I started this model shortly after I bought my truck about 1985. (I only bought it “short-term” to facilitate the engine swap I had planned for my Camaro. But I found many uses for it subsequently, and we camped with it a lot.)
The model started as a repurposed step-side (MPC) that I had built much earlier.
To make the standard bed I sacrificed a Blazer body. (I think it was the Boondocker.) I mixed the Ocher color and painted the body, built most of the engine and interior back then.
Then a couple moves and a lot of life got in the way, so the model sat on the far edges of my workbench all these years. Also the salt air (and it having never been garaged) took a toll on the real truck’s paint, i.e. rust. And as it changed its appearance I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with the model.
Fast forward to my current drive to build the models of my past (and present) cars; I decided it was time to pick up (no pun) the project again.
Make no mistake, this was one ugly truck, but it was a great truck to me. It never left me stranded, and it did everything I ever asked of it, some of which was borderline abuse. It served me very well for 27+ years.
It was very original down to the required smog equipment, (even though it became smog exempt in ’98). According to the build factory sheet laminated to the inside the glove box door:
LS9 350 4bolt w/4bbl,
4 speed transmission with PTO
12 bolt rear end with 4:11 gears
Power front disc brakes
¾ ton add a leaf rear springs and trailer tow package (including rear view mirror delete) .
White Spoke Wheels
Here’s where I’m picking it up… After a good wash down, (something I gave the real one at least once a year, or two).
