1973 Chevrolet Blazer

350 V8

Manual

CCY183F163553

Clear

For sale is a 1973 Chevy K5 Blazer. Approximately 147k ORIGINAL miles. This has been in the family since new. My grandfather bought it when he retired. My father drove it for a couple years, then I picked it up in the '80's. This was our family car for a while (sorry about that, Honey), and my three boys all learned how to drive with this. That's four generations of drivers. Time to let it go. We've all moved on. Some specifics (as many as I can remember). This is mostly original. Numbers matching: original engine (with some mods), original transmission, and original rear end.This is the first year of the new body style, with a convertible fiberglass top all the way to the windshield. This feature didn't last long because this utility vehicle did not have a roll cage. GM quickly changed to a full cab.Most importantly, this is the rare 2WD with a positraction rear end. I know most of you want a 4WD. My truck can be chopped and lowered. 4WDs can't.This started out as a California vehicle, but... It's been in Illinois roads for 30 years. Last registered and driven in 2006.This threw a timing chain at about 140k miles, in 1999. It sat in my garage for 5 years until my youngest son wanted to drive it, like his older brothers. We set about rebuilding the engine, and doing it right. All the machining was done professionally, and we used quality parts. We didn't cut corners, as that's not how I do things.Engine specifics. Bored .030 over. Pistons are matched to the bores. Cam is "plus one", and I'm not sure who at that means. It's not stock. It idles very nicely. I assume it has more torque, power, etc. The heads are not stock. The stock heads had EGR stuff, and that's all gone. The valves are oversized (huge); as large as you can get in a small block. Latest tech in valve seat grinding. New bearings throughout. The crankshaft mains are 4 bolt. I have pictures. Edlebrock intake, to get rid of the EGR stuff, and the old mechanical choke, both of which were worthless. New pistons are flat dome (OEM were reverse dome). (Let me say here, that I think the original engine had a whopping 165 HP. 1973 small blocks were detuned for emissions. Pre-catalytic converters.) The old Rochester carb is gone. Now has a real nice Holley carb; dual floats, timed secondaries and an electric choke. This is a huge improvement. Runs great! This still has the original exhaust manifolds which still have the air injectors. Yes, the air pump is still there and operating. I didn't want to mess with the exhaust manifolds, so I left the air injection system intact. Original crossover pipe! There's a tiny bit of exhaust noise at donut connection on the passenger side; exhaust manifold to the crossover pipe. AC not hooked up, but I have the parts. After we rebuilt the engine, my son was only using this around town, so we didn't really see the need to reinstall the AC. It should work. The starter motor has been modified with a GM kit to improve mounting to the block. There was an issue with one of the tapped holes in the engine block cracking due to starter motor torque. This cracked tapped hole caused the starter motor to move away from the flywheel. GM made a fix for this in the form of a new head on the starter motor. This mod was done by A & S in Waukegan, and whatever you do, don't ever get rid of this starter. Works great now, but if you ever need to fix it, DON'T trade this in as a core exchange; get this one professionally rebuilt. The original points and condenser distributor is gone, replaced by an HEI from the '80's. Works like a champ! I did have an OEM cruise control hooked up and it used to work fine. Doesn't work now, but all the parts are there. Radiator is fine. Oil pressure excellent. All that said... We've been running this on PREMIUM gasoline; it knocks with regular gas at higher RPMs. This really needs to be dyno'd, or the distributor remapped; install stiffer springs in the mechanical advance of the distributor, or something like that. I don't have a timing light with an advance dial, so I never tried to dial back the spark advance at higher revs. Easier to put in premium fuel. That all said, this thing gets about 10mpg.The clutch is 12 inches, and was replaced with the engine rebuild. I do remember the parts guy being surprised it was 12 inches; he commented that he'd only seen 12 inch clutches in Corvettes.4 speed manual tansmission, but it drives like a three speed. This is a 3 speed with a Low gear. Low gear is about 1/2 of first gear and it's not synchro'd. Low gear barely crawls along.The rear end is 12-bolt. I don't remember what the gear ratio is. I counted it once. I remember having questions about the positraction, as there are a couple different types. There is a tag on the housing, and neither Chevy nor GM (remember GM truck dealers?) could identify it. It's a bit of a mystery, but it's there, and yes, the posi works fine. Per my youngest child, his older brother could burn rubber with both tires! Boys will be boys.Now for the chassis. The rear brake line has a leak, so the rear brakes don't work. YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO DRIVE THIS HOME. You've been informed. Front disk and rear drum. Power brakes and power steering. This, being a convertible, had box chassis underneath. These need to be rebuilt. Please note that this is NOT the frame. THE FRAME IS SOLID EVERYWHERE; no issues. The box chassis, under the body, provided stiffness when the top is removed. I repeat, these boxes need to be rebuilt. Honestly? This needs a frame-off restoration. Yes, you can replace the brake line and drive this as-is, but... It really needs restoration. This is really why I'm selling it. I don't have the time nor money nor inclination nor space to do this. My children have all had their fun with this. They're grown now. The doors, tailgate, bumpers and hood are all original. The quarter panels and fenders are all AFTER MARKET. The fit is reasonable, but modest and not that great. We replaced the body panels sometime in the 1990's as another father and son project. Upholstery is rough. I had the driver's seat recovered once. The passenger seat is original. The dash has some cracks. The window regulator in the tailgate needs repair. The window doesn't really roll up and down. It's propped up and I don't use the tailgate. Class 3 hitch! The gas tank has a protective cover. The gas tank leaks from the top. You can't fill the tank 32 gallons because it will leak. We filled it half way or so, if that. Given that my son was driving this, he only put in what he needed to drive a few miles to high school.Color is Moss Olive, which used to be really ugly. Might be fashionable now. My grandfather was color blind and I think he thought it was brown. It's so ugly that I could always tell where my children had been; my friends would always tell me where they'd seen my truck. No hiding this thing! Does not have the original gas cap. The hub caps are not original. The original ones are painted white and pretty rusty. I can find three out of four original ones. The fourth one is around somewhere.Rocker panels are AFTER MARKET. The welding it pretty rough; I used an old stick welder to spot weld here and there, burning through in a few spots; not visible from the outside. Don't judge my work; I did what I could to make the truck look reasonable, not perfect. Doors and hood don't really line up that well. 1973 quality. Far cry from today's cars.Sheet metal covering a few holes in the floor. Not too bad.Glass all in good shape. The windsheid is green tint, which goes well with the green body.No side mirrors. The OEM mirrors were useless, actually too small with an abundance of blind spots. I removed them out of frustration.Rear bed had some rust holes near the tailgate.I bought a rear seat from a junkyard that is not pictured, but included. It's brown and more or less matches. Seatbelts included.This is a pretty good 40+ year old survivor. The engine is fresh and strong. No issues with the drive chain. Body needs some attention, but looks good from a distance.On Nov-12-14 at 16:24:48 PST, seller added the following information: Believe it or not, some buyers pay with BOGUS cashiers checks. Yep, I'm shocked too. :) So... I'm holding the title until the check clears my bank. No worries. I have 100% feedback. This thing is 41 years old. A few days won't hurt. Also, I found the 1973 Chevrolet Light Duty Truck Service Manual PLUS the 1973 Chevrolet Passenger Car and Light Duty Truck Overhaul Manual, which are included with the truck.