In the 1960s, International Harvester, Ford, and Jeep were competing fiercely for the customer’s wallet in the Sports Utility space. Chevrolet, watching the larger Bronco and Scout take market share from the smaller Jeep, decided to enter the space with an SUV on a shortened truck chassis, called the Blazer. The first Blazer rolled off the line in 1969 as a strictly four-wheel drive vehicle, but by 1970, the customer could opt for two-wheel drive as well. Until 1975, the Blazer could be had with a removable fiberglass top (most popular by far), a convertible top, or no top. Here on craigslist is an unrestored 1972 Chevrolet K5 Blazer 4×4, with an asking price of $20,500. The truck is located in San Ramon, California. Thanks to BarnFinder T.J. for the tip!

This Blazer is powered by the top-of-the-line engine, a 350 cu. in. V8 rated at 175 bhp, coupled with a four-speed floor-shift manual. Amazingly, the engine bay on this truck looks cleaner than the rest of the vehicle – usually, it’s the opposite. The seller notes that the Blazer has new oil, new plugs and wires, a new battery, and new tires. It runs and drives and mileage is noted at 88,000.

The seats look ok, but the dash is severely sun damaged. The stock steering wheel and the console do come with the vehicle. The seller notes that the rear seat is missing, so put that on the shopping list. And then there’s the floor. I can see clearly now! – through the floor. Plan on patch panels – fortunately, those are nearly ubiquitous. I found multiple sellers with one try at a search.

The grille and front bumper are gently dented here and there, but oh, that hood! I guess that goes on the list too. The rear is festooned with a heavy-duty towing bumper and tow hitch. If you want to replace that, it will cost about $214 plus shipping. Speaking of replacing things, there’s more rust, as you can see from the profile photo above, but also here. Yikes! I haven’t actually seen an entire sill missing from a truck – usually, the metal is thick enough to resist that kind of insult. So while the truck has its original orange-red paint, I don’t know if you can fix all that damage without rendering a new paint job at some point. With some effort, this Blazer could do a Cinderella like this. As a reward for all that work, restored versions of early Blazers are easily topping $50,000 these days. Does that make this one worth the price?