New blazer body..

[hemi43]

Originally Posted by special-K

I don't know how this can be seen as a bad thing for people to be able to save K/5s (let's not forget the Jimmy) rusted beyond repair, which was a lot of them. Is someone making new frames as well? How is it any different than swapping cabs on a pickup during restoration? I think what you call an original and a Taiwanese copy and what I do are two different things. How many original K/5s are out there compared to when they were originally made? How many have had extensive body panel work? Is that more original than a fully replaced body? Does it make that big a difference that a piece of the original door jamb was retained? And the cost. I don't see a plethora of K/5s being built using all new Taiwanese parts, if all new parts were even available. I had two Blazers, '70 and '72, that got too rusty to restore... in my opinion 10-15 years ago. Why would it be a bad thing for me to want to build nice Blazers like others have here? I couldn't be so selfish as to wish no one else could have what I have. I hate that parts aren't made in America, but that's a bigger story. Where do you draw the line between foreign made body vs tires, wheels, lug nuts, brake rotors, calipers, pads, wheel bearings, seals... I haven't gone far into the truck and there is my point. Replacement parts are made overseas and to keep a vehicle running you will be buying foreign replacement parts.

I build using as many OEM parts as possible. I restore OEM parts and sell them. And I like my women natural. But I can't control where the industry took our parts production to.

I think you missed my point.
I'm all for someone buying one of these aftermarket bodies to fix their Blazer. What I don't want to see is 20 Blazers at a car show for example when there's usually only one.

Take SEMA for example;
I own a fab shop specializing in mainly one-off racing components, so I attend SEMA regularly. In the past, you'd be lucky to see one or two Broncos on display, and I would always stop and check them out because it's not very often i get to see one up close.
The last SEMA I went to was in 2018, there must have been 50-60 of them there, and I'm sure most of them didn't even have one Ford part in it. Sure they "looked" like Broncos, but that was about it.
They became so abundant that I didn't even bother looking at most.
Now that we can travel again, I will be attending SEMA again this year, and I sure hope I don't see 50 fake Blazers there.

[scott123]

Agree with most of the posts. The aftermarket body will make it 'easier' to have a 72K5 and with the market right now being high a builder could save a lot of time (and time is money) skipping over all the metal/rust replacement work and then take advantage of the current market.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Maybe both.

The high end Blazers selling for tons in todays market are seldom stock/all out restorations. LS engines, axle and wheel upgrades, over drive transmissions, etc..etc...

So if a complete body sits on top of that I can't see it being an issue.

Swapped vin tags to inflate value and hoo-doo the buyer is another subject altogether. That will rank up there with "filler and paint to make it look like what it ain't".

I also see the point when you start seeing them everywhere will they lose their appeal, maybe to some, not so much to others.

Tough call.

S

[Phillip Owings]

Originally Posted by hemi43

I think you missed my point.
I'm all for someone buying one of these aftermarket bodies to fix their Blazer. What I don't want to see is 20 Blazers at a car show for example when there's usually only one.

Take SEMA for example;
I own a fab shop specializing in mainly one-off racing components, so I attend SEMA regularly. In the past, you'd be lucky to see one or two Broncos on display, and I would always stop and check them out because it's not very often i get to see one up close.
The last SEMA I went to was in 2018, there must have been 50-60 of them there, and I'm sure most of them didn't even have one Ford part in it. Sure they "looked" like Broncos, but that was about it.
They became so abundant that I didn't even bother looking at most.
Now that we can travel again, I will be attending SEMA again this year, and I sure hope I don't see 50 fake Blazers there.

To me its not so much about fake blazers as is the individual dream in owning one and making it a daily driver. just enjoying it. I believe people will somehow adjust to it. I my self would love to take one just frame and body and make one like ford did with their electric crate motor as a daily driver.

https://youtu.be/IJQZzg6rWyo

[hemi43]

Originally Posted by Phillip Owings

To me its not so much about fake blazers as is the individual dream in owning one and making it a daily driver. just enjoying it. I believe people will somehow adjust to it. I my self would love to take one just frame and body and make one like ford did with their electric crate motor as a daily driver.

https://youtu.be/IJQZzg6rWyo

That would be a cool swap. I'm actually looking forward to SEMA this year to see how much aftermarket there is for electric vehicles. Some say electric is the end of the hobby, but I say it's a new beginning.
The same thing was said in the mid 80's when computer controlled and fuel injection came on the market.
Let's hope for better and cheaper batteries in the future.

I've been following this build----> https://youtu.be/YxkPuEmIX4U
Very cool what he's done, but the cost is still way too high for the average person. Maybe in 5 years???