New Blazer Body - Ebay

[hemi43]

Originally Posted by SeventyOne

So? In my opinion it can give access to the hobby to those otherwise priced out. And guess what - Broncos are insanely valuable regardless of all the reproduction bodies. Same will happen for the Blazers. To say this is the worst thing to happen to our hobby is just patently wrong. I'd LOVE to see more Blazers on the road - who cares if some of the metal was stamped in China

Well, it's not so much the value I'm concerned about, it's about seeing tons of them. Remember how cool it was to see an old restored pedal car? It was cool because there were so few of them still around. Today however, you can get a POS Chinese copy for a couple hundred bucks so the market is flooded with them.
K-nuts mentioned Camaros, and it's a perfect example. I hate those cars because they are like belly buttons, everyone has one.
I attend SEMA for my business, so I can see where the hobby is heading. All you see there are Camaros, Mustangs and Broncos. Gets boring after a while. This goes for major shows also. Syracuse Nats a couple years ago had 8500 cars, and of those, only 3 Blazers. I don't want to see 100 of them!!
Oh, and I absolutely hate anything related to China which doesn't help.
I always thought Americans were so patriotic? What happened?

[DeadheadNM]

Originally Posted by hemi43

Well, it's not so much the value I'm concerned about, it's about seeing tons of them.

Oh, and I absolutely hate anything related to China which doesn't help.
I always thought Americans were so patriotic? What happened?

Because of a top end engine problem my Blazer spent much of the summer at Muscle Car Restorations here in the area, arguably one of the best restoration shops in the US (check their website sometime). As you'd expect, there's no shortage of Camaros, Mustangs, Cuda's, GTOs, etc. They remarked that no other vehicle attracted more attention than my Blazer.

I can't speak for others but I go way out of my way and do whatever I can to keep my money away from the CCP. Taiwan at least is a democracy and I feel for their plight.

[JJH Jimmy]

Good luck to the seller! I am curios to what the reserve might be set at? There are still plenty of good first gen blazers and Jimmy projects out there that don't need major metal work repair for a heck of a lot less than 12K and you get the whole rig. Maybe in the future when originals cant be found there might be a market for it.

[hemi43]

Originally Posted by DeadheadNM

I can't speak for others but I go way out of my way and do whatever I can to keep my money away from the CCP. Taiwan at least is a democracy and I feel for their plight.

Good point!
Now that you mention it, you’re probably right that those bodies are most likely Taiwanese. I’m like you and try not to buy stuff from the PRC, but sometimes it’s very difficult to do.
Taiwan has really come a long way, and produce some real high end stuff, especially their CNC machines.
I still find it amazing that it makes financial sense to tool up to actually make these bodies. The sheer amount of dies alone would cost millions to produce for such a low production product. I have a gut feeling that they acquired the original dies to stamp all these parts, and that’s why they can afford to do so.
I spent almost 30 years building and maintaining these large panel dies, so I know what they are worth and how many are needed even for just one panel. Just stamping one complete door and all its components requires around 15 to 20 dies, and most of these are the size of a small room and weigh as much as a tank. In the 80’s I recall having to drag some of these old dies in from the field they were stored in for the past 15 years just so we could make service parts. Today however, the dies are sold overseas as soon as that model run ends so that they can make the service parts in Asia. Sad, but I’m glad I don’t have to do that heavy work anymore. Lol

[doo142]

Originally Posted by DeadheadNM

Because of a top end engine problem my Blazer spent much of the summer at Muscle Car Restorations here in the area, arguably one of the best restoration shops in the US (check their website sometime). As you'd expect, there's no shortage of Camaros, Mustangs, Cuda's, GTOs, etc. They remarked that no other vehicle attracts more attention than my Blazer.

I can't speak for others but I go way out of my way and do whatever I can to keep my money away from the CCP. Taiwan at least is a democracy and I feel for their plight.

ABSOLUTELY!!!! Cut out any China products possible. Amen my brothers!!!!