Re: You Chose a Blazer/Jimmy - WHY?
picking up the now ex g/f to go to the HS formals.
learning how to hold onto the rollbar while sitting on the cold wheel well and trying to kick my sister who was doing the same thing right across from me (from about 6-10 years old)
driving it to Camp Meriwether for Summercamp staffing one summer, Sand Lake duning on the weekends (note the passenger side door caved in on my top pic).
One of my alltime favorites, pouring stale drinks through the hole in the floor where the twin stick levers used to come up (at some point Dad had that setup in there). If the passenger was bored, you could watch the road through the 3"X3" ish hole cut just next to the tunnel on the passenger side.
Oh, another fav: driving it in freezing rain/snow for the first time. Its locked up front, and factory posi out back. We put cable chains on the front, and Dad said take corners slow. At around 20mph mid corner the back end started coming around, I turned into the skid, and with NO engine rpm change at all, I was going back the way I came with no speed loss. Did it twice that day. I much prefer my Subaru's AWD system in the nasty stuff, something about the locker front kinda kicking one's @#*! in the icey stuff.
OK, last one: my mom met my dad when he was racing the Jimmy. He tricked her into racing it when they were dating. One of the obstacle courses she tagged a tree with the passenger side mirror, didnt dent the Sport housing, but shattered the glass. That was around 1975. It stayed that way until I got the truck, and I had a glass shop make a new mirror for it. The week after the glue had cured and the masking tape was pulled off, I hit a mailbox on the way to Prom with my parents right behind me. Now when I say I hit a mailbox, what I mean is that the box hung over the road, I was reaching down for a cassette off the floor, I didnt even leave the pavement but the mailbox exploded and pieces went flying. Point of all this: the mirror then looked almost identical to how it did back in the mid 70's=outer edges of broken glass, the Sport housing still fully intact and unharmed.
OK, sorry gang, I'll stop coming up with more stories.
The original reason for getting the Jimmy was because I wanted a cool car to drive to HS. Why not have one that can haul 4 people, pull anything, drive any season in any weather and do well at it. This time around I'm trying to find most of those same reasons, plus a couple dogs, the girlfriend and her 3 year old, and get me back into an old car for summer car shows. Why not also utilize the convertable'ness that is gen1 and early gen2 Blazer/Jimmy?
Erik
Last edited by Erik V; 10-22-2010 at 08:06 PM.
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