When I was younger, I always wanted a lifted truck, but never got one. When I got older, I wanted a convertible to go out cruising with my wife and kids. The K5 Blazer was the answer, a convertible lifted truck.

I looked into these Blazers, years 1969-1991, and narrowed it down to 1969-1975 because these were the full convertibles. After talking to my father, I decided to find a first generation 1969-1972. First generation is my dad’s favorite style as well as mine. He said, “I know they are more money but that’s the style that you should get. You won’t regret it”. We had a 1972 Chevy wood cutting up truck back in the day, so this will bring back some good memories!

I looked for months for a Blazer. I could not find anything that was not rusted out, beat up or out of my price range. Living in Michigan makes it hard to find a Blazer in good shape, and traveling out of state was not an option.

We have a small tow truck service and I needed to get a seat re-upholstered. I took it to our friend, Jay, to get it done. Jay does interiors of vehicles and a lot of old car interior restorations. I asked him if he knew of any first-generation Blazers around. He said his friend Brian (who has a body shop about 30 miles away) used to have one in storage that he thought was still there.

I called Brian and he said he still had it and would sell it. He advised me he did all the body and paint work and ran out of time because of other projects. He had owned it for eight years. He also had all the original seats redone and a lot of new stuff for the inside, including the carpet. He sent me some pictures. When I got the pictures, the grille was hanging on the wall, the seats and inside misc. was on a shelf. It looked rough, but I saw potential in it to become an awesome machine.

My buddy Chris volunteered to help me put the Blazer together. I showed him the pictures and he agreed it was worth going to look at. The truck was solid, but needed a lot of work. There was no gas tank hooked up, so we put some gas in a Mountain Dew bottle to hear it run. Chris gave it his blessing, but I still had to get the blessing of my wife and girls. I knew this would be tough with the condition it was in. The next day, I took the wife and kids to look at it. I got the reaction I expected. I told them what the end result would be. They had enough confidence in me, so they gave me their approval!

I purchased the truck August of 2017 and we got it road worthy summer of 2018. We painted and undercoated the entire underneath and did all brakes and brake lines. We also installed a 4-inch lift with 35-inch tires. We changed all the fluid gaskets, replaced all new u-joints as well as a lot of little things and fabrication that came along. Under the hood was cleaned up and painted and wiring cleaned. We changed the intake, valve covers, belts and hoses, distributor cap and rotor. Inside, we fabricated a roll bar, reinforced and installed the seats and new seat belts, installed the carpet, and put on a soft topper. Almost all the parts that Brian (the old owner) and I purchased were from LMC. And the parts all look great!

Since the truck is completed and we are driving it, everyone in the family agrees it was a good investment. I am now 44 years old and finally have my lifted truck and my wife and girls (4, 5 and 7 months old) have a convertible they love. With all the hustle and bustle, technology and electronics in the world today, it’s nice to see that something simple from 1971 can put such big smiles on our faces as well as others. My 4-and 5-year-old daughters get so excited to ride in the Blazer and named it “The Big Blue Jacked Up Girl”.