Which is the lessor of two evils?

[496truck]

One of your key points were "winter vehicle". With that, I would put as little time, effort, and money into the body as possible. Simply because, even if you make it 100% new and protect it the best you can, the road salt will still eat it up.

Take the black one, spend a bit to get it roadworthy, maybe fix some of the rust, swap in a clean interior to make it comfortable, then enjoy it. Maybe get a good 5 years out of it, longer if you continually treat the underside with a good oily coating every year. You will have a decent truck that you didn't spend a fortune on and you can actually use without fear of dents, scratches, dirty dog feet, winter abuse, etc...

That would be my take on this situation.

 

[SurfinCR]

One of your key points were "winter vehicle". With that, I would put as little time, effort, and money into the body as possible. Simply because, even if you make it 100% new and protect it the best you can, the road salt will still eat it up.

Take the black one, spend a bit to get it roadworthy, maybe fix some of the rust, swap in a clean interior to make it comfortable, then enjoy it. Maybe get a good 5 years out of it, longer if you continually treat the underside with a good oily coating every year. You will have a decent truck that you didn't spend a fortune on and you can actually use without fear of dents, scratches, dirty dog feet, winter abuse, etc...

That would be my take on this situation.

the more i dig into it the more i'm leaning this way, i would love to get it back to 100% but the return isnt worth it on it.

its funny you mention the oiling, i knew a guy years ago who had an old land rover where the frames were notorious for rotting out, he plumbed the frame with pipes and hooked up an oil pump/tank to, that he would every few months turn on to coat the frame.

Also was finally able to get under the white blazer its actually a remanufactured 305

 

[FatHarryPotter]

white one is DOA. you have the frame rusted through. black on looks okay outside but that can be deciving. Interior has been chopped up pretty bad. need pics underneath black on and in the engine compartment, rockers ect. i wounldnt worry about wiring as you can buy a complete wiring harness now days.Again though with either of these money is going to ad up very quick and not on aftermarket trick stuff.

 

[4X4HIGH]

Buy a California rig and drive it home and be done, they have NO rust issues here.

 

[xenomarine]

where in CT are you? rust like you can see on that white one isn't even that bad! yeah, it'd cost a boat load to fix but it'd make a good yard or beater woods truck. that black one looks really good though, at least from the outside.

yeah, everyone wants a truck from california, but the reality of it is you probably couldn't pick one up for the money you'd get from these two trucks, after factoring in shipping costs or flying out and driving it back. 15mpg kind of sucks when you have a couple thousand miles to go.

oh and if you ever want to part with that cowl hood.....you have a local buyer

 

[SurfinCR]

i'm right in bloomfield. You're right about the white one the engine runs flawlessy transmission needs to be swapped (i actually have a th400 sitting in the garage ready to go that i picked up before i realized how bad it really was). your right on the fact it would make for a good yard truck but with the frame rusted where it is one good bump and that spring mount is coming off.

the more i've thought about the black ones dash the more i'm realizing as long as i can swap in the parts in off the white one the metal i can always weld and it gives me reason to just do a custom dash.

 

[xenomarine]

You could also cut the dash out of the white one and do a transplant, if you're up to it. Or make something sweet, or go with diy4x's comp aluminum dash.