We've seen an early Bronco in this series, so it's only fair that we have a DOTS Truck Monday featuring the Bronco's competitor from The General. This '71 Blazer parks on one of Alameda's major thoroughfares, not far from the Unimog and the '63 VW Transporter, and it's clearly someone's daily driver.
I can't tell for sure whether this is an incredibly well-preserved original driver or a restoration, but I suspect the former is the case. Well, most likely the upholstery has been redone; there's no way it could be that nice after 37 years in the California sun.
You see, a late-60s-vintage Oakland A's sticker means the vehicle is likely an Alameda native, which means there's a good chance its owner takes obsessive care of a vehicle bought new and considered irreplaceable. They don't make 'em like this no more, etc. The A's connection is somewhat interesting in the case of this truck, because the favored post-game watering hole for A's players during the Charlie Finley era was just across the street from its parking space (the ballpark is less than two miles away), with Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers, and the rest of them knocking back a few. Later, the same bar got busted for operating a brothel catering to Navy officers upstairs... but now that the Navy has left the island, that bar (like so many others on the island) has upscaled from genteel liver-pickling dive to urban-hipster cafe.
You could get this truck at a list price of $3,234 new, back in 1971. That was more than 300 bucks less than a Scout 800B Traveltop with V8 engine or a Bronco wagon with a straight six, making the Blazer quite the deal. This one has the optional 350 and automatic transmission, which I think isn't quite as cool as the optional 292 six would have been.