Rare Pop-Top: 1976 Chevrolet K5 Blazer Chalet
I’m steeling myself for the “broken record” comments where I pontificate yet again about just where all of these Chevrolet K5 Blazer Chalets are coming from. Here’s yet another one, also in project form, that needs restoration but supposedly comes with all the necessary bits to put it back together. The market for these factory-backed campers remains strong, as almost every single one we’ve featured in the past few months has found a new home without much effort. This one has a bit of rust in the lower sills on both sides, but otherwise, looks largely complete – and the seller promises the spare parts are all bagged and tagged. Find it here on craigslist for $11,000 in Oklahoma City.
Photos show rust holes on the passenger side sill; the rot is less advanced on the driver’s side in the same spot. Overall, it could be far worst, but we’ve also not seen photos underneath the truck. The bed itself looks sound, and the same goes for the camper shell. The photos show the truck in a gradual state of disassembly, with the front clip intact in some photos and removed in others. In the photos where the fenders and nose panels are still installed, the passenger-side fender shows some minor rust while the driver’s side looks largely rust-free. Photos that show the doors still attached indicate those, too, are in decent shape.
The camper shell is always a question mark, as, like any RV or motorhome that is unrestored, the remnants of the previous owner can prove quite offputting in terms of eventually living inside one day. Fortunately, it doesn’t look foul at all, even in unrestored condition. The seating surfaces appear clean and the carpet doesn’t look too bad either, although that’s a cheap fix if you decide to strip that out and start with fresh materials. The seller mentions on a general basis that he has all the parts needed to restore this Chalet, but that could cover a variety of different areas given this is both a four-wheel-drive pickup truck and a camper, and given it appears to have been off the road for some time, there’s any number of components that could be refreshed or replaced.
The seller claims the Chalet is “…all original except pop-up top.” I’m not sure what this means, exactly, as the pop-top doesn’t exactly look fresh to me, so perhaps it was replaced eons ago and has obviously started to weather and the seller feels obligated to call it out as non-original. Overall, there seems like a good foundation here, but nothing is mentioned about the health of the drivetrain so it’s a bit of a question mark as to how far you’ll go. The asking price could be fair if it comes with a large assortment of new parts organized in a logical fashion, but if it’s a haphazard assortment of old and new parts, I could see a lower price being more realistic. Will the endless wave of project Chalets ever stop?
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Comments
If folks saw the Oct 2017 Stillwater Oklahoma Craigslist ad for this #0466 Chalet back when it was still all assembled and roadworthy, they’d understand what the current “…all original except pop-up top” bit meant. Back then, it was likely that the pop-up roof had been completely blown off the rig in some form or another of a catastrophic manner and that the owner or prior owner had replaced it with a hand-fabricated sheetmetal roof. What this current seller has accomplished after he bought it was locate a tan-colored fiberglass 1977 model year roof from some parts Chalet rig somewhere. That’s the warning I try to tell any seller, that when going down the road, the spring-loaded pop-up roof may spring open if it is not tied down with the 5 interior factory straps. It’s why you see various ones with big outside aftermarket clamps on the upper sides to hold the roofs down, and why you sometimes see parked ones with a big strap over the whole roof.
Btw, this one has had 4 drops from its initial mid December $15 grand asking price, so it is becoming more affordable all the time.
$150,00 Tops and I’ll haul it to the local GO PULL IT
Looks like something I did when I was 14. I was given a old Oldsmobile and I blew it apart intending to fix it so it would be my first car when I turned 16 not knowing much about cars at the time I learned you shouldn’t have extra parts when you put it back together. So off to the scrap yard it went but I did learn a lot on how engines work.