This Chevy Blazer was recently listed in the Classifieds and I have to admit, I was a bit curious to know what the High Top Conversion was. We’ve seen some odd conversion vans and trucks, but typically they were converted into some kind of wild creation. This Blazer was converted into something far more sedate and practical, but that’s probably a good thing. With the added headspace, there’s room for a TV, overhead reading lights and comfy rear bucket seats! It’s said to have been owned by the same couple from new and that they put just 76k miles on it. The no reserve auction is only to $2,400, which seems like a decent deal for a running and driving 4×4. You can find it here on eBay in Bucyrus, Ohio.
Those seats sure look comfy! I’m going to guess the couple bought this rig with plans to travel the country and hopefully those miles were all on the highway. Back in 1996, having a TV in your car was a pretty big deal, but today just about every SUV and Mini Van on the road has one if not two screens in the back. With all the wiring already in place, it shouldn’t be too difficult to upgrade this rig with modern screens. Of course, your kids might be so intrigued by the old curved screens that you might just want to leave them alone!
There’s some surface rust on the underside, so you will want to take some action now before it gets worse. The Vortec V6 doesn’t offer the kind of grunt that a V8 would, but these are decent engines. This one should have the 190 horsepower and 250 foot-pounds of torque L35, which should be plenty for highway cruising. Having 4-wheel drive is a nice feature for year around driving or trips to the mountain!
For the money, this seems like a great rig if you need a 4×4 or just something comfortable to hit the highway in. It’s going to need some work, the AC will probably need more than just a recharge, but that’s not unusual for a car this age. Treat the underside with POR, install a new muffler, upgrade the TVs and have the AC sorted and this would be one heck of a rig. And you’d definitely have the only high top Blazer around. Special thanks to Hank for listing it in our Classifieds!
This is what happens when the roof is damaged on a vehicle like this.
Easy fix.
We looked at one of these when the kids were still little. It was an attractive package back then as an alternative to a Chrysler minivan. But the minivan ultimately won out on a sheer space and packaging basis.
This generation of Blazer is good-looking but some of the steering parts (drag link?) are nearly impossible to find, even at that online place that claims to have Everything your car will Ever need…
At $2,400 this is a steal.
I’ve seen Ford Explorers from the same era done like this. There was a name for them, something like Duramax. The gain of a few more inches of headroom wasn’t enough to keep me from buying a loaded, factory standard 1996 Explorer.
How is this on “barnfinds”?
To make literal people mad.
literal mided people…lol
They did the same thing to Explorer’s
These are ugly by nature
Two tone doesn’t help either.
I hate to be negative, but these narrow-track S-10 Blazers were considered dangerous in their time due to their high center of gravity to begin with…. I can’t imagine that lump of crap on the roof will enhance that pre-existing condition.
And the color and trim choices….. woof.
At least it doesn’t have that crappy digital dash my S15 had ! It was replaced under warranty, then a year later the vehicle was down for almost 2 months while the replacement cluster was being rebuilt…. one vehicle I’m damn glad I bought the extended warranty on ! GM spent about $6000 fixing stuff after the 3 year standard warranty would have been up, and they also had to repaint the whole thing because the paint started peeling when it was less than a year old – apparently the bean counters bought clear coat that wouldn’t stand up to UV rays because it was cheaper…..
I remember seeing many ads and a few in the wild of Suburbans with this type of conversion. I’m not sure that the roof added a lot of weight as it is likely fiberglass like conversion vans.
A buddy of mine would buy vans with damaged roofs at the salvage auctions and add this type of thing. He would make a ton of money on them because he sold them as camping vans after that.