Hello all. Back in high school, I drove a 1988 S10 Blazer 4x4. It looked like this:



I loved it, and it got me around in all sorts of bad weather. Unfortunately, I wanted to get into autocrossing, and a blazer won't work for that, so I sold it and have been dealing with RWD vehicles with summer tires for the past 5 years.

Those of you in the Pacific Northwest will know how much snow we got over the past couple weeks. For a solid week, it was nearly required to have some form of 4wd on the side streets, or chains.
Sadly my daily driver is a G37, with the summer-only Bridgestone 050's. In the snow, it doesn't move. Not even a foot. I was trapped at home for a week and a half straight. Couldn't get to work, or the store, or anywhere. I can't even put snow tires or chains on it as it has the stock 19" wheels.

I decided that I'd start looking for a cheap snow car. Something to get around in during the winter, get me to the mountains for skiing, and a way to keep some miles off the G37 when the weather is bad. I focused on 1st generation S10 Blazers as I my old one was always so good to me. I found this on craigslist(forgive the Google Streetview picture please):


It looked pretty shabby, but the description on the craigslist ad said it only had 145k miles and had been well maintained. It even looked just like my old one. I figured I'd take a look.

It turned out to be a pretty interesting little truck. It was still with the original owner, who had special ordered the vehicle from the factory back in 1989. He had ordered it with just about every option available in that year. Specifically it's a 1989 2 door Chevy Blazer Sport. It has the 4.3L V6, 4x4, Off-road package with 3.42 gearing, "sport" suspension (bilstein shocks), HD trailering package with HD radiator, tranny cooler, engine oil cooler, and the 6000lbs hitch. It even has the very rare limited slip rear diff. The "Sport" trim level means it has leather seats, black trim and body accents, and the digital gauges that look like I'm driving the space shuttle.

The guy who owned it was also incredibly careful about documenting everything. I have a massive envelope of receipts and a careful list of every bit of maintenance he had done. He even kept the original sales brochures and window sticker. Everything still works on the car. All the power accessories are fine, even the AC still blows cold.

I bought the truck for $2,150, took it home, and started trying to clean up the paint. After a large amount of buffing with Seapower (a cleaner wax meant for boats, but works great on cars too), and a coat of Meguiars NXT. It looks like this now:



Strangely, despite the awful paint on the outside, the interior was spotless:




I'm all set for whatever winter throws at me now. This is my first "winter beater", but I'm actually kind of excited for the next winter storm. The gnarly Bridgestone Duelers it has look like they'll give great traction.

Anyway, just joined the forums and thought I'd post my little story. I do have one question. The only option it doesn't have is the external spare tire carrier thing. The spare is a fullsize, but it takes up almost all the trunk. Is it possible to put one of those carriers on the back of the truck? I've seen the ones that go in the trailer hitch, but they're expensive and won't work if you're towing something.

 

I thought about getting one of the rear mounts for my 1st gen but decided im gonna wait and just get a roof basket and throw the spare up there, keep my rear window visibility and extra bonus my wife wont touch it since she wont be able to get the spare down in case of a flat lol.

 

Sweet find! No rust or anything either it looks. i always thought the first gens looked better

 

great story, and welcome! that is definatly a sexy 1st gen I had the digi dash in my last car, an 88 z24 and i loved it too. wish i could help about the tire rack.....have you considered a roof top cargo basket? I think they look good.....

 

Wow nice and clean great find. For the spare tire I would do a couple things. Either keep the FS spare in the hatch or remove it all together. The swing out carriers that are on the trucks usually have extra bracing and mounts in the 1/4 panel and a bracket in the tailgate. I have seen some mounts that are on the tailgate only but don't where to find those. Looks like your rear is a little saggy :P

 

Those guages are awesome!

 

Putting the tire on the roof would at least get it out of the trunk, but I like to ski, and during the winter my ski rack is up there. I don't think I can fit both the tire and the ski rack on the roof. I was worried there might be extra bracing involved with the OEM carrier. I guess I was hoping the bracing was included on all Blazers, but they just didn't drill the holes through the body.

 

Agreed!!! That is an awesome set up! Great work on the wax too.

 

Welcome and wat a good find awsome job cleaning it up looks real real good

 

Got the first real use out of it tonight. Couple of slushy inches fell and I had to pick some stuff up from my parents' place. No problem for the Blazer though, even left it in 2WD for most of the trip.