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Chalet guys :)

That looks like a nice one, it will only work on the 75 to 91 half cabs though... I've been looking for one for a while, and the only ones I find on the east coast are trashed, usually don't look anything like that. I'd be curious how the interior is, also they seem to crack and collapse when left off of the blazer tub for a long period of time. I saw one recently that seemed to be collapsing under it's own weight where the camper shell is molded for the seats next to where it mounts to the back of the cab.
 
Actually, looking at it again, if it's in nice shape and everythings intact and all the appliances work, it's not a bad price... The ones I've been looking at are in need of a lot of work and typically a divorced shell in need of a major restoration sells for $300 to $500. If I were anywhere near it, I throw him a lowball offer, these things aren't real easy to sell, he will probably have it for a long time, and the longer it sits like it is the more risk of damage from the weather, humidity, and small critters etc...
 
smier said:
...it's not a bad price...
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Ummm.... highest price I've seen a shell-only sell for is $600, the average sale prices overall seem to be $300-$500, from the ones I know about anyway. This seller hasn't contacted me directly, but when he finally put up photos of the actual unit this time around instead of one snagged from blazerchalet.com, I was able to tell it was only recently separated from the Blazer, it's serial #1243. Within weeks of the first Craigslist ad I saw for it back in August, I'm guessing the new owner put out two new ads, one for the drivetrain, and another for just the camper but with the wrong full-vehicle photo (of one belonging to a member of our Yahoo Chalet owners' forum). Didn't help that the seller never answered my emails or phone messages, and the ads expired after a week or so.

Don't know if the Blazer was salvageable, the prior owner said it was really rusty - pic below from the Aug 15 ad where he only wanted $950 for the whole thing.

#1243 Chalet 1.jpg
 
Now here's something different - I talked to the seller of this one http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/cto/2090610648.html before Thanksgiving, and he confirmed it was #0407, but also that it was still attached to the original Blazer, and that California law requires him to separate it from the truck.......

I'll have to call him back, he said he would look into some way to keep it together.
 
imiceman44 said:
CA never required me to seperate mine?? I guess we are missing parts of the story.
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I just called the seller, a guy at the Mustangs Fords & More dealership. He didn't say a whole lot, which is rather typical of dealers who realize I'm only asking questions and have no intention of buying the vehicles...... he basically repeated what he said before, with a couple new details: the dealership bought it from the prior owner, CA smog rules require that the truck be crushed (which he says they've done, the Blazer is no more), there was no way to keep the two together, and that he could provide me with the Blazer's VIN since I didn't get that from the previous owner. End of story.

Pic below of what the whole thing looked like on their lot, from their prior Craigslist ad, where they were asking $2500 for the camper. I'll have to look up whatever smog rule that is on my own, I guess. Maybe it only applies to dealers buying old vehicles that aren't considered classic???

#0407 Santa Rosa Chalet 1.jpg
 
shovelbill80 said:
cash for Obamacrats, er, clunkers?
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Could be, but this defies some logic as it would seem to mean dealers would buy a classic car, and then have to crush it? What might have happened here is that those people had only a tiny knowledge of what Chalets are, and figured the truck is expendable. Thing is, these aren't slide-in campers, these are one-piece mini-motorhomes. Ya, the campers can be removed with a lot of effort, but they really aren't self-supporting at the front.

And, only an hour after talking with the dealership, they deleted the Craigslist ad........
 
I suspect that their story is a line of BS, and they really didn't know what they had... After working in a car dealership and seeing what goes on, I'd be willing to bet they didn't know how to sell it originally, and after some time one of the mechanics offered to buy the blazer from them, and they could keep the chalet shell and sell it. We used to ship clunkers by the truckload to big auto auctions out of state every month that we couldn't sell on our lot for "liability" reasons. Our mechanics were always buying old trucks and 4x4's before they went to auction. Cash for clunkers could have very well been involved, but my understanding was that they were very specific in how those vehicles were to be destroyed, and it's been so long now since it ended that I would have thought it would have been destroyed already... I just don't buy the crushing it for smog requirements, but I'm not from California...
 
smier said:
I suspect that their story is a line of BS, and they really didn't know what they had...
Click to expand...
Could be... a few more details might prove that to be true, but in a different way: I called up the prior owner since I'd kept his phone number, and he said he had been getting notices for the last couple of years from the CA Air Resources Board (CARB) and whatever San Francisco air quality people there, that he was getting closer to the time when his Chalet would no longer get by with its emissions. 1972 is the cut-off year for smog-exempt vehicles, but '76 Blazers aren't dead just yet. So this means our other CK5 CA brothers with 73-4-5 trucks are looking down the barrel of a scrap-it-now gun?

I didn't quite catch how it worked, but CA was somehow offering money to scrappers to buy such '72 & newer vehicles, so he ended up selling it to one of those for $1000.

No wonder CA is going broke....
 
NorCal_Chris said:
ca annual smog check exemption is 75 and prior...
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Hmm, thought I read '72 somewhere... Meanwhile, over on this DMV page it says, "Motor homes and RVs between six and 30 years old require smog certification". Technically speaking, '76/'77 Chalets and Casa Grandes are motorhomes, it confused the Phoenix DMV person when I registered mine because the title had it as "MHC" (motorhome camper) instead of SUV or whatever they call standard old Blazers - I had to show the lady the '76 brochure I brought to prove it was a one-piece motorhome and not a truck camper.
 
***awww fer pete's sake*** I ought to know better - never go with unofficial info, always go straight to the source. The "CA DMV page" in my post above is an 'unofficial' info source. Current CA exemptions are the official CA DMV page:

  • Hybrid
  • Gasoline powered 1975 year model or older
  • Diesel powered manufactured prior to 1998 or with a Gross Vehicle Weight rating (GVWR) of more than 14,000 lbs
  • Electric
  • Natural gas powered with a GVWR rating of more than 14,000 lbs.
  • Motorcycle
  • Trailer
That other site may be using outdated info, or it is just some copy 'n paste error on their part.

I asked the prior owner of Chalet #0407 to send me copies of his CARB notices, he couldn't find one easily at hand when I called him.... it may be that his vehicle was marginal for quite some time, and it was obvious it would not pass in the next round or two without much repair or modification.

So the next question arises as to whether such mid '70s vehicles can ultimately survive CA smog emissions requirements, or does it get so strict that no amount of fixing can be worth the trouble?
 
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