Blazer would be cool...not to mention you ought to have a garage full of parts by now to steal from.
If you go with one of the pickups I vote Toyota. SAS is better, 85 SAS with the EFI is good (but the carb is still more common for that year), and even IFS is good. Toyota built a good IFS and even put the torsion bars up high and didn't hang them down low like everyone else. They're not incredibly slow either (but then with a 16 year old isn't that a good thing?) and they're famous for good mileage. Last forever as well. You can fit 31's stock and 33's without a lift if you do it right. Parts are everywhere and cheap.
Also, the 3.0L V6 isn't a bad engine. Buddy had one with 100k+ and it ran great and got him decent gas mileage. Mid-upper teens regularly. The key with them is to see if the 3.0L has had the head gaskets and other items replaced when Toyota did their big recall back in the day. Since it was free this is a common thing to have had done. Heck, I've even heard of the odd Toyota dealer replacing/fixing/whatever the 3.0L's in recent times for free...even on rusty northern trucks.
If you go with one of the pickups I vote Toyota. SAS is better, 85 SAS with the EFI is good (but the carb is still more common for that year), and even IFS is good. Toyota built a good IFS and even put the torsion bars up high and didn't hang them down low like everyone else. They're not incredibly slow either (but then with a 16 year old isn't that a good thing?) and they're famous for good mileage. Last forever as well. You can fit 31's stock and 33's without a lift if you do it right. Parts are everywhere and cheap.
Also, the 3.0L V6 isn't a bad engine. Buddy had one with 100k+ and it ran great and got him decent gas mileage. Mid-upper teens regularly. The key with them is to see if the 3.0L has had the head gaskets and other items replaced when Toyota did their big recall back in the day. Since it was free this is a common thing to have had done. Heck, I've even heard of the odd Toyota dealer replacing/fixing/whatever the 3.0L's in recent times for free...even on rusty northern trucks.
) , either whole axles or just the complete centers . 
