Project OBS (Orange Blossom Special)

[dujobu]

I'm new to the boards, and to restorations and truck ownership in general. I've been in love with first generation Blazers ever since I was visiting my grandpa in the hospital when I was about 15 (about 15 years ago) and I picked up a truck magazine with a bright orange K5 on the cover.

That dream came to fruition last Summer, when I bought my '71 K5 from one of my grandpa's good friends. Vaughn couldn't stand to watch her sit and rot any longer. So my friend and I drove a trailer 2 1/2 hours to Fruitland Maryland (from Wilmington Delaware, where we live) to pick it up. Didn't fit on the trailer, so I drove her home. About 3/4 the way home the drivers side front tire fell apart. The tread blew off while I was doing 60 on Route 1 in Smyrna (swerving me into the left lane where there were no cars, thankfully). Scared the hell out of me! Swerved the truck to the side of the road, put the (original??) spare on it and drove her the rest of the way, limping the whole way. The tread even blew out the headlight bulb and ripped the K5 badge off the fender. It was a sad turn of events. But I did get her home in one piece, sort of. Since then I've been trying to scrounge cash together to begin a frame off restoration. In the meantime I've been picking at little things like having the seatbacks powdercoated and replacing the brakes lines, etc. Doing these things has kept me sane while I wait to begin the actual restoration. Here are some photos of her when I first got her. I'll update as I go.

The nice thing is while the truck is a rust bucket, she's all original. Un-molested. I'm thankful for that, because I've seen a lot of hacked up Blazers. Calling her Orange Blossom Special because it's one of my favorite Johnny Cash songs, and the original color is orange, though the exterior has been painted red. The original orange is still on the interior. I'll be going back to the original orange in the end.

The plan is to restore her to somewhere between a daily driver and a show truck. I will definitely be driving her on a regular basis, but don't want to make her so nice that I'm afraid to mess her up. I plan to go mostly original, but with slightly larger tires/wheels, a roll bar, Line-x the inside of the tub, and a few other modern updates. Enjoy…