So i bought a 1991 S-10 Blazer here in the UK recently. It's had a few new bits engine-wise before i bought it - filters, alternator etc but the whole thing is basically untouched in 20 years and has amazingly low mileage - 101'000 miles (about 160'000km) I have all the old road tests etc so the mileage is correct. The only thing i see that's been redone is the paint. It looks like someone has given it a dodgy respray and not done a great job of masking the silver side strips. Other than that the interior is all original - worn driver's seat where the seatbelt has rubbed, scuffed plastic, old cassette player and writing on the indicator lever worn away. It has the old sliding side windows that are a bit leaky with moss in the seals and they make it sound like you left a window open when driving. The chevy emblem on the front grill is all scratched and faded.
My question is, because it's uniquely very original... is it a sacrelige for me to have restoration work done? i would want to have a cd player fitted, rub down and respray, swap out the side windows for glass panels, fit a new front grill shiny silver emblem, replace some interior plastics, maybe have the seats refurbished even though, besides the driver's belt damage, are in great condition. Maybe some other things. It seems a shame to mess with it though after 20 years.
What would you do?

 

It sounds to me like you just need to drive it for a year or two without doing very much to it. You'll eventually decide where you want to go with it. Blazers are pretty common in North America but I don't know how common they are in the UK. If it's a rare vehicle you may understandably want to keep it stock. But all the same, if you want a CD player in your Blazer then by golly you should have one.

 

as far as the cd player goes, that's very easy to swap out. just keep your old stereo if you ever want to enter it in a car show or something. And as far as the window/s I'm sure they came as an option at some point ( I could be wrong) so it wouldn't be that much of an alteration. As far as the paint and grille and such, I'd call that maintenance Go have fun with it! If you want to change it, change it! I mean look at all the K5's on this forum! How many are bone stock at this point?? I mean really, and they're much older than '91. It's all up to you though. But I agree with Wendover, drive it for awhile and make sure you want to change that stuff before you do it right away.

 

Like someone already said, im not sure how rare blazers are in the UK but they are everywhere here and a restored one would not be worth the money someone would pay for it. Now if it was some kind of special edition or something like a typhoon or a syclone then it would be worth more restored or fixed up. Also I know its a 91 but 100,000 really is not that low in my opinion. My grandpa has a 90 k1500 silverado with 110,000 but its not worth alot.

 

I wouldn't be too concerned about being all original with exception being having the original sales sticker like I did with nevada gold. I was all for changing the dash and the color of the interior and possibly the exterior of mine untill i found that window sticker, that was a first for me. I've owned five blazers now and nevada gold was the first one to have the original window sticker and all the options including the g80 (I had no idea about the g80 untill I read about it here on the forum!) so I was restoring it to as close to factory as I could.

Had I not found that window sticker, I would have been changing the interior and a few other things. Your blazer doesn't look too bad, but if it was me I'd go ahead with your plans for a few changes or mods.

 

i wouldn't worry about "restoring" it, just make her pretty again, and to your liking.

a suggestion though, when you replace the grill, go with the '93 to '94 style, it's way nicer with the large chrome cross bar. here's a pic of that grill.




much nicer than the '91 & '92 grills, IMO.

as for the sliding side windows, that was a pretty rare option on those trucks. but still not worth keeping if they're in rough shape, which they sound like they are.

does your truck have the deep bronze factory tint in it, or do you have the clear glass?

 

I don't know about deep bronze but the panel windows are tinted and they look like they've been there since she was conceived.
J.
What i'm really having trouble with at the moment is finding the right bowtie emblem for the grill.

 

Why not go with a billet grill and bypass the emblem all together?

 

I would mod it out my blazer is my current project but fully re-done I think the first gens look amazing.

 

LMC Truck is a good source for GMC parts including emblems and grill weather stripping etc.