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

[bambbrose]

More as-found photos, from when we got it back to the house in Southern Utah

[bambbrose]

And some more

[bambbrose]

And on to some of rust condition/surprises/modifications

I was surprised to see an auxiliary fuel tank was installed in the place of drivers rocker box reinforcement. Its actually properly installed as if it were the rocker box, fully welded to the original brackets. It was clearly installed way back when new. I'll have to decide if I want to remove/replace. I somewhat like that it went with the original theme of the truck. The passenger rocker box reinforcement is very solid.

Otherwise, rust isn't crazy. It will need the exterior lower rocker boxes on both sides, I suspect some patchwork on door bottoms, and then drivers side rear wheel well has a bit of rust through.

I haven't pulled carpet but the bed floor doesn't look too be in bad shape.

The windshield frame is very solid, which I'm happy to see.

The top has some minor waviness to it on the top where pooling could occur, concerning.

I'm sure there will be surprises along the way.

The passenger fender has a dent that's probably easier to replace than repair.

Collecting quality original parts is going to be half the fun here.

[bambbrose]

And then the motor compartment and a few other misc pics. Interesting placement of the coolant overflow, is this OEM?

I have a lot more as-found pictures but we will leave it at that.

Next up is a proper undercarriage wash, heavy de-greasing, and the first hand wash it's received in years.

[1970cstblazer]

Most guys would give their left you know what for a body that solid. Nice beginning!