The Great Basin Blazer - 72 K5 CST Highlander

[bambbrose]

I'm not much of a talker, but I do like to document things, so I'm just putting this down to show progress and share the process of restoring my grandfathers K5.

Long story short, this particular K5 was purchased by my grandfather new in Caliente NV at a small Chevy dealer that has long since closed shop. It was driven from Caliente up to Baker NV, a tiny town of ~100 people, where it spent the next 52 years up until this past weekend. It was always just an around town, around the desert, up the mountain trail rig, and it shows. Many bumps, bruises, and a lot of cosmetic wear and tear. Because it never left Snake Valley, it has a documented original ~34K miles on it.

I'm confident its never been in a garage at any point in its life, so the sun has taken its toll as well.

Plans are simple, but plans always change:
-Go through and get it into top shape mechanically. It runs and drives great already, but I want to do all fluids, get the AC functional again, and knock out any quirks mechanically.
-Enjoy for a bit while I collect parts for the restoration
-Tackle paint and bodywork. I'll weld in the patch panels and then off to a local shop for finish work.
-After paint, restore the interior
-Finish with a top restoration

Enjoy the next few post of pictures of the "as-found" condition. She had pounds and pounds of desert sand, tumbleweeds, and sagebrush in every spot imaginable.

I've got a large family and I'm just shy of 40 years old as of the time of this posting, so this may in fact be my mid-life crisis. I can't think of much better than this.

Thanks for reading