Over the last few weeks, I’ve published a few stories about the work I’m doing on my ’79 Blazer. You’ll read more about it every Friday for the next few months. I really got into it over this weekend, tearing most of the interior out in order to be able to get at the rocker panels and the few spots where the floor needs to be repaired. I came across a whole bunch of stuff that’s now in a file downstairs.
The glovebox held the build sheet, which looks like it was laminated by somebody at some point or another. It must’ve been removed from somewhere. Going through the codes reveals it to be a pretty stripped down truck, with not a whole lot of options: plain hubcaps and a four-speed. The one added expense is the rear rollbar.
The original Installment Note was in there, too. When original owner took out the loan, it was for $7,000. Check this out: the interest rate in 1978 was 14 percent. Nobody will buy a car now if the interest rate climbs over four percent. I worked it out with an amortization table: if you made every payment for four years, the interest on this loan cost $2,100.
“Paint spotting as a result of the fallout is not related to a defect in paint materials or workmanship,” says the notice in the glovebox, absolving Chevrolet of any responsibility for its horrible paint work. There are many places, all over this truck that have never seen the light of day since 1978 where the red primer is more prominent than the black paint. Acid rain, my ass.
In case I have friends in the market for a new vehicle, I can use this booklet of coupons for up to $250 in cash to send them on over to Peter Hallisey Chevrolet in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Interesting note: that’s also where my father busted his piggy bank and bought a brand new 1976 Chevrolet Camaro with an AM radio, a 258, an automatic and no air. Ol’ Peter Hallisey probably made $45 on that sale. Thank God he made his boat payment on the interest.
This year, folks in the South might want to read this booklet “How to Plow Snow” friendly folks at Fisher Engineering in Rockland, Maine, which built some of the most rock-solid, Yankee-by-God snowplows on earth. Fisher’s trip-edge system allowed plowers of snow to not lose an entire load of snow when the plow hit an obstruction and the whole plow blade flopped forward like competitive plows. The sticker affixed to the driver’s side sun visor implores the operator to plow snow at no more than five miles per hour. Yeah, that’ll work.
They were hyphen crazy over at Fisher Engineering circa 1978, saying “good-bye” to snowblowers and suggesting that you can plow your driveway better because you know where your “rock-wall” and your wife’s “rose-bushes” are.
Also, if you happened to be installing carpet and insulation at the Flint, Michigan Truck Plant around 1979, be sure to message me. I found your pocket knife.
