1971 Chevy Blazer CST – Richard D.

I bought this truck with my first real paycheck after going to Tech School to be a Machinist. It was only $600, but I still had to borrow money from my parents to get through the month, you know to pay for my mac’n’cheese while buying more parts for the truck. It was a Texas ranch truck for most of its life, even has the bullet holes in the rear floor for an excited board hunt. I’ve had it 15 years now and it’s been partially restored with the majority of parts coming from LMC.
The Blazer really became an outlet for some much-needed therapy when my dad was diagnosed with throat cancer a few years back and so I was often at my parent’s house on the weekends giving my mom a break from taking care of my dad during chemo. I did get some time to work on the truck during those visits. My dad even though he was sick and was confined to his bed most of the time would be excited to hear what progress I made on the truck that day, even if he was too weak to stay awake most days he would stay awake for as long as it took to get the daily progress report. I think that he and I both needed this project during this time. I needed to keep my self-occupied and to not think of what could happen to his health and for him to have something to look forward to each day other than his next tube feeding, (he couldn’t eat solid foods for 3 months because of the surgery to remove the cancer in his throat so he had a stomach tube port on his side… not fun). My dad is doing well now and has been cancer free for 3 years now. He’s too weak to get in the truck, but still talks about its restoration just as if he was there with me doing the work, and he really was, because I spent most of my time working and thinking about him. Now, this truck will be used as our dirt bike hauler and as the official ice cream cone runner on hot summer nights.