You Chose a Blazer/Jimmy - WHY?

[Blazer690]

In 1978 I was working construction out of an "65 el camino everything got wet. I did'nt want a van, they seemed big. I stumbled on a 2wd blazer out of the LA Times. I had to borrow some of the $2000 from a friend. Stick shift, no p/s, no radio, no back seat, ocra, black top, spare mounted behind the drivers seat,and AIR. Odd combo but never looked back. Now it's my weekend driver, all white, lowered, tilt, tac, air pressure gauge (for the air shocks)427out of my dead boat,400 turbo, 3.70 posi, single wall top, with 33x12.50x15-8's on mini lites in the rear and 31x10.00x15-7's on the front. Love my Blazer, Tom

[Blazer690]

first one 1980 or so at pismo. Second one 1990's at work with my new rack. Third one 2014 pushing our race car

[GuyO]

OK, I'll chime in. It wasn't really my idea. We had just finished a SWB for my oldest son and his little brother asked me, quite innocently if he would have a truck as nice as his brothers someday. So my buddy said, build Ry a Blazer! So I did! He has been learning to drive in it and will be ready for his test soon.

[tristan]

A friend of a friend had a 1973-75 and I always remembered him driving it around with the top off. A couple of years ago I got interested in collectible cars again after going 20 years without one. I somehow learned about Blazers and Jimmys and began to research them. The combination of full convertibility and the rugged but classic styling sold me. I find it very cool that the 69-72s were the first truly modern SUVs. I also thought, and still do, that these vehicles are underpriced in today's market and have a lot of upside once they are more widely recognized for their various virtues.

[scorn908]

well after reading this thread i realized why i wanted one and bought mine. The simple fact is that they are awesome. im 14 and bought my 71 in october of 2014 and i learned how to drive a 3 speed and i have learned so much about K5's after being around 4x2 cars my whole life. currently i am taking drivers education and there is something missing compared to my K5. i cant wait until mine gets finished and i get to drive it everyday

[1mrtimk]

I remember the Scout adds in Dad's farm magazines when I was about 12, my brother-in-law bought a new 74 CJ 5 when I was 13 I new I had to have something 4 wheel drive and convertible. I drove dad's 70 C10 until I was 18 when I spotted a black 72 Blazer on a local car lot. I went in to make the deal only to find out it had been sold earlier that day, 1 day on the lot. I watched the owner drive it for a year before it went up for sale, again 1 day and it was sold. I was the lucky 1 this time and 36 years later I am still the lucky owner.

[fourspeedwagon]

Here's the one I had 20 something years ago. I remember taking my now wife out for ice cream on one of our first dates. A nice drive up the Yakima river canyon to Ellensburg with the roof removed. It was a 72 with AC ps pdb tilt, etc. Ive missed it since the moment I sold it but it made the down payment on our first house.
I just finished a 39 ford pickup hot rod and now realize it's not that fun to not be able to take my wife and kids with me.
Going to pick up another tomorrow!

[chad75]

Well it actually started in 72, In a blue CST K5 on my ride home from the hospital Always loved my Dads K5 and always wanted one growing up. Looked for years for a good deal built several other cars first a 1959 Volkswagen Kombi, a 1955 Chevrolet Delray, a 1984 K5. Until finally I came across a guy selling the 72 Jimmy I have now. Worked a trade for a Teryx and the rest is history. Love the thing so far, and My Little girls love it too

[joea307]

Well for me people wonder why I like the blazer so much. I like the first gen so much because it has a classic look compared to the squarebody blazer ,the first gen I can do tons with it, i can raise it, lower it, have it 4wd or 2wd,i can put a half cab on it, put a camper, topless put a top on it,have no back seat,its just versatile.The deal is I've always liked them since I was about 3(was brought home in one also, grew up around them when I was younger).My dad had a 82 with a four wheel camper he owned a 72 blazer from 74-76 a 76 blazer from 76-84,a 82 from 84-93 and a 90 from 93-98 and has owned 4 tahoes since then all new or used. I always liked blazers and trucks, I thought when I was young the first gens always looked different than the square bodys and I liked that(I was about 8 by them).I didn't really start getting into them again till I was about 19 but had money for a 67 c10.When my c10 had problems I bought my 71 blazer with four wheel pop up camper in 2012.now I own my 71 and 72 with a top on it and i'm tring to keep it numbers matching original and on the 71 custom.

[DeadheadNM]

Ttt

[vancelot69]

I want to play! My story is going to be long winded too, and probably have a lot of irrelevant parts, so, fair warning.

When I was in school, I was always a Chevy guy. Don't know why, because my dad was always a Dodge guy. And ever since then, my dream car was a 69 Camaro since that's what year I was born. A few years back, around 2012 or 2013, I got to thinking that I don't have a dream truck, so after doing some light research, I found out that the Blazer had a 69 model, so that immediately became my dream truck. I have always preferred SUVs over pickups. Then in late 2013 / early 2014 the bug started to really take hold and I was searching Craigslist almost constantly, but I wasn't finding a whole lot I could afford in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, so I started including cities far and wide in my searching, and I added Jimmy's to the search. The first time I saw a picture of a Jimmy, I fell in love with the quad style headlights, so I decided I wanted that, even though the oldest one I could get is a 70. I want to add, too, that the only reason I chose the 1st gen is because it's what year I was born, I turned 16 in 85, so square bodies were life back then, and I even had an 80 long bed in high school. In April of 2014 I found a Jimmy sort of in my price range in Pittsburgh. It wasn't really in my price range, but I offered $2500 and he accepted it. I probably shouldn't have bought it, but I have no self control if I have the money in my pocket and it's something I REALLY want. Turned out that it had more rust and more mechanical issues than I could handle, and I got rid of it in March of 2017. But I couldn't not have a Jimmy for too long. During this time of searching, I was seeing more Blazers that were in my price range, but I was determined to hold out for a Jimmy, and I wound up snatching up the first one that was in range, and again, I probably shouldn't have. It's a lot better candidate and start point than the last one I had, but it was almost 4x the price, and it's been sitting more than driving since I got it in April of 2017. During the months since I've had it, the thought has crossed my mind to sell it and get a square body since, as I mentioned, that's really what I grew up around.

[Harold Holbrook]

Outside, open air, fun.

[A1971Blazer]

I was into the hot rods in my early years..Z28s...Chevelles..etc but I did like the look of the 69-72 K/5 and I always thought I would like to own one.
Finding a nice one, in good shape was difficult locally...especially before the advent of the WWW
I had a neighbor that moved here and brought an old '71 with him....been parked for years and was in fairly rough shape but I bought it anyway with the intention of a full restoration.
Time constraints changed that plan, so I parted it out and began looking for one that was in better shape to start with.
Found the '70 and made a deal on it a few years ago....then I met some guys locally that had K/5s and made friends with them.
One had a black '72 and I had actually helped him work on some....I had told him that if he ever decided to sell....I would be interested in buying it.
About a year later he called to say he wanted to sell....now I have it too...

top reasons for me to have one:
Tough as a truck
Fully convertible
Rare...not many left anymore
Valuable
FUN!

[hemi43]

I'm a Mopar Guy, hence my user name and would have preferred to build an early 70's Ramcharger or Trailduster. Unfortunately, building one of these would be 2-3 times the cost, and the availability of aftermarket parts are near impossible to get so it would have taken me 2-3 times the hours to build. The other issue is the value of the truck when finished. A restored Dodge will never bring the dollars that a Chev will, so that was the deciding factor. It only cost me $30k CDN (about $25K US) to build my truck, and I could easily get $45k for it, and it only took me 8 months to build it. Common sense is the reason I built a Blazer.

[Tuff Gong]

Kids. End of story. Lol

[Thealien]

Open air driving!

I am 58 and have been riding motorcycles my whole life (have had both many years) until injuries prevented me from riding motorcycles. I am waiting on my 1972 two wheel drive blazer, should be here this month. And no helmet in the blazer.

[AsianBlazer]

It was the Summer of 1974, I was seven years old and standing in my grandparents drive on the corner of N. 16th Street and Hayden Bridge Road in Springfield, Oregon.
A neighborhood guy rolled up to the stop sign in a Hugger Orange first generation, top off, Hickey roll bar and saddle interior. His stereo was blasting Bachmsn Turner Overdrive's " You ain't seen nothing yet" and I thought "wow, I want one of those" for every reason a seven year old could come up with.
Finally bought my 71 in 2009 and went to work on it.

[Gary 70 Jimmy]

I was looking for a 69 or 70 blazer in 1995 couldn't find one nice enough for the money the found a 70 jimmy at the right price the rest is history still have it. Then I wanted a blazer with a four wheel camper on it looked for years finally found one at the right price in Portland Oregon and had it shipped to me and it was a 72 jimmy only jimmy I seen with the camper on it.

[CamTra]

Well I have several Classic vehicles. 1938 All original Chevy Truck, 1956 Belair and I was in the process of restoring a 1969 Dodge Charger when I started working a lot of OT and realized I would be years before I finished the Charger so I decided to move it on down the line. I'm a Chevy guy so of course I always wanted a '67-'72 C10. I came across a 1967 C10 for a good price that was already restored to rust free. I bought the truck and traded the Charger for a 454, 400 tranny and some cash to complete the truck. While attending a week long cruising event called Crusin' The Coast in Mississippi my wife made a comment to me that she loves the Blazers that has the tops that come off. Ashamed to say I never knew these existed in a convertible type. So I looked around that week and saw some great looking Blazers and I immediately wanted one. So the search began and I recently found one that met my specs. Now I'm just ready for some warm weather to take top completely down!!

[Gary 70 Jimmy]

Looks real nice red my 69 blazer will be red if I ever get it done what color red is it. How much lift does it have.

[CamTra]

Originally Posted by Gary 70 Jimmy

Looks real nice red my 69 blazer will be red if I ever get it done what color red is it. How much lift does it have.

Thanks, it has a 4 inch lift with 33 Mickey Thompson wheels. I asked the guy I bought it from what the paint code was because I'd like to paint my '67 C10 the same color to have matching trucks but he didn't have it. All he could tell me was that they got the color idea from a Honda Civic. It was originally orange.

[Moreyel]

An older lady was religiously bringing this 72 into my auto repair for service. Oil, coolant changes. But I saw she wasn’t putting any miles on it.
I started asking if I could buy it. I was really falling in love with it. (Not her!)
She told me she was keeping it in memory of her late husband who bought it new and they went out playing in it.
Anyway, I closed the shop and opened Sandia Trailer Sales.
A few months after I opened it, she came in and thanked me for taking care of her and handed me the title.

I tried attaching a better picture than what’s under my name, but nothing happened when I tried.

[rsavage]

Originally Posted by Gary 70 Jimmy

I was looking for a 69 or 70 blazer in 1995 couldn't find one nice enough for the money the found a 70 jimmy at the right price the rest is history still have it. Then I wanted a blazer with a four wheel camper on it looked for years finally found one at the right price in Portland Oregon and had it shipped to me and it was a 72 jimmy only jimmy I seen with the camper on it.

Two beautiful rigs that I love looking at. The Jimmy with a camper on it is a very rare truck.

[r1lorenzini]

its simple for the kids

[r1lorenzini]

or is it for the chicks?!!?! lol