the 4070B. It is owned by David Voss out of Regal, Minnesota.
And we did a complete restoration. Top to bottom, front to back. We matched everything as original as we could as far as the cab and everything goes. We completely redid the interior. Seats were recovered, all the carpeting is replaced. It all came from an upholstery place out of, I believe it's Saint Cloud, Minnesota. Sis Upholstery there did our seats and the other interior work that we had done to it.
Everything works in the truck as far as gauges, the only thing we did not replace was the actual dash panel with the gauges in it, and that is still original, but everything else has been painted, polished, cleaned up, reupholstered. All the lights are working. Everything is to where it was when it came from the showroom. All the paint is to the factory paint codes.
The motor is painted with factory paint code. We had the motor gone through by Ziegler Cat. So the motor's all rebuilt, transmission's rebuilt. The truck was basically taken down to two frame rails. The cab was off at one time as we did this truck, so did the bodywork in-house.
The paint work was done by a Chevrolet dealership in Paynesville, Minnesota. We got the actual original colors and color codes from an individual named Troy Link, which everyone knows in the community because he had restored one also. We had to hunt for quite a few of the parts on it. We got the best of what we could find, although there's only so many of these left in the scrap yards.
The toughest thing for us to find was the jockey box. The correct jockey box door handles. Aside from that, there's just been a lot of polishing and cleaning, and I could not tell you the amount of hours we have into it. You know, we've been working off and on on it for approximately five years. I know it's it's been a long time to get here.
And as far as putting it all back together, pulling it apart, putting it together, I kind of had my hands in quite a bit of it.
