This is the beginning of what I expect to be a long drawn out project but I gotta start somewhere. I have recently come into possession of a 1987 Chevrolet S10 Blazer, 5sp 4x4. My grandfather bought this truck brand new in 1987 and he has held onto it ever since, despite buying several newer trucks in the interim. This is the same truck he, my mother, and my grandmother took family vacations in in the 80's. I have owned mostly GM products and this makes my 4th current vehicle alongside my 3 others (C6 Corvette, 4th Gen Trans Am, and a Saturn Sky). After letting this thing sit in his backyard for the past 20 years, my grandfather told me I could have the Blazer since he just planned to scrap it. He told me before it was parked "some wiring caught fire" so my first order of business to repair (or replace) the ignition harness in an attempt to get this thing road worthy again.

 

The car is a literal and figurative rat's nest, but between LMC, RockAuto, and eBay I have bookmarked just about everything I need to get it rolling again. Short term goals include:
Getting the engine running again
4 Wheel Disc Brake conversion
Restore the interior
Sand and repaint (GM Carbon Flash Metallic)
New bushings, shocks, and general suspension components
In about that order, if all goes according to plan. I was thankfully able to find this picture online of what the engine bay was SUPPOSED to look like as a point of reference in putting this thing back together. Once all of the above is done, I'll be preparing to do an LS swap while retaining the manual 4WD Driveline.

 

Thats a project for sure! Looking foward to seeing this come back to life. Hows the interior and underbody like? Looks fairly solid.

 

I'd start oiling the engine and cylinders STAT, it sat outside for all those years?

might be best off pulling the motor out and doing a thorough rebuild on it.

 

Interior isn't much better than the exterior but it isn't much worse either. For the most part everything is faded, the dashpad is still in one piece and I can replace the skins on the seats. The carpet is okay but the red is spotty so I'll probably replace it with black carpet from LMC. The underbody is solid, we see snow maybe one day every three years here so rust usually isn't an issue.
The motor and transmission was rebuilt before it sat but I plan on oiling the cylinders and turning it over by hand before even attempting to start it. I don't plan on having the 2.8 in there very long so I just need it run well enough to pull on and off of a lift while I get the other things sorted and I'm replacing every fluid in the car as soon as it moves under it's own power.

 

Some more pictures of the car and a few of the interior. I'll be coming in to the shop this Saturday with about a gallon of degreaser and a pressure washer in an attempt to cure the paint job of scurvy

 

I put together an excel sheet of everything I plan to do in the first year to get the car in decent shape; The total budget might scare me if I had paid anything for the truck but since it was free I gave myself a little more wiggle room with upgrades

 

I realize you can't put a price on sentimental value, but you could buy a pretty nice Blazer for $7k.

Also, are you planning to do the paint and body work yourself? Because in my experience, $500 doesn't go very far in that department. The last car I painted cost over $300 just in paint, and that was close to 30 years ago.

That said, I sincerely wish you the best, and I'm looking forward to watching your progress.

 

I imagine a 7K Blazer would run decently enough but probably wouldn't be equipped with the big brake system or upgraded suspension along with many of the other odds and ends I plan on revising. And being the second owner of the truck ever, I can't really put a price tag on what it means to me.

7K seems like a lot on paper but a lot of this is catching up on 20 years of maintenance and only about 3 or 4K is actually "upgrades" and I have access to my own paint equipment and a booth at a buddies shop so I'll be doing the paint job with a handful of friends over a weekend

 

Cool. I'm definitely not trying to discourage you. Just curious. I've put WAY more money into my Blazer than I could ever hope to get out of it, even though I only paid $450 for it, so I kinda know where you're coming from. I enjoy the build at least as much as actually driving the thing, lol.